Issues with cloning

[Red_Squirrel]

I am trying to make up some templates but having issues. First I decided to actually use the "convert to template" feature, but that deleted the VM! So decided to not use that and just keep it as a regular VM, and I will just clone as needed. Well whenever I try to clone I get an error at the end of the wizard that says: "The host '[ip]' does not support the virtual hardware version of this virtual machine."

This worked before but suddently wont work anymore. We do have this weird issue where two of our hosts cannot have VMs migrated to it without first turning them off but I'm not even able to specify a host when doing a clone.

[Troy_Clavell]

I am trying to make up some templates but having issues. First I decided to actually use the "convert to template" feature, but that deleted the VM!

The VM did not get deleted. Change your view in vCenter to Virtual Machines and Templates, you should see it there.

So decided to not use that and just keep it as a regular VM, and I will just clone as needed. Well whenever I try to clone I get an error at the end of the wizard that says: "The host ip does not support the virtual hardware version of this virtual machine."

What version of ESX are you trying to clone from and to? If you have a v7 virtual hardware guest it will not work on an ESX3.5 Host.

This worked before but suddenly wont work anymore. We do have this weird issue where two of our hosts cannot have VMs migrated to it without first turning them off but I'm not even able to specify a host when doing a clone.

See this KB article as well

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1011294

[Red_Squirrel]

Thanks managed to find my VM back! As for the version, two of our hosts are running ESXi 3.5 and the 4 others are running ESX 4. Yeah messed up setup... not my choice. I would have gone with the same thing accross the board. The two ESXi hosts are also newer hardware.

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

The VMware Tools and the virtual hardware should only be upgraded after all ESX3.5i Hosts are on ESX4i

Right click on the guest in question and go to edit settings, In the top right hand corner you will see Virtual Machine Version: All your guests, since you have mix of ESXi3.5 and ESXi4, should all be at v4. If you have v7, this is probably the problem.

The only way to convert back to v4 hardware is to use VMware Converter.

[Red_Squirrel]

Hmm it does in fact say 7. I will recreate the VM as 4. Just noticed the option.

[Troy_Clavell]

Any way i can create a new VM and make it an older version?

When you create a new VM choose the custom option instead of typical. Within that wizard you will be able to specify with virtual machine version. Once deployed install the guest tools for your ESX3.5i Host.