vCenter Server Appliance displays a warning message on ESXi Host Client

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• vCenter Server Appliance displays the following message on ESXi Host Client. It would not come up on Web Client.

"The configured guest OS (Other 3.x Linux (64-bit)) for this virtual machine does not match the guest that is currently running (VMware Photon OS (64-bit)). You should specify the correct guest OS to allow for guest-specific optimizations."

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.x

Cause

It is supported to deploy vCenter Server Appliance on ESXi host 5.5 or later, so vCenter Server Appliance keeps its compatibility with hardware version 10. There were some implementation changes to remediate the guest configuration (not only vCenter Server Appliance but also other Linux distributions including Photon OS), and this causes the warning messages.

The following combinations would apply to this case:

• ESXi >= 6.5 + vCenter Server Appliance >= 6.7 U1
• ESXi >= 6.5 + vCenter Server Appliance >= 6.5 U2d

Resolution

These messages merely indicate a warning. It can be ignored.

Note: This is a normal warning. Please, do not update your hardware version.

Additional Information

Don't modify the setting of vCenter Server Appliance such as hardware version or Guest OS ID, it's not supported. See KB 2090839.

Impact/Risks:
It has no effect on vCenter Server Appliance.