Some questions regarding hardware version and VM Tool.

[Dongjianhua]

Good morning,

I have some questions regarding hardware version and VM Tools, can somebody help? Thank you in advance.

1. Is the OVF/OVA file virtual machine hardware version related?  Do the OVF/OVA files exported from vSphere contain the virtual hardware version information ?

2. Consider  i have a VM in vSphere 6.0 platform with hardware version 11 and the latest VM Tools(came with ESXi 6.0 U2), can i export it to a OVA file, then import it to vSphere 5.1 platform ? If can, what hardware version of the target VM will be ?

3. Can high version vmtools running with lower vSphere platform? For example, i have a VM with hardware version 11 and the latest VM Tools (ESXi 6 U2), later i move the VM to ESXi 5.1, should i downgrade the vmware tools ? Is there any compatibility issue ?

[Texiwill]

Hello,

VMware Tools is backwards compatible, meaning lower versions of VMware Tools work on Higher versions of ESXi. They are not forward compatible, in other words higher versions of VMware Tools do not work on Lower versions of ESXi.

I would install a lower version of VMware Tools that matches the version of tools for the version of ESXi you desire to run upon. If you choose VMware Tools v11 you can only run on v6 and greater of ESXi.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009-2016

Author of the books 'VMWare ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise: Planning Deployment Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2011 Pearson Education. 'VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing the Virtual Environment', Copyright 2009 Pearson Education.

Virtualization and Cloud Security Analyst: The Virtualization Practice, LLC -- vSphere Upgrade Saga -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

[Dongjianhua]

Hi Edward,

Thank you for you replay.

In other word, the older VMtools can support newer virtual machine hardware version, but the newer VMtools can not support older virtual machine hardware version, is it correct ?

[Texiwill]

Hello,

No, it is related to the version of ESXi not anything else...

Older VMware Tools + Older virtual Hardware versions = Older+Newer versions of ESXi (ESXi is backward compatible)

Newer VMware Tools + Newer virtual Hardware versions = Newer versions of ESXi (older ESXi cannot run newer things in general)

Find the lowest version of ESXi you wish to support and pick the virtual hardware + VMware Tools for that version.  I would also make a way to allow upgrade of VMware Tools so people running on newer get the version they need as well. Or just do not install VMware Tools.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009-2016

Author of the books 'VMWare ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise: Planning Deployment Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2011 Pearson Education. 'VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing the Virtual Environment', Copyright 2009 Pearson Education.

Virtualization and Cloud Security Analyst: The Virtualization Practice, LLC -- vSphere Upgrade Saga -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

[Dongjianhua]

Thanks.

[Dongjianhua]

Hi Edward,

I found this discussion.Actually newer vmtools can run in older esxi.

Re: How To Update VMware Tools in diferent versions ESX