I recently upgraded to macOS Big Sur (11.6). I had previously been running VMware Fusion Professional Version 11.5.0 (14634996). Unfortunately I did not shut down any of my virtual machines before making this update, and now I get an error "Not enough physical memory" every time I try to open them.

I understand the fix for this error at this point is just to upgrade to Fusion 12. I am able to do that (I have not yet, but the download is straightforward). However, as I mentioned, my virtual machines are currently suspended, and I cannot resume them to shut them down safely before the upgrade. I could force shut them down, or I could proceed with the update without shutting them down. Which is the safest option?