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vmproteau
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

VMware Tools when moving a VM from ESXi 5.5 U1 to ESXi 5.0 U3

We are moving a VM from ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 5.0. I'm going to use converter to change the Hardware version from 10 to 8. Once I move the VM from ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 5.0 I assume I'll want to uninstall and reinstall VMware Tools to match the ESXi Host level versions correct?

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rcporto
Leadership
Leadership

VMware Tools is backward compatible with older versions of ESX/ESXi... and this post explain why: Is a VMware Tools Upgrade Required When Upgrading vSphere? | VMware vSphere Blog - VMware Blogs

The image bellow shows that VMware Tools from ESXi 5.5 is compatible with ESXi 5.0 hosts:

vmtools.JPG

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Richardson Porto
Senior Infrastructure Specialist
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/richardsonporto
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vmproteau
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Appreciate the link Richardson. I hadn't noticed VMware Tools in the "VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes" before.

Although relatively rare, I do have a couple related questions regarding how this affects baseline standards specifically when moving VMs from newer to older Hosts.Let's say I move a VM from ESXi 5.5 U1 to ESXi 5.0 U3 and leave VMware tools at the ESXI 5.5 U1 version. According to the blog there are no techincal issues here but, I'm curious how VMware Tools specifically works in that scenerio.

  1. We try to maintain a standard baseline. Are the drivers and hardware dynamically "backreved" to versions identical to ESXi 5.0 U3 VMWare Tools or is the VM using newer versions that are simply compatible with ESXi 5.0 U3. I may opt to uninstall and reinstall VMware Tools for consistency depending on the answer.
  2. How would VMWare Tools status affected by this scenerio? For instance,what is expected when I upgrade to ESXi 5.0 U4. Will this VM show out-of date and be upgradable?
  3. If so, when upgraded, is that VM's VMware Tools now identical to any other ESXi 5.0 U4 VM or would it still be considered slightly different?

There appears to be no techincal issues but, I am trying to think through any operational implications to our standard baseline.

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