Restore to Different VMware Version

Hello Casey,

Mike from Zerto here.

Yes, replication between hosts on different ESXi versions is indeed supported.

thanks for the information

Hi Robert

The VM hardware version would need to be compatible on the destination of where you are replicating to.

Kind Regards

Chris

Hi,

This is Kalsang from Zerto.

The following conversions are done to a protected virtual machine when it is recovered in the vCenter Server:
• Virtual machines are recovered in vCenter Server with the highest hardware version supported by the vCenter Server host version under which the virtual machine is recovered.
• A Generation 1 (Hyper-V) virtual machine is recovered in vCenter Server with BIOS with the highest supported hardware version.
• A Generation 2 (Hyper-V) virtual machine is recovered in vCenter Server with EUFI. The host in vCenter must support hardware version 8 or higher.

Review the following VMware KBs to determine the highest version of the vCenter/ESXi host version

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2007240

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1003746
Depending on the highest version reported on the VMware KB, upgrade Zerto to the minimum version of the supported VM hardware version.
For example:</p>
ESXi 6.7 U2 supports up to VM Hardware version 15.
Our interoperability guide indicates that it is supported from Zerto 6.5U4P1 and Zerto 7.0U2P2 in their respective version families, therefore if below those versions, upgrade Zerto.
If the recovery hosts are at different ESXi versions and you receive an alert from Zerto and/or vCenter, then you can perform one of the following:
a. Upgrade the recovery host to a version that supports the protected virtual machine hardware version.
b. Change the recovery host to one that supports the protected virtual machine hardware version.

Hope that helps.

Best regards,

NOTE:

Review our Interoperability Matrix for All Zerto Software Versions (latest) to ensure Zerto supports the VM hardware version listed.

Thanks,

Hi,

Thank you for your answers Chris and Kalsang.

So just to be sure I get this right, if I update to Zerto 8.5U2 which supports all there is to support including VM hardware version from 7 to 18, I can have my VMs on vm hw v18 on ESXi 7.0 hosts and replicate them with Zerto to DRC ESXi 6.5 hosts and Zerto will automagically convert replicated VMs to vm hardware 13 (as highest supported by recovery host)?

Then after failover if I turn reverse protection, those recovery VMs would be automagically converted to vm hw 18 (as this time recovery host would be on ESXi7.0)?

Am I getting this right?

vm hardware version support on ESXi hosts

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2007240

Thanks,

Robert

Hi Robert

The VM hardware version would need to be compatible on the destination of where you are replicating to. As posted in a previous update:

If the recovery hosts are at different ESXi versions and you receive an alert from Zerto and/or vCenter, then you can perform one of the following:

a. Upgrade the recovery host to a version that supports the protected virtual machine hardware version.
b. Change the recovery host to one that supports the protected virtual machine hardware version.

Hope this helps. Thank you.

Joe