Virtual device PCI slot changes upon upgrade from hardware version 19
Article ID: 313466
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
When a Virtual Machine, created with virtual hardware version 19 and configured with EFI firmware, is upgraded to a newer virtual hardware version, the PCI device addresses of virtual devices in the Virtual Machines may change. This will potentially cause the guest operating system to not apply configurations that are meant for a PCI device at a particular address.
Environment
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.2
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.3
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.2
Cause
A VMX configuration option is mistakenly applied for Virtual Machines created with virtual hardware version 19 and using EFI firmware. This option does not take effect for virtual machines using version 19, but takes effect for version 20 or later. The effect of the configuration option is that the Virtual Machine's PCI devices may be assigned different PCI device addresses.
Resolution
This is solved in ESXi 8.0 Update 3, released on 25 June 2024.
There is currently no fix for ESXi 7.0 present.
Workaround:
To workaround the issue, please follow these steps:
1. Ensure the Virtual Machine has been upgraded from hardware version 19 before.
2. Power off/Shutdown the affected virtual machine.
3. Make a backup of the current .vmx configuration file before performing any changes.
4. Open the .vmx configuration of the virtual machine, and remove the following line: chipset.motherboardLayout = "acpi"
5. Reload the configuration of the virtual machine by following instructions in KB Reloading a vmx file without removing the virtual machine from inventory.
6. Power on the virtual machine again, if needed.
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