Can newer VI Client work with older VC

[dwchan]

Since everytime you upgrade your virtualcenter, you need to upgrade your VI client also. Has anyone try and see if the latest version of the VI client (i.e. 2.0.2 update 1 or even 2.5 beta) would work with an older VC like 2.0.1 patch 2?

dwc

[virtualdud3]

Yes, I believe it will "work".

I'm not sure of the logic of doing so, as "upgrading" the VI client is pretty trivial compared to upgrading the VC database and VirtualCenter software.

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[admin]

Whenever you connect with any VI Client to any ESX/VC server, it checks to see if the version you're connecting with matches the version for that host. If not, it automatically downloads the matching components from the server itself and install them in the background

This should work in both forward and backward directions, i.e. if you connect an older VI Client to a newer ESX/VC host, or a newer VI client to an older ESX/VC host.

[dwchan]

The problem is that we certify all of the software here that go on to our pc/laptop. So everytime I upgrade our VC, which also upgrade the VI client, I need to get the client re-certify. Since we are still at vc 2.0.1 p2, and need to upgrade this to vc 2.0.2 u1 and soon to be vc 2.5. just wondering if i can go ahead and install/upgrade our users to vi 2.0.2 u1 before the upgrade. But from the input i got so far, it seem the two (VC and VI client) has to be insync!

dwc

[virtualdud3]

Thanks for clarifying; I recall that it always seemed to "work", and your explanation clears things up.

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[ejward]

I'm using the VC 2.5 beta with the older version of VC. It wasn't my intention but, it was a pain to maintain two seperate version of the client on my PC.

[kbk00 · Accepted solution]

This isn't the experience that I see. I have a production VC box and a dev. Dev is upgraded much sooner than prod and I can run the old client on the latest revision of VC without being prompted for upgrading. Likewise, the reverse is true as well. When I have the latest client, I can connect just fine to the older VC service.

I'm never prompted for upgrading and I don't have version issues...