Upgrade the Compatibility for Virtual Machines

The virtual machine compatibility determines the virtual hardware available to the virtual machine, which corresponds to the physical hardware available on the host machine. You can upgrade the compatibility level to make additional hardware available to the virtual machine.

You can upgrade virtual machines manually, or schedule upgrades.

Manual Upgrade: This procedure upgrades one or more virtual machines to the latest supported virtual hardware version immediately.
Schedule VM Upgrades: Use this procedure to schedule an upgrade of one or more virtual machines at the next reboot of the virtual machine, and choose from all supported compatibility level upgrades.

Important: Upgrading virtual machine hardware might cause some applications or the operating system to stop working properly. Perform a hardware version upgrade only if you need a feature that comes with the newer hardware version.

Prerequisites

Create a backup or snapshot of the virtual machines. See Using Snapshots To Manage Virtual Machines.
Upgrade VMware Tools. On Microsoft Windows VMs, the virtual machine might lose its network settings if you upgrade the compatibility before you upgrade VMware Tools.
Verify that all virtual machines and their .vmdk files are stored on storage connected to the ESXi host or the client machine.
Determine the ESXi versions that you want the virtual machines to be compatible with. See Virtual Machine Compatibility.

Procedure

Log in to the vSphere Client and right click a virtual machine.
(Optional) Select Power > Power Off.
Some Linux operating systems don't require a power off for VM upgrade.

Perform or schedule the upgrade.

Option	Description
Manual Upgrade	Select Actions > Compatibility > Upgrade VM Compatibility. Click Yes to confirm the upgrade. Select a compatibility and click OK.
Scheduled Upgrade	Select Actions > Compatibility > Schedule VM Compatibility Upgrade Click Yes to confirm the upgrade. Select a compatibility and click OK. Note: You can select Only upgrade after normal guest OS shutdown. This prevents the scheduled upgrade from occurring unless the guest operating system of the virtual machine is shut down or restarted normally.

Option

Description

Manual Upgrade

Select Actions > Compatibility > Upgrade VM Compatibility.
Click Yes to confirm the upgrade.
Select a compatibility and click OK.

Scheduled Upgrade

Select Actions > Compatibility > Schedule VM Compatibility Upgrade
Click Yes to confirm the upgrade.
Select a compatibility and click OK.

Note: You can select Only upgrade after normal guest OS shutdown. This prevents the scheduled upgrade from occurring unless the guest operating system of the virtual machine is shut down or restarted normally.