→ Applies to: VMware ESXi 6.5 and above

When you have VMware ESXi with different host versions, you may encounter some limitations.

In each scenario, SynetoOS performs all migration and protection operations as expected. However, you may encounter some issues when trying to start a VM that was migrated or replicated from another host, with a different ESXi version than the source one.

Each ESXi release has a virtual hardware version; if the affected hosts do not share the same version level, this article will help you understand how to proceed to resolve the issue.

The most common symptoms encountered are:

• VM does not power on;
• Some VMs operations are disabled and unavailable;
• A guest OS experiences unexpected behavior;
• The guest OS might report backup storage as a HDD instead of a SSD;
• A VM cannot be registered, or it disappears from the VMs panel when it has already been registered.

Step 1. Login to VMware ESXi GUI (replace <your_ip_address_or_hostname> with the correct ip/hostname)

https://<your_ip_address_or_hostname>

Step 2. Power off and unregister the SynetoOS VM

Step 3. Connect to VMware ESXi via SSH as root (replace <your_ip_address_or_hostname> with the correct ip/hostname)

ssh root@<your_ip_address_or_hostname>

Step 4. Move to the folder where the .vmx file is located (replace <datastore_name> and <vm_name> with correct information)

cd /vmfs/volumes/<datastore_name>/<vm_name>

EXAMPLE

cd /vmfs/volumes/0e76279b-a3457e56/WinSRV_2022

Step 5. Edit .vmx file (replace <datastore_name> and <vm_name> with correct information)

vi /vmfs/volumes/<datastore_name>/<vm_name>

EXAMPLE

vi SynetoOS.vmx

Step 6. Find virtualHW.version on the .vmx file

virtualHW.version = "19"

EXAMPLE

Step 7. Identify the virtual hardware version needed

Step 8. Change virtualHW.version value on the .vmx file with the new number and save it

virtualHW.version = "20"

Step 9. Login to VMware ESXi GUI (replace <your_ip_address_or_hostname> with the correct ip/hostname)

https://<your_ip_address_or_hostname>

Step 10. Register the VM and power on SynetoOS