Unsupported hardware family 'vmx-06'

A customer of mine got an appliance from a software vendor. The appliance was delivered as ZIP file with a VMDK, a MF, and an OVF file. Unfortunately, the appliance was created with VMware Workstation 6.0 with virtual machine hardware version 6, which is incompatible with VMware ESXi (Virtual machine hardware versions). During deployment, my customer got this error:

unsupported hardware family 'vmx-06'

The OVF file includes a line with the VM hardware version.

<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-06</vssd:VirtualSystemType>

If you change this line from vmx-06 to vmx-07, the hash of the OVF changes, and you will get an error during the deployment of the appliance because of the wrong file hash.

Solution

You have to change the SHA256 hash of the OVF, which is included in the MF file.

SHA256(appliance-d9-64-bit.ovf)= 46b84a48a03a8b183ff88168ad43e56bd95ffaa78d0a5a8b2b8cf87e0d45f36a SHA256(appliance-d9-64-bit-file1.iso)= ec78bc48b48d676775b60eda41528ec33c151c2ce7414a12b13d9b73d34de544 SHA256(appliance-d9-64-bit-disk1.vmdk)= 6b4c1bea5706ce554630b5b5407ac31434e4b41a81930e8cc46f36511085fcd9

To create the new SHA256 hash, you can use the PowerShell cmdlet Get-FileHash .

PS C:\Users\p.terlisten\Downloads> Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 .\appliance-d9-64-bit.ovf

Algorithm       Hash                                                                   Path
--------- ---- ----
SHA256          46B84A48A03A8B183FF88168AD43E56BD95FFAA78D0A5A8B2B8CF87E0D45F36A       C:\Users\p.terlisten\Download...

PS C:\Users\p.terlisten\Downloads> Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 .\endos-d9-64-bit.ovf

Algorithm       Hash                                                                   Path
--------- ---- ----
SHA256          C14954237907AB45F75C669B5AD2B0A8159096D8526064AC5646F71066DE5C94       C:\Users\p.terlisten\Download...

Replace the hash and save the MF file. Then re-deploy the appliance.

Andreas Lesslhumer wrote a similar blog post in 2015: “Unsupported hardware family vmx-10” during OVF import