MIgrating some VM from vsphere 5.0 to 5.5. Should the VM hardware be upgraded?

[DLB2012]

We are moving some VMs to a colocation with a newer version of vsphere. Are there any benefits to upgrading besides whats listed in the link below? We really have no need for the maximum ram or cpu upgrades. I was thinking that keeping the VMs at version 8 should be fine, unless there is some major performance improvement or other reason to upgrade to 10.

Hardware Features Available with Virtual Machine Compatibility Settings

[rh5592 · Accepted solution]

You are spot on with your comments. There is no need for you to upgrade to version 10 if you don't need them. That's why VMware is now calling it VM Compatibility level rather than Virtual Hardware. This is to remove the pressure from always trying to keep up with the virtual hardware.

From experience, I find upgrading Virtual Hardware one of the scariest part of any upgrade project. Ive encountered lots of issue after it that's why it is always recommended to  create a snapshot before doing a virtual hardware upgrade. Its the only way to rollback.

[DLB2012]

Great thanks, I hadn't really processed that the name was different! I've had problems with Windows complaining about needing to be activated after an upgrade in the past and wanted to avoid that if possible.