Discrepancy in virtual machine Guest OS version as reported by RVTools

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

RVTools report lists inconsistent Guest OS versions for the same virtual machine.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

This discrepancy occurs because RVTools retrieves Guest OS information from multiple data sources within vSphere:

• The VM configuration file (VMX) reflects the OS version set during VM deployment.

• VMware Tools reports the actual OS version currently running inside the virtual machine.

When a virtual machine's guest OS is upgraded, the VMX configuration file does not automatically update to reflect the new OS version. This results in a mismatch between the guest OS field and guestInfo.detailed.data field in VMX file.

Resolution

To ensure consistency in Guest OS version details throughout the report, modify the VMX file of the VM as outlined below:

• Log into the virtual machine's Guest OS to check the operating system version.
  
  
• Power off the virtual machine.
  
  
• Update the VMX file to reflect the current Guest OS version.
  
  
• Establish an SSH session to the ESXi host where the affected virtual machine is hosted.
  
  
• Navigate to the directory of the virtual machine using the below command:
  cd /vmfs/volumes/<Datastore_Name>/<VM_Name>
  
  
• Open the .vmx file for the virtual machine using a text editor (for example, vi):
  vi <VM_Name>.vmx
  
  
• Locate the guest operating system configuration entries and modify them to match the guestInfo.detailed.data values as shown in the example below.
  
  Sample output:
  
  Earlier :
  guestOS = "windows2019srvNext-64"
  
  After :
  guestOS = "windows2022srvNext-64"
  
  
• Save changes and exit the editor.
  
  
• Power on the Virtual machine and refresh the data in RVTools.