This appears to be a
forward compatibility issue: you cannot load a model saved with TF 2.2+ using an earlier version of TF. In general, forward compatibility is never guaranteed, but backwards compatibility is.
However you should be able to load earlier models using a more recent TF version.
The fix here should be for you to upgrade the TF version of the VM where you load the model to match or exceed the version number of the VM where you saved the model. (i.e. make sure to use TF 2.2 or TF 2.3).
Please let us know if that works for you.
Best,
Francois