Checking the Status of Virtual Machines

You use vSphere Lifecycle Manager to check the status of virtual machines before you upgrade them. The status check shows if the virtual machine is up-to-date or can be upgraded.

With vSphere Lifecycle Manager, you can check the status of a single virtual machine or a group of virtual machines in a parent container object.

Supported groups of virtual machines or ESXi hosts include virtual infrastructure container objects such as folders, vApps, clusters, and data centers.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager checks the status of virtual machines in two aspects.

You can use vSphere Lifecycle Manager to check the status of the virtual machines in respect with the VMware Tools version that they have installed.
The status check is performed against the latest VMware Tools version that the parent host supports.
vSphere Lifecycle Manager checks the status of the virtual machines in respect with their VM hardware compatibility.
vSphere Lifecycle Manager compares the hardware compatibility of the virtual machines with the default VM hardware compatibility configured for the host.

Check the Status of an Individual Virtual Machine

You check the status of virtual machines to see whether the VMware Tools version they have is up to date and whether their hardware compatibility matches the default VM hardware compatibility for the host.

Procedure

In the vSphere Client, navigate to a virtual machine.
On the Updates tab, click Check Status.
The Scan entity task appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task finishes, status information appears in the VMware Tools and VM Hardware Compatibility panels.

Results

The virtual machines are scanned for VMware Tools and VM hardware compliance.

Check the Status of the Virtual Machines in a Container Object

You check the status of virtual machines to see whether the VMware Tools version they have is up-to-date and whether their hardware compatibility matches the default VM hardware compatibility for the host where they reside.

When you perform a status check for a container object, vSphere Lifecycle Manager checks the VMware Tools and VM Hardware Compatibility statuses for all child virtual machines. The larger the virtual infrastructure and the higher up in the object hierarchy you initiate the status check, the longer the task takes.

Procedure

In the vSphere Client, navigate to a virtual machine container object, such as a virtual machine folder, host, cluster, and so on.
Click the Updates tab.

Select your task.

Option	Action
Check the VMware Tools status of the virtual machines in the container object.	Select Hosts > VMware Tools > . Click Check Status. The information about the VMware Tools status appears in the Tools Status column in the table that lists all virtual machines in the selected container object. If the container object is a data center or a vCenter Server instance, you must first specify the cluster that you want to see results for.
Check the VM Hardware compatibility status of the virtual machines in the container object.	Select Hosts > VM Hardware. Click Check Status. The information about the VM Hardware Compatibility status appears in the Status column in the table that lists all virtual machines in the selected container object. For each virtual machine in the object, you can also see the VM hardware compatibility and the host compatibility. If the container object is a data center or a vCenter Server instance, you must first specify the cluster that you want to see results for.

Option

Action

Check the VMware Tools status of the virtual machines in the container object.

Select Hosts > VMware Tools > .
Click Check Status.
The information about the VMware Tools status appears in the Tools Status column in the table that lists all virtual machines in the selected container object. If the container object is a data center or a vCenter Server instance, you must first specify the cluster that you want to see results for.

Check the VM Hardware compatibility status of the virtual machines in the container object.

Select Hosts > VM Hardware.
Click Check Status.
The information about the VM Hardware Compatibility status appears in the Status column in the table that lists all virtual machines in the selected container object. For each virtual machine in the object, you can also see the VM hardware compatibility and the host compatibility. If the container object is a data center or a vCenter Server instance, you must first specify the cluster that you want to see results for.

The VMware Tools Status

Check the VMware Tools status for information whether the current version of VMware Tools is installed, supported, or whether upgrades are available.

Table 1. VMware Tools Status
VMware Tools Status	Description
Up to Date	VMware Tools is installed, supported, and the version is compliant.
Up to Date	VMware Tools is installed, supported, and the version is newer than the version available on the ESXi host.
Upgrade Available	VMware Tools is installed, but the version is old.
Upgrade Available	VMware Tools is installed and supported, but a newer version is available on the ESXi host.
Version Unsupported	VMware Tools is installed, but the version is old.
	VMware Tools is installed, but the version has a known issue and must be immediately upgraded.
	VMware Tools is installed, but the version is too new to work correctly with this virtual machine.
Not Installed	VMware Tools is not installed on this virtual machine.
Guest Managed	vSphere does not manage VMware Tools.
Unknown	The status of the virtual machine is not checked.