Editing .vmx file without removing and re-adding it to the inventory

[VoIP93]

Hi Team,

I have modified my .vmx file for 7 VMs but I've forgot to remove and re-add the file from the inventory.
All the applications work fine without any issue.
Unfortunately; we can't arrange another down time to do the missing step above.

As far as I know this step is considered as a verification step for the updates done on the .vmx.
Is there any impact on the VMs deployed?

Note: I'm using Cisco voice products (CUCM, CUC ..etc). 
The update done on the .vmx is by changing the VM HW:
virtualHW.version = "13"

Thanks in advance!

[fabio1975]

Ciao 

You can try to use this KB, but you need to do a VMs Shutdown. (shutdown is less expensive in time than shutdown and removes from inventory.)

Reloading a vmx file without removing the virtual machine from inventory (1026043) (vmware.com)

[VoIP93]

The steps I followed were:
1- Turned off the VM.
2- Downloaded .vmx file.
3- Edited it and re-uploaded it once again.
4- Turned on the VM.

Are those steps enough without re-registering the VM? (remove/add to the inventory) 

[fabio1975]

Ciao 

after turning on the VM you need to reload the VMX file with the command indicated on the KB link.

[VoIP93]

Hi Fabio,

Thanks for the reply.
So we consider using the command as an extra steps beside the above steps without shutting down the VMs, right?

Thanks a lot for your help! 

[a_p_]

In order for vSphere/ESXi to pick up the manual changes you need to reload the VM while it is still powered off.
Check the VM's settings, to see which HW version it shows now.

As a side note: You can use e.g. WinSCP's integrated editor to edit files, if you are not comfortable with vi. Not only that it's faster (no up-/download), but it also maintains the file format (unix like line feeds).

André