Issue Importing VMs from vCenter 8 to vCenter 7

[Zach Nguyen]

Hello everyone,

We are currently moving to a new data center that runs vCenter 8, while our existing setup uses vCenter 7 U3p. As part of our migration testing, we successfully performed a hot migration from vCenter 7 to vCenter 8.

Now, we are wondering if it's possible to migrate VMs in the reverse direction-from vCenter 8 back to vCenter 7-just in case we need to.

When I try to initiate an "Import VM" from vCenter 8 to vCenter 7 (starting the process from the vCenter 7 interface), the migration fails at the point where I'm supposed to choose an ESXi host as the target. The following error message pops up:

"vCenter does not support hosts of this type ( )"

Is this behavior expected due to version compatibility issues? I couldn't find much information while searching online.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Pascal Carone]

Hi there,

vCenter can only manage ESXi hosts running its version or older. This is why vCenter is always upgraded before ESXi during updates-upgrading ESXi first would prevent vCenter from managing the newer hosts.

In your case, migrating the VM back to vCenter 7 is possible as long as its virtual hardware version hasn't been upgraded. vCenter 8 supports virtual hardware versions from vSphere 7, but the reverse isn't true.

For example, if the VM was using virtual hardware version 19 (supported by vCenter 7), vCenter 8 could manage it. However, if the VM's virtual hardware version was upgraded to version 20 by vCenter 8, vCenter 7 would no longer recognize it.

Here's a possible workaround:

1. Place the VM on an ESXi host compatible with both vCenter versions.
2. Disconnect this host from vCenter 8 after moving the VM.
3. Attach the host to vCenter 7 and migrate the VM back.
4. If needed, move the ESXi host back to vCenter 8 afterward.

Good luck!

[Zach Nguyen]

Thanks a lot, this solved my problem.

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Zach Nguyen
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