Can't get the GuestOS name correct for CentOS 7 (64-bit)

[susenj]

I have been using CentOS 7.3 that is bundled with my application in a form of .ova file that gets deployed in a vmWare Esxi client. The .ovf file has got the OperatingSystemSection that mentions ovf:id="107" and ovf:version="7".

    <OperatingSystemSection ovf:id="107" ovf:version="7" vmw:osType="centos7_64Guest">

      <Info>The kind of installed guest operating system</Info>

      <Description>Centos 7 (64-bit)</Description>

    </OperatingSystemSection>

After the deployment of the ova, the ESXi client detects the Guest OS to be Other Linux (64-bit). I expect it to show CentOS 7 (64-bit).

Tried modifying the ovf file by removing the ovf:osType="centos7_64Guest",  it didn't help either.

Also tried changig the ovf:id="80", and ovf:osType="centos7_64Guest", it started showing RHEL 7 (64-bit). In a nutshell, tried several permutations, but couldn't achieve the right Guest OS version in the ESXi client.

I am not really sure if it's a bug or something, but I can't get it working at all. Any help would be appreciated. I tried with 3 ESXi versions 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0 without any luck.

Could someone please suggest what I am doing wrong?

Thanks,

Neeraj

Fixed a minor typo in the headline Message was edited by: Neeraj Kumar

[scott28tt · Accepted solution]

The OS is a VM setting rather than it being “detected”.

When you create a VM manually, or edit the settings of an existing VM, does “CentOS 7 (64-bit)“ appear as a selectable option?

Check the VM hardware version. vSphere 7 can run hardware version 17 which may support a newer OS setting.

This KB article relates to Windows Server 2019 but gives an example of the above statements and questions: VMware Knowledge Base

[susenj]

Thank you. So, the issue was in the hardware version which was set to vmx-11. To get this working, had to switch it to >=13 (that is ESXi v6.5 and above).

A follow up query though if you can help me understand: Will there be any issues if the same OVA(with vmx >=13) gets deployed to ESXi versions 6.0 and below? I understand this would cause Guest OS display to be altered, but not sure on any other implication functionality-wise it would have(apart from obvious ESXi issues that particular version may carry).

Again, thanks a lot for your time and really appreciate your help.

[scott28tt]

For your follow up question:

Not sure if this information would influence you, but 6.0 is no longer supported by VMware - so depending on what you are deploying and who you are deploying it to, you might consider only making your app to only be compatible with 6.5 and later in any case.