Downgrading guest from 5.0 hardware to 4.1

[Catharsis7]

The subject is the question.  How is this done?  We have a 2003 guest we want to move to another location with ESXi 4.1.  We have tried the methods that VMware says to do, and none work.  They fail right at the end.  Even migrating and/or cloning with vCenter does not work, nor does the converter tool.  We even tried ghosting from the 5.0 to 4.1, with no success.  Upgrade the 4.1 host to 5.0 is not an option, due to older, unsupported hardware.  The 2003 guest boots, but is unbearably slow, and completely hogs the CPU, before and after VMware Tools has been downgraded to 4.1.

My guess:  This post will go unanswered.  Prove me wrong.

[continuum]

>  My guess:  This post will go unanswered.  Prove me wrong.

nice try - but not really necessary

I rewrite the vmx and vmdk manually - usually works without problems
post your vmx-file if unsure

in the vmdk all you need to change is

ddb.virtualHWVersion = "8" to "7"

[COS]

Stupid question from me but, Did you try Ghosting the VM into your 4.1 env then run the VMware Converter and "Reconfigure" the VM?

Also try this. Cut a snapshot of the VM, Uninstall the VMWare tools, reboot, set your VM to "Show Ghosted Devices" (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539), remove ALL the ghosted devices (you might have to reboot a few times), then cut your ghost image of the VM.

Restore your image into your 4.1 server then do the reconfigure as my dumb question above.

But wait, you're not done. If your VM comes up, you will need to remove the "Ghosted Devices" again.

I recomend you do this on all VM's that get's moved like this because those ghosted devices still uses resources.

EDIT:

Last thing is to re-install your VMware Tools.

EDIT AGAIN:

I am assuming that you have to create your 4.1 VM first then drop the Ghost image on it.

This ensures your .vmx file is approprite for that env.

[Catharsis7]

Yeah, sometimes I feel like I have to be challenging on forums to actually get a response.

Ulli Hankeln wrote:

in the vmdk all you need to change is

ddb.virtualHWVersion = "8" to "7"

Would this really work?  I mean, 5.0 uses VMFS 5, which is quite different.  Are the vmscsi drivers the same?  CPU as well?  I will probably try this next.

COS, if this doesn't work, I will try your solution and post results.

[continuum]

vmdks do not know which VMFS version they are stored on - you can even store them on NTFS 😉

[COS]

GOOD LUCK!!