VMware ESXi vSphere Support and Compatibility Matrix for SIMATIC PCS 7 V9.0

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5 is not supported for SIMATIC PCS 7 V9.0. According to official Siemens virtualization guidelines and the Siemens Compatibility Tool, PCS 7 V9.0 requires VMware vSphere ESXi V6.0 or ESXi V6.5. Legacy vSphere 5.5 reached End of General Support and cannot properly host the certified guest operating systems for PCS 7 V9.0 (Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB and Windows Server 2016). Deploying PCS 7 V9.0 in virtualized production environments requires updating the hypervisor host to ESXi 6.0/6.5, configuring dedicated virtual switches for Plant and Terminal buses, and provisioning an external hardware NTP master for microsecond time synchronization.

VMware Hypervisor Support Matrix for PCS 7

Siemens certifies specific VMware vSphere hypervisor versions for SIMATIC PCS 7 to ensure deterministic real-time communication, driver compatibility, and operating system virtualization stability. The hypervisor release must align with both the PCS 7 system version and the Microsoft Windows guest operating system.

The following table details official VMware ESXi compatibility across modern PCS 7 releases:

SIMATIC PCS 7 ReleaseCertified Guest Operating SystemsSupported VMware ESXi Hypervisor VersionsCompatibility StatusPCS 7 V8.1Windows 7 SP1 (64-bit), Server 2008 R2 SP1VMware ESXi V5.5, V6.0Supported (Legacy)PCS 7 V8.2Windows 7 SP1 (64-bit), Server 2008 R2 SP1VMware ESXi V6.0, V6.5Supported (Legacy)PCS 7 V9.0Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB, Server 2016VMware ESXi V6.0, V6.5Fully CertifiedPCS 7 V9.0 SP1Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB, Server 2016VMware ESXi V6.5 (Update 1/2)Fully CertifiedPCS 7 V9.1Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC, Server 2019VMware ESXi V6.7, V7.0Fully Certified

Why VMware vSphere 5.5 Is Incompatible with PCS 7 V9.0

Attempting to host PCS 7 V9.0 virtual machines on VMware ESXi 5.5 introduces severe technical barriers:

Guest OS Incompatibility: ESXi 5.5 lacks native virtual hardware drivers (VMXNET3, virtual storage controllers) and VMware Tools support for Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB, leading to blue screens or dropped network packets.
Security Vulnerabilities: VMware officially discontinued general support for vSphere 5.5 in September 2018; no further security patches or hypervisor hotfixes are released.
Siemens Support Disclaimer: Siemens Customer Support will reject incident diagnostics for virtualized systems hosted on unapproved hypervisor releases.

Virtualization Guidelines and Architecture Sizing

When deploying PCS 7 V9.0 on certified VMware ESXi 6.5 hosts, follow these mandatory design criteria:

Mandatory Virtualization Rules

Dedicated Network Switches (vSwitch): Configure physically separated virtual switches for the Plant Bus (Industrial Ethernet to controllers) and Terminal Bus (server-to-client communication). Never route plant bus traffic through shared corporate VLANs.
Resource Reservation: Pre-allocate 100% of CPU and RAM resources for OS Server and Process Historian VMs (zero memory overcommit).
External Time Synchronization: Never use VMware Tools host-to-guest time synchronization! All VMs and AS controllers must synchronize via NTP from an external physical time server (e.g., SICLOCK TC 100/400 or Hirschmann GPS master).
CP 1623 Support: For high-capacity communications, utilize VMDirectPath I/O (PCI passthrough) to assign physical CP 1623 cards directly to virtual OS Servers.

Verification

To verify compliance of a virtualized PCS 7 V9.0 host environment:

Log into the VMware vSphere Client / ESXi Host Client: verify that host build indicates ESXi 6.0.0 or 6.5.0 (Build >= 5969303).
In VM settings, verify Virtual Hardware version is at least Hardware Version 11 or 13.
Confirm VMware Tools status is Current within all guest VMs.
Check time synchronization settings: confirm that 'Synchronize guest time with host' is disabled in VM Options.
Open SIMATIC Assessment Suite (SAS-DC) within the VM: verify that virtualization tests pass without configuration warnings.

Limitations and Operational Precautions

Operational boundaries when virtualizing PCS 7:

Redundant Server Placement: Redundant OS Servers (Server 1 and Server 2) must reside on separate physical ESXi hosts to prevent a single hardware failure from collapsing the entire automation supervisory tier.
Real-Time Controller Emulation: Software controllers or PLCSIM instances running inside VMs cannot achieve deterministic hard real-time cycle times required for high-speed machine control.
Licensing Compliance: Virtualizing Windows Server and WinCC OS nodes requires appropriate Microsoft Virtualization and Siemens PCS 7 Runtime software licensing per virtual instance.

Engineer FAQ

Can VMware ESXi 5.5 be upgraded to ESXi 6.5 on existing industrial servers?

Yes, provided the server hardware (CPU generation, RAID controller, network cards) is listed on the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide (HCL) for ESXi 6.5.

Why must VMware Tools time synchronization be disabled in PCS 7 VMs?

VMware Tools periodically forces step time adjustments that cause backward time jumps, which corrupt WinCC alarm logging and tag logging SQL timestamps. External NTP synchronization provides smooth frequency tracking.

Is Microsoft Hyper-V supported for PCS 7 V9.0?

Microsoft Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016 is supported for selected PCS 7 roles (OS Clients, Web Navigator, BATCH), but VMware vSphere remains the primary certified enterprise hypervisor for redundant OS Servers.