[VMC on AWS] Windows 11 installation/upgrade on VMware Cloud on AWS

Products

• VMware Cloud on AWS

Issue/Introduction

This article describes the requirements to install/upgrade a Windows 11 virtual machine on VMware Cloud on AWS

Symptoms:
Cannot install/upgrade Windows 11 on VMware Cloud on AWS

Cause

Microsoft has introduced additional hardware requirements with the release of Microsoft Windows 11 Desktop that currently prevents installation/upgrades in virtual machines running in VMware Cloud on AWS SDDCs. 

Resolution

To install or upgrade a Windows 11 virtual machine, Microsoft requires new hardware capabilities including TPM 2.0 and an Intel Generation 8 processor or later.  VMware Cloud on AWS customers planning to run Windows 11 should deploy SDDCs using the i3en.metal instance type and on a VMware Cloud SDDC version 1.19 or later:
References:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/windows-11-requirements
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors
• VMware Cloud Release Notes