Upgrading Virtual Hardware in the Guest Operating System

Upgrading a virtual machine's virtual hardware gives it access to new features of GSX Server. Before you upgrade the virtual hardware, however, consider the following:

The virtual hardware upgrade is irreversible: The process of upgrading the virtual hardware is irreversible and makes the disks attached to this virtual machine incompatible with VMware GSX Server 1or 2. You should make backup copies of your virtual disks before starting the upgrade.

GSX Server 3 updates the CMOS: If you are using a virtual machine created under VMware GSX Server 2, the first time you power on the virtual machine under VMware GSX Server 3, GSX Server updates the CMOS. As a result, your guest operating system may detect hardware changes and install new drivers for the new hardware even if you do not choose to upgrade the virtual hardware.

You must install VMware Tools: You need to install the new version of VMware Tools. Do this before you upgrade the virtual hardware. For details, see Installing VMware Tools.

An error may appear when upgrading from physical disk: If you are upgrading a virtual machine that runs from a physical disk, rather than a virtual disk, you may see the following error message while VMware GSX Server is upgrading the virtual hardware: "Unable to upgrade <drivename>. One of the supplied parameters is invalid." You may safely click OK to continue the upgrade process.

Windows 95 and Windows 98 guests cannot load CD-ROM drivers at first: The first time you run a VMware GSX Server 2 virtual machine under VMware GSX Server 3, the guest operating system discovers new hardware and attempts to install drivers for it before it loads the CD-ROM driver. As a result, it is unable to load drivers from the operating system installation CD. In many cases, the drivers are already available in C:\Windows, C:\Windows\System or subdirectories under those two directories. However, a simpler approach is to skip any files that Windows does not find at this stage. Then, after the guest operating system has finished loading and is able to read from the CD-ROM, you can run the guest operating system's Add Hardware Wizard and allow it to detect new hardware and install the appropriate drivers.

To upgrade the virtual hardware, choose VM > Upgrade Virtual Hardware. A message appears, warning that the upgrade process cannot be reversed. Click Yes to continue, then follow the directions.When you upgrade the virtual hardware, you may then need to take several steps to be sure the new virtual hardware is recognized properly by the guest operating system. If your guest operating system is listed below, the instructions for that guest operating system provide examples of the steps you may need to take to perform these updates.