Running VMs from newer ESXi hosts on older ESXi hosts ?

[Netspeed]

Folks,

Just wondering what is the situation with running VMs created on new versions of ESXi on older hosts.

Example - If I have a host running 5.1 and running software to replicate to a box running 4.1, will the VMs start ?

[JCMorrissey · Accepted solution]

Hi,

All depends on the vm hardware version there sir - take a look at the table enclosed in the blog entry

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2013/02/managing-virtual-hardware-versions-during-a-vsphere-upgrade....

it gives a breakdown of the supported VM hw versions for the different versions of ESX.

Hope this helps

[Cyberfed27]

JCM is right, depends on the hardware version of the VM, if its not supported on the older ESXi versions your outta luck.

[jdptechnc]

You could migrate the VM's using VMWare Converter Standalone if the source VM hardware is too new.

Here is the list of virtual machine hardware versions, along with the minimum version of VMware product on which it is supported.

VMware KB: Virtual machine hardware versions

[Netspeed]

thanks folks