Downgrading the virtual machine hardware version in ESXi

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• A virtual machine does not boot after upgrading the virtual hardware version to 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11 and so on
• Cannot migrate or power on a virtual machine created on a newer version of ESXi to an older version.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5

Resolution

To resolve this issue, downgrade virtual machine hardware, power off the virtual machine, and perform one of these options:

• Revert to a snapshot created before upgrading the virtual machine hardware. 
• Use VMware vCenter Converter Standalone and select the required virtual hardware version in the Specify Destination wizard. 
• Create a new virtual machine with required hardware version and attach the existing disk from the virtual machine.

Additional Information

Editing files on an ESX host using vi or nano
Reloading a vmx file without removing the virtual machine from inventory
Using ESXi Shell in ESXi 5.x and 6.x
在 ESX/ESXi 中降级虚拟机硬件版本