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labomb
Contributor
Contributor
‎11-18-2021 11:51 AM

VCSA 6.7 upgrade - vMotion question

I currently have a simple 2 node cluster, with both ESXi servers currently at version 6.0u3. The VMs are a mix of HW versions 9 and 11.

I intend to upgrade vCenter to VCSA 6.7u3 first, followed by upgrading one of the ESXi servers to 6.7u3. The other server in the cluster is not compatible with 6.7 (unsupported CPU at the very least), so it will stay at 6.0 until early next year.

I expect that the new 6.7 VCSA will be at HW version 11 since it will be created on a 6.0 host, and I just wanted to confirm that as long as I don't upgrade the HW version of any of the VMs beyond version 11, I should be able to perform a live vMotion of any of them between the 6.7 server and the 6.0 server. Is that indeed the case?

Thanks very much.

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MikeStoica
Expert
Expert
‎11-25-2021 05:27 AM

Check this KB https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1003746

  • ESXi 6.7u2 introduces hardware version 15. This new hardware version allows for the creation of a VM with up to 256 vCPUs. It is important to note that a hardware version 15 VM cannot be vMotioned to a host on a prior version of ESXi, including ESXi 6.7u1, ESXi 6.7, ESXi 6.0 etc, as these prior ESXi versions are not compatible with the new hardware version. Similarly, vCenter 6.7 or vCenter 6.7u1 can be used to manage ESXi 6.7u2 hosts as long as hardware version 15 VMs are not in use. For customers looking to create, run, and manage hardware version 15 VMs, both the ESXi hosts in the cluster and vCenter need to be upgraded to at least 6.7u2.

So as long as you don't upgrade the VM HW version you should be ok. 

Is this a test environment? 

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