Upgrading virtual machine compatibility

To upgrade virtual machine compatibility, you can use the Set-VM cmdlet that you have seen before in the Modifying the settings of virtual machines section. You have to use the -Version parameter and specify the new compatibility version as a parameter value. At the time of writing this book, the only valid versions are v4, v7, v8, v9, v10, and v11.

New features in virtual machines compatible with version 9 or higher can no longer be edited with the vSphere C# client. Some devices may not appear in the devices list, and the settings of some devices may appear as Restricted. You will have to use the vSphere web client or PowerCLI to edit the configuration for these virtual machines.

The following example will upgrade the VM7 virtual machine to compatibility version 11:

PowerCLI C:\ > Get-VM -Name VM7 | `
>>  Set-VM -Version V11 -Confirm:$false
>>

The output of the preceding command is as follows:

Name                 PowerState Num CPUs...