No, that won't work. You have to work with exactly the same client version as the server version. There's no way (which I know of) around this, this is one of Informatica's base rules.
Upgrades from 10.1 to 10.2 should be straightforward as long as we're only talking about PowerCenter and no other Informatica software (there are several where upgrades can become pretty complicated), but as long as you don't feel comfortable with the infrastructure that's not a really good idea, after all you should perform an upgrade only if you have a fall-back strategy.
To come back to your current issue, two points about it.
The PAM is large, that's true. On the other hand most of the tabs in a PAM don't concern you. You have to look for the following things:
- HW/OS platforms for a particular Informatica version,
- supported infrastructure (meaning DBMS versions and DB clients),
- supported platforms for the client tools.
For the moment you can forget about the rest.
So I ask for your understanding that I won't browse the PAMs of all subsequent versions; this is a daunting task, no question, but first you should find a strategy how to proceed in general in your situation.
If you are fine with upgrading e.g. to 10.2, then set up a migration / upgrade strategy, set up 10.2 in the 2016 VM, upgrade repositories, perform your reconciliation tests, and be happy
If you are not good to go to e.g. 10.2, then this 2016 VM is simply the wrong platform for the client software, and you will have to look for an alternative approach. It's as simple as that.
Regards,
Nico
