Feature support states for guest operating systems

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information on understanding the support states for guest operating system features which are explained in the VMware Compatibility Guide

Resolution

In the guest operating system section of the VMware Compatibility Guide, each operating system certification for certain VMware products includes a list of features that are organized in several groups, including Networking, Storage, Virtual Hardware and VMware Tools. Each feature will show one of the following support states:

Supported:
Features showing the Supported status are supported by VMware.

Supported(Recommended):
For certain operating systems and VMware product combinations, there could be multiple options regarding the configuration of a virtual machine. For example, there could be several Networking and Storage options. The feature showing the Supported(Recommended) status is the best choice that is recommended by VMware.

Note: The Supported(Recommended) option may not be the default used by the user interface of a particular VMware product. For example, if operating system does not distribute driver in-box, then default could be alternative device with driver included in the operating system for easier installation experience.

Supported(Not Recommended):
Features showing Supported(Not Recommended) status are not recommended by VMware and virtual machines should be configured to use alternative feature options. In addition, the level of support provided by VMware will be limited for these features. For example, the hardware vendor or operating system vendor may no long support the device's driver for that operating system releases which can block ability to resolve problems.

Not Supported:
Features showing the Not Supported status are not supported by VMware.

Additional Information

Understanding guest operating system support levels