6.5.1

Table Of Contents
Upgrading Virtual Machines 10
You can upgrade virtual machines to a higher level of compatibility and a higher version of VMware tools.
After the upgrade, your VMs can take advantage of new hardware options and new features.
For a list of hardware features available to virtual machines with each ESXi hardware compatibility
setting, see Hardware Features Available with Virtual Machine Compatibility Settings.
VMware Tools Upgrade
The first step in upgrading virtual machines is to upgrade VMware Tools. Installing VMware Tools is part
of the process of creating a new virtual machine. If you are installing VMware Tools in multiple virtual
machines with Windows guest operating systems, you can automate its installation and specify options
for the components to include or exclude. For information about installing, upgrading, and configuring
VMware Tools, see the VMware Tools User Guide.
If the virtual machines do not have VMware Tools installed, you can use the VMware Tools upgrade
procedure to install VMware Tools. After you install or upgrade VMware Tools, upgrade the virtual
machine compatibility.
Virtual Machine Compatibility Upgrade
Upgrading virtual machine hardware is a heavyweight operation that might cause some applications or
the operating system to stop working properly.
VMware offers the following tools for upgrading virtual machines:
vSphere Client Requires that you perform the virtual machine upgrade one step at a time,
but does not require vSphere Update Manager.
vSphere Update
Manager
Automates the process of upgrading and patching virtual machines,
ensuring that the steps occur in the correct order. You can use Update
Manager to directly upgrade virtual machine hardware, VMware Tools, and
virtual appliances. You can also patch and update third-party software
running on the virtual machines and virtual appliances. See the Installing
and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager documentation.
Note Do not use vmware-vmupgrade.exe to upgrade virtual machines.
VMware, Inc.
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