VMware Compatibility Guide

VMware Compatibility Guide
Name	VMware Compatibility Guide
Developer	VMware, Inc.
Released	2005
Latest release version	v5.x
Platform	Cross-platform
Genre	Hardware compatibility database

VMware Compatibility Guide The VMware Compatibility Guide is an online database maintained by VMware, Inc. that catalogs hardware and software certified to work with VMware products such as ESXi, vSphere, vCenter Server, VMware Workstation, and VMware Fusion. It assists IT professionals, systems architects, and procurement teams from organizations such as Amazon (company), Microsoft, Google LLC, IBM, and Dell Technologies to validate server, storage, network, and driver interoperability. The Guide informs integration decisions for environments running on platforms like Intel‑based servers, AMD processors, and arm-based architectures used by vendors including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco Systems, and Lenovo.

Overview

The Guide serves as a centralized compatibility matrix used by administrators of infrastructures deployed with vSphere, vSAN, and NSX-T Data Center to confirm certified combinations of host hardware, storage arrays, network interface cards, and firmware. It reflects collaboration among vendors such as Broadcom, Intel Corporation, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics, and Western Digital and standards bodies like PCI-SIG and JEDEC. The tool supports decision-making in enterprises, cloud providers like Oracle Corporation and Alibaba Group, and public sector projects that depend on certified interoperability for accreditation and audits tied to frameworks like ISO/IEC 27001.

Supported Products and Hardware

The Guide enumerates compatibility across product lines including vSphere ESXi, vCenter Server, vSAN HCI Mesh, VMware Cloud Foundation, and client products like VMware Workstation Pro. It lists certified server models from Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco UCS, and Lenovo ThinkSystem families, storage arrays from NetApp, Pure Storage, Dell EMC Unity, and Hitachi Vantara, and network adapters from Broadcom Limited and Mellanox Technologies. Supported components cover processors from Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC, RAID controllers from LSI Corporation, and GPU accelerators from NVIDIA Tesla, AMD Radeon Instinct, and specialized accelerators from Xilinx. The Guide also tracks driver and firmware combinations required for certifications supplied by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and partners such as Supermicro and Fujitsu.

Compatibility Criteria and Certification Process

Vendors submit hardware and software configurations for certification under test plans aligned with VMware engineering standards and interoperability requirements. Certification requires passing functional tests for compute, storage, and networking, interoperability checks with vCenter and vMotion, and performance validations similar to workloads used by SAP SE, Oracle Database, and Microsoft SQL Server. The process involves coordination with partner ecosystems including Red Hat, SUSE, and storage vendors like EMC Corporation to verify firmware, driver, and BIOS-level compatibility. Certifications are versioned to reflect product releases from VMware and vendors; test reports and compatibility notes often reference standards from DMTF and SNIA.

Using the Compatibility Guide (Search and Filters)

The Guide’s interface allows filtering by product version, hardware vendor, model, CPU family, and firmware levels, enabling administrators from institutions like NASA and Bank of America to find validated configurations quickly. Searches typically combine filters for vSphere release, server SKU from HPE ProLiant or Dell PowerEdge, and storage array compatibility from NetApp ONTAP or VMware vSAN ReadyNodes. For complex environments integrating GPUs, filters for NVIDIA GRID or NVIDIA vGPU profiles are commonly used alongside network adapter and SR-IOV qualifiers from Mellanox or Intel Ethernet. The Guide also integrates notes about blocked or deprecated combinations during migrations aligned with releases from vSphere 6.7 to later major releases.

Best Practices for Deployment and Updates

Enterprises should consult the Guide before procurement, during patch cycles, and when planning major migrations such as rolling upgrades from vSphere 6.x to vSphere 7.x or higher. Best practices include aligning firmware and driver versions to OEM-recommended combinations found in the Guide, coordinating maintenance windows with change-control processes used by organizations like SAP customers and financial institutions regulated by SEC-type oversight, and validating change impact in test labs using appliances like VMware Horizon and vRealize Suite. Regularly checking the Guide reduces risk during lifecycle management, cloud migrations to providers like AWS and Azure, and when implementing features such as vSphere Distributed Switch or vSAN Stretched Cluster.

History and Version Changes

Since its introduction in the mid-2000s, the Guide evolved from static PDF lists produced by VMware, Inc. partners to an interactive searchable database reflecting modular releases and compatibility across hypervisor, storage, and networking stacks. Major updates coincided with product milestones such as the launch of vSphere 5.0, vSphere 6.0, and the consolidation of cloud-native features introduced with VMware Tanzu. The Guide’s schema has expanded to include certification for accelerators from NVIDIA and arm-based servers from vendors like Ampere Computing, and to address hybrid clouds in collaborations with Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

Category:Virtualization Category:VMware products