Supported operating systems for Skytap VMs

Skytap supports VMs that run the operating systems listed on this page.

Skytap doesn’t provide support for the operating systems themselves.

Supported VM operating systems

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

FreeBSD

Operating System	CPU Type		HW version
FreeBSD
FreeBSD	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7

Linux

Operating System	CPU Type		HW version
Asianux
Asianux 3	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Asianux 4	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8
Asianux 5		64-bit	11
CentOS
CentOS 4	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
CentOS 5	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
CentOS 6	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8
CentOS 7	32-bit	64-bit	11	10
CentOS 8	32-bit	64-bit	11
Debian GNU/Linux
Debian GNU/Linux 4	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Debian GNU/Linux 5	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Debian GNU/Linux 6	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8
Debian GNU/Linux 7	32-bit	64-bit	11	10
Debian GNU/Linux 8	32-bit	64-bit	11
Oracle Linux
Oracle Linux 4	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Oracle Linux 5	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Oracle Linux 6	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Oracle Linux 7		64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1			11	10	9	8	7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7	32-bit		10	9
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7		64-bit	11	10	9
SUSE Enterprise Linux
SUSE Enterprise Linux 8	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
SUSE Enterprise Linux 9	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
SUSE Enterprise Linux 10	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
SUSE Enterprise Linux 11	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
SUSE Enterprise Linux 12	32-bit			10	9
SUSE Enterprise Linux 12		64-bit	11	10	9
Ubuntu Linux
Ubuntu Linux	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7

NetWare

Operating System	HW version
NetWare
NetWare 5.1	11	10	9	8	7
NetWare 6.x	11	10	9	8	7

Solaris

Operating System	CPU Type		HW version
Sun Microsystems Solaris
Sun Microsystems Solaris 8			11	10	9	8	7
Sun Microsystems Solaris 9			11	10	9	8	7
Oracle Solaris
Oracle Solaris 10	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Oracle Solaris 11		64-bit	11	10	9	8

VMware

Operating System	HW version
VMware
ESX 4.x	11	10	9	8
ESXi 5.x	11	10	9	8
ESXi 6	11
ESXi 6.5	11

Windows

Operating System	CPU Type		HW version
Windows Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server	32-bit		11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Small Business Server 2003	32-bit		11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows Server 2003	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Data Center	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Web Edition	32-bit		11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows Server 2008	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2		64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows Server 2012		64-bit	11	10	9	8
Microsoft Windows Server 2016		64-bit	11	10
Microsoft Windows Server 2019		64-bit	11	10
Microsoft Windows Server 2022		64-bit	11	10
Windows Desktop
Microsoft Windows 2000	32-bit		11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional	32-bit		11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows XP Professional	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows Vista	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows 7	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8	7
Microsoft Windows 8	32-bit	64-bit	11	10	9	8
Microsoft Windows 10	32-bit	64-bit	11	10

Skytap doesn't provide Windows desktop templates.

IBM i

Operating System
IBM i
V7R2M0 (IBM i 7.2)
V7R3M0 (IBM i 7.3)
V7R4M0 (IBM i 7.4)
V7R5M0 (IBM i 7.5)

AIX

Operating System
AIX
6100-08 (AIX 6.1 TL8)	7100-02 (AIX 7.1 TL2)	7200-00 (AIX 7.2 TL0)	7300-00 (AIX 7.3 TL0)
6100-09 (AIX 6.1 TL9)	7100-03 (AIX 7.1 TL3	7200-01 (AIX 7.2 TL1)
	7100-04 (AIX 7.1 TL4)	7200-02 (AIX 7.2 TL2)
	7100-05 (AIX 7.1 TL5)	7200-03 (AIX 7.2 TL3)
		7200-04 (AIX 7.2 TL4)
		7200-05 (AIX 7.2 TL5)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Power)

Operating System
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Power)
6.5	7.0	8
6.6	7.1	8.1
6.7	7.2	8.2
6.8	7.3	8.3
6.9	7.4	8.4
6.10	7.5
	7.6
	7.7
	7.8
	7.9

SUSE Enterprise Server (Power)

Operating System
SUSE Enterprise Server (Power)
11.3	12.3	15
11.4	12.4	15.1
	12.5	15.2
		15.3

Ubuntu Server (Power)

Operating System
Ubuntu Server (Power)
14.04.4	15.04	16.04	17.04	18.04	19.04	20.04	21.04
14.04.5	15.10	16.04.1	17.10	18.04.1	19.10	20.04.1	21.10
14.04.6		16.04.2		18.04.2		20.04.2
14.10		16.04.3		18.04.3		20.04.3
		16.04.4		18.04.4		20.10
		16.04.5		18.04.5
		16.04.6		18.04.6
		16.04.7		18.10
		16.10

Notes

Skytap provides some VMs with pre-installed operating systems in the public template library. Skytap also provides blank public templates for Windows, Linux, and AIX that help you install custom Windows versions and Linux distributions. To bring your own licensed x86 or Power VMs into Skytap, see our import tools.
Licensing for AIX is included with your Skytap subscription. For other OS license requirements, see Licensing the guest OS.

Unsupported VM operating systems

There are some operating systems that Skytap is unable to support:

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

Skytap doesn’t support OEM versions of operating systems (such as a Dell installation of Windows). 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.