Change guest OS

[KKrtz]

Hello.

In my environment with vCSA 5.1.0a (I don't know if it also not working in 5.1.0) I am not able to change the guest OS on a later timepoint. The option is greyed out!

It's indepent from which type of OS or hardware version you want to change...

Does anybody also have this issue?

Thanks.

[Troy_Clavell]

even if the guest is powered off?  You should be able to adjust these settings while the guest is in a powered off state,  You are referring to the guest OS version, correct?

[Troy_Clavell]

After testing this a bit, it appears you cannot make this change using the vSphere Web Client.  However, using the vSphere Client, you are able to make the changes.  With that said, the VM still needs to be powered down.

[a_p_]

I don't know why VMware did this, but according to Select a Guest Operating System

Beginning  with vSphere 5.1, you cannot change the guest operating system after you create  the virtual machine. ...

André

[KKrtz]

It's not an bug it's an feature???

[sparrowangelste]

he still should be able to edit the vmx's guestOS I think

or is that gone

[a_p_]

Unfortunately it looks like this. I cannot really think of a reason for it, except for avoiding issues with reconfigured VM's with an unsupported virtual hardware configuration!?

André

[KKrtz]

Technican from VMware wrote me this article (which is not reachable at this moment) ...

"Cannot change the guest operating system selection of a virtual machine" http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2020801

It seems to be an bug ...

[a_p_]

The KB article is available now and confirms what I thought. It's mostly about avoiding issues with the virtual hardware.

André

[michaelstump]

What about an in-place upgrade of a VM's OS? Like it or not, this does happen in production environments, especially those looking for a quick way to get rid of aging Windows servers. Looks like under 5.1, you can have a VM running a newer OS although the VM is tagged with an older version.

[a_p_]

I absolutely agree with you and I would really like to see some kind of a "Change Guest OS" wizard which takes care of the required modifications.

André

[KKrtz]

We will see in which release it will be fixed!