HCX validation fails with "Hardware version of virtual machine : ######## is not compliant with the highest hardware version on the target."

Products

• VMware Cloud on AWS
• VMware HCX

Issue/Introduction

• You are trying to migrate a virtual machine using HCX, and during the HCX validation, you see the error:

  Hardware version of virtual machine :<VM-NAME> is not compliant with the highest hardware version on the target.

• The following error is also observed in the /common/logs/admin/web.log:
  

  {"message":"Hardware version of virtual machine :<VM-NAME> is not compliant with the highest hardware version on the target."}]

• The virtual machine you are trying to migrate is running on an ESXi host that has a higher version than the destination/target ESXi.

Environment

VMware HCX

Cause

The virtual hardware version of the virtual machine being migrated is higher than what is supported on the target ESXi host.

Example:
<VM-NAME> has a virtual hardware compatibility: ESXi 8.0 U2 and later (VM version 21), and the target ESXi host does not support VM version 21.

Resolution

1. Upgrade the target host to support the VM hardware.
2. Downgrading the virtual machine hardware version in ESXi