I having an issue when i move the VM from ESXi 6.0 back to ESXi 5.5. The VM show invalid. As per checking, i notice that the VM is running on hardware version 11 which is non supported at ESXi 5.5.

To fix this issue, i have to downgrade the VM Hardware version.

The are 2 option to downgrade the VM Hardware version.

First option is to convert the VM with VMware vCenter Conveter to downgrade the VM’s hardware version.

Second option is make a modification to the VM’s VMX file.

Below are the steps:

i. Login to vSphere Web Client, remove the VM from inventory by right-clicking on it and selecting Remove from Inventory

ii. Change to Datastore Browser view after you determine on which datastore – use the Summary tab – the VM’s disks reside.

iii. Open the VM’s folder and highlight the VMX file. Download the file by clicking on the Download icon. Rename the VMX file in case you need to revert back.

iv. Edit the downloaded VMX file with text editor software such as Notepad++. Find the line with the virtualHW.version value and change it accordingly.

vi. Go to Datastore Brower, upload the modified VMX file by clicking on the Upload button. After uploading it, right-click on it and select Register VM. Provide the info requested by the Register Virtual Machine wizard and you’re done.