Why can't I move Linux VMs to another host on another cluster?

[Red Squirrel]

We are using ESX 4 on cluster A and ESXi 3.5 on cluster B.

I was moving some windows VMs from A B without issues, while they were turned off.

When I try to do the same with two Linux VMs, it wont let me. I did not realize the OS even mattered to do this. I get the error "The host [ip] does not support the virtual hardware version of this machine". What would cause this?

 

[defuseme2k]

They are different "virtual hardware" versions. VI3 was virtual hardware version 4 and vSphere is virtual hardware version 7. If you wanted to be able to move freely between the two ESX versions, you should have specified to use version 4 when you first built the virtual machines!

Take a look at the virtual machines tab and make sure the column heading for "VM version" is displayed. Version 4 can be used on ESX(i) 3.x and 4.x without issue, version 7 can only be on version 4 hosts. There are a lot of benefits to using version 7, so it isn't a bad thing once you can make the move permanent.

 

[NetJunkie]

Yep..what he said. I bet you have different version ESX hosts in the cluster, right?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Ahhh crap now that you mention it, I recall now. That's exactly what it is. I normally create from template which has that setting set correctly but since it was Linux and we're a Windows shop we had no template so just created those from scratch and went with default. Too late now I suppose eh.