6.5.1

Table Of Contents
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For BSD, NetWare, Solaris, and Mac OS X guest operating systems, no restart is required at the end
of the procedure.
During the virtual machine compatibility upgrade, you must shut down the virtual machine for all guest
operating systems.
Table 101. Virtual Machine Downtime by Guest Operating System
Guest Operating System Upgrade VMware Tools Upgrade Virtual Machine Compatibility
Microsoft Windows Downtime to restart the guest operating
system.
Downtime to shut down and power on the virtual
machine.
Linux Downtime to restart the guest operating
system is required to load drivers.
Downtime to shut down and power on the virtual
machine.
NetWare No downtime. Downtime to shut down and power on the virtual
machine.
Solaris No downtime. Downtime to shut down and power on the virtual
machine.
FreeBSD No downtime. Downtime to shut down and power on the virtual
machine.
Mac OS X No downtime. Downtime to shut down and power on the virtual
machine.
Upgrade the Compatibility for Virtual Machines
The virtual machine compatibility determines the virtual hardware available to the virtual machine, which
corresponds to the physical hardware available on the host machine. You can upgrade the compatibility
level to make additional hardware available to the virtual machine.
You can upgrade virtual machines manually, or schedule upgrades.
Manual Upgrade This procedure upgrades one or more virtual machines to the latest
supported virtual hardware version immediately.
Schedule VM Upgrades Use this procedure to schedule an upgrade of one or more virtual machines
at the next reboot of the virtual machine, and choose from all supported
compatibility level upgrades.
Important Upgrading virtual machine hardware might cause some applications or the operating system
to stop working properly. Perform a hardware version upgrade only if you need a feature that comes with
the newer hardware version.
Prerequisites
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Create a backup or snapshot of the virtual machines. See Using Snapshots To Manage Virtual
Machines.
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Upgrade VMware Tools. On Microsoft Windows VMs, the virtual machine might lose its network
settings if you upgrade the compatibility before you upgrade VMware Tools.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
VMware, Inc. 233