We are observing the below error in the VMware vSphere when we deploy the OVA on VMware vSphere v6.5, v6.0, and v6.7:

The Guest operating system "CentOS7-64_Guest" not supported

Below is the snippet:

Source of the OVA

• We are following the below steps to create the OVA on VMware vSphere 6.5:
  1. Create a VM with the below configuration:
     • Compatible with: “ESXi 6.0 or later”
     • OS – CentOS v7
  2. Configure IP and Credentials of the VM
  3. Power on the VM to verify the installation
  4. Export OVA file using the below steps:
     1. Power Off the VM.
     2. In Edit Settings of VM,
        1. Select “Client Device” from CD/DVD drive.
        2. uncheck the checkbox: “Connect at power ON” (device status in CD/DVD drive option)
     3. In the vSphere web client, select the virtual machine from the VMs and templates hierarchy, click inventory -> virtual machine -> power -> shut down guest in the menu.
     4. Select the entity from the list of “Hosts and Clusters”, select Template, and click “Export OVF template”.

By performing the above steps we are getting 3 files types of files: ovf, mf, and vmdk.

We are deploying the same three files on the same vCenter using the “Deploy OVF Template” option provided for ESXi hosts and getting the error mentioned above.

What we are trying to achieve

• We want to create an OVA file that is compatible with vSphere v6.0, v6.5, and v6.7. But, this error does not allow the deployed OVA to be consumed.

Troubleshooting till now:

• From one of the answers in the community, the issue was resolved by selecting “ESXi 6.5 and later” in VM Compatibility in VMware vSphere v6.5. Can this be fixed in the creation steps of OVA itself, so that we do not need to do any additional steps after deploying OVA?

Can someone please help us with troubleshooting and resolving this issue?

Thanks in advance!