• What’s new
  • Archive of 2024 What’s New
  • Archive of 2023 What’s New
  • Older What’s New pages
• Getting started
• Creating a Skytap on Azure account
  • Adding a region to a Skytap on Azure account
  • Removing a region from a Skytap on Azure account
• User Guide
• Admin Guide
• Developer tools
  • Getting started with the Skytap dynamic inventory for Ansible
  • Using containers in Skytap
  • Using the Skytap plugin for Jenkins
  • Using PowerShell with Skytap
  • Getting started with Puppet in Skytap
  • Using the Terraform provider
    • Getting started with the Terraform provider
    • Terraform provider reference guide
  • Using the Skytap Automation Pack for IBM UrbanCode Deploy
  • Overview of the Skytap provider for Vagrant
    • Skytap provider for Vagrant installation requirements
    • Skytap provider for Vagrant quick start
    • Modifying Skytap VMs and environments created by Vagrant
    • Troubleshooting the Skytap provider for Vagrant and known issues
    • Creating a Vagrantfile
    • Supported Vagrant commands
  • Using the Skytap automation pack for Visual Studio Team Foundation Server
• REST API
  • API quick start
  • v1 reference
  • v2 reference
  • Example scripts and clients
  • Best practice - Checking for busyness
  • Exporting CSV reports from the API
  • HTTP status codes
  • API troubleshooting
  • Support and terms of use
• Course Manager by Skytap
• FAQs
  • How do I find the VM user name and password?
  • I can’t sign in to my account. How do I reset my password or find my user name?
  • What connection types work between VMs in the same environment?
  • How does Skytap generate the VM DNS name?
  • Why can’t I connect to a published service running on a VM?
  • What IP addresses and port ranges does Skytap use?
  • Can I recover deleted resources?
  • Does Skytap have regular maintenance windows?
  • Does Skytap support load balancing?
  • How do I access the BIOS for a VM?
  • How do I access the System Management Services console for an AIX VM?
  • How do I take a snapshot of an environment?
  • How does Skytap measure storage?
  • Operating systems in Skytap VMs
  • Skytap licensed titles FAQ
  • Why does my Windows VM reboot after I add it to an environment?
  • Why is my operation pending?
• Troubleshooting
  • Skytap error messages
• Glossary
• contact information and SLA

Operating systems in Skytap VMs

Skytap VMs should be able to run all the operating systems listed on this page. Some are no longer supported by the operating system developer. For those operating systems that have reached end of support, Skytap is not able to escalate OS-level issues to the operating system developer.

VM operating systems

Skytap supports FreeBSD, Linux, NetWare, Solaris, VMware, Windows, AIX, and Linux on Power for virtual machines.

See the operating system developer documentation for the most up-to-date product lifecycle information.

The following tables display the operating systems that should be able to run in Skytap VMs, including OS version, VMware hardware version (if applicable), and CPU type.

	Supported	The operating system should run in a Skytap VM. Security patches and other updates are still being developed by the operating system developer. Contact Skytap Support to escalate OS-level issues.
	Permitted but unsuported	The operating system is permitted to run in a Skytap VM, but Skytap is unable to support guest OS issues; no security updates or patches are available. Skytap is not able to escalate OS-level issues to the operating system developer. You can still contact Skytap Support for infrastructure-level issues.
	Unsupported	The operating system is unspported on Skytap infrastructure.

x86 Operating Systems

FreeBSD

Linux

NetWare

Solaris

VMware

Windows

Power Operating Systems

IBM i

AIX

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Power)

SUSE Enterprise Server (Power)

Ubuntu Server (Power)

Operating systems that won’t run in Skytap VMs

There are some operating systems that aren’t able to run in Skytap VMs.

• macOS (OS X) – Skytap can’t support macOS as a guest operating system on any virtual machine, because of Apple’s license agreement and hardware requirements.
• OEM operating systems – OEM versions of operating systems (such as a Dell installation of Windows) generally won’t run on Skytap VMs. OEM operating systems require specific hardware and come pre-loaded with proprietary drivers. You may experience issues if you use a VM conversion tool (such as VMware Converter) to convert a physical machine with an OEM OS to a virtual machine and import it into Skytap. Some users have found workarounds on the Internet to force VMware to load the BIOS of the original OEM machine. These workarounds aren’t supported by VMware or by Skytap. If you attempt to import a VM containing these types of VMX alteration lines, the Skytap VM Import tool removes them.