VMware Support on Guest Upgrade

Many like me are not aware of that VMware only support patches release of OS or minor update release of OS e.g. Windows 7 to Windows 7 Service Pack 1, RHEL 6 to RHEL 6.1 as refer to this KB.

So what does this means?  If you are doing an in place upgrade of OS from Windows 2003 to Windows 2008 which is considered a major update release, this will not be supported by VMware although OS vendor supports this.  To be specific, the whole VM is not supported right after you have did an in place upgrade.

As stated in the KB, it is recommended to install major update release in a new VM.  I see this a hassle as most users would just do an in place upgrade as long their software still works in the latter version.  In such a scenario, during an in place upgrade, any issue will need to be supported by the OS vendor and not VMware.  This is something I am totally caught unaware and not agreeable.

However for customers upgrading form Windows 2003, due to the large demand of such scenario (guess no one really love Windows 2008 and above), VMware has made an exception as stated in this KB.  Thanks to my colleague, Andy Chan for bring this out.

I still see quite a lot of Windows 2003 around even though Microsoft has ended its support.  With exception support from VMware on Windows 2003 major release upgrade to Windows 2008, it should be taken into consideration fast to do it.

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