Operating system support for Azure VMware Solution virtual machines

Azure VMware Solution supports a wide range of operating systems to be used in the guest virtual machines. Being based on VMware vSphere, all operating systems currently supported by vSphere can be used by any Azure VMware Solution customer for their workloads.

VMware software versions

The VMware solution software versions used in new deployments of Azure VMware Solution private clouds are:

Software Version Build number
VMware vCenter Server 8.0 U2d 23929136
VMware ESXi 8.0 U2d 24585300
VMware vSAN 8.0 U2 24585300
VMware vSAN Witness 8.0 U2 24585300
VMware vSAN on-disk format 19 N/A
VMware vSAN storage architecture OSA N/A
VMware NSX 4.1.1 22224317
VMware HCX 4.10.1 23857539
VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.8.0.3 23263429
VMware vSphere Replication 8.8.0.3 23166649

If the listed build number does not match the build number listed in the release notes, it will be due to a custom patch applied for cloud providers.

The current running software version is applied to new clusters added to an existing private cloud, if the vCenter Server version supports it.

Check the list of operating systems and configurations supported in the Broadcom Compatibility Guide, create a query for above listed ESXi version and select all operating systems and vendors.

Additionally to the supported operating systems by VMware for vSphere, we worked with Red Hat, SUSE and Canonical to extend the support model currently in place for Azure Virtual Machines to the workloads running on Azure VMware Solution, given that it's a first-party Azure service. You can check the following sites of vendors for more information about the benefits of running their operating system on Azure.