Migrate VMs with old vmware tools

[Francisco Alarcon]

Hi!

I am involved in a migration project from an ESXi 5.0 infrastructure to a new one in version 7.

Lastly, checking the compatibility of the VMs, I have seen that the version of tools that are installed are not compatible with Hypervisor 7.0.2. The HW version is version 8 that is supported. I have never had this case and I would like to know if there is a defined procedure to update the tools prior to inventory and starting on the new platform, if it has a problem or what would be the most correct way to act.

Best regards

[cyberwookie]

Normally you would first upgrade the vmtools to the latest version possible, before upgrading any HW version.

According to the interopmatrix.vmware.com the latest VMtools supported by 5.0 is 10.0.9

From Hardware Features Available with Virtual Machine Compatibility Settings (vmware.com) i see that vsphere 7 supports HW 10 and later, but vsphere 6.7 does still run HW 8, so you might have to get a 'migration-host' to do the upgrade first to HW version 10.
VMWare workstation 10 or later might will do the trick too

After running on HW 10 you can decide to upgrade to the latest vmtools, and maybe try to upgrade de HW to a higher version, but depending how old and stable the VM is, i would recommend keeping it on HW 10, and only upgrade to a higher level if necessary (i.e. you need more features)

[Francisco Alarcon]

Thanks cyberwookie.

So, first I'll upgrade tools to 10.0.9 version, and then inventory VM in the new 7.0 infraestructure, upgrade to HW version 10 and power on VM.

Is this procedure correct?

Thanks for your help