“In-place upgrade” here refers to upgrading the guest operating system inside an existing VM (for example, Windows 10 to Windows 11) — not an update to the SC//HyperCore™ HyperVisor software, which is covered under Administration.
Always take a snapshot of the VM before attempting an in-place OS upgrade, so you have a recovery point if anything goes wrong.
Windows 10 to Windows 11
Windows 11 requires a TPM to install and run (see vTPM Support in SC//HyperCore). Before upgrading a Windows 10 VM to Windows 11 in place, confirm the VM’s Boot Type.
If the VM Already Uses a vTPM-Enabled Boot Type
Confirm the VM is using UEFI + vTPM or UEFI + vTPM (Compatibility) — plain UEFI or BIOS is not sufficient for the upgrade. If a vTPM-enabled Boot Type is already in place, the in-place upgrade to Windows 11 should proceed normally.
If the VM Uses BIOS Boot Type
Boot Type can only be set when a VM is created and cannot be edited afterward (see Create a Virtual Machine). A BIOS-based VM must be moved to a vTPM-enabled Boot Type before it can be upgraded to Windows 11 in place:
- Create a new VM configured with the UEFI + vTPM Boot Type to serve as a template.
- Clone the virtual disks from the existing BIOS-based VM and mount them to the new VM. See Live Add, Live Delete, Offline Edit, or Clone Virtual Disks for the disk cloning and mounting steps.
- Boot the new VM into UEFI + vTPM mode, then proceed with the Windows 11 in-place upgrade as described above.
Snapshot the original VM before cloning its disks, and confirm the new VM boots successfully before decommissioning the original.
Windows Server
It is best practice to install the new Windows Server version as a fresh installation rather than performing an in-place upgrade.
If an in-place upgrade must be performed on a UEFI virtual machine that lacks a vTPM, contact Scale Computing Support for assistance.