V2V Hyper-V to ESXi Converter Stand Alone 4.3 Unable to obtain hardware information

[Gabriel_Chapman]

I'm trying to convert a few large Hyper-V windows 2003 servers into our existing ESXi environment but have not been successful with a few of the machines. I recieve the error "Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine" which is yet another vague and unhelpful error message.

Any ideas?

[continuum]

install Converter 3.0.3 directly in the HyperV VMs.
Than convert "this physical machine"

[Gabriel_Chapman]

Sorry, no dice:

I get to 1% and then error out as failed.

Error: Unknown error returned by VMWare Converter Agent

Converter log:

[2011-06-08 10:56:07.424 'P2V' 4152 error] [task,295] Task failed: P2VError UNKNOWN_METHOD_FAULT(vim.fault.NotFound)

[2011-06-08 10:56:07.424 'P2V' 4152 verbose] [task,339] Transition from InProgress to Failure requested

[2011-06-08 10:56:07.424 'P2V' 4152 verbose] [task,388] Transition succeeded

[2011-06-08 10:56:07.424 'P2V' 4152 verbose] [job,276] Job 2 changing state from 1 to 2

[2011-06-08 10:56:07.424 'P2V' 4152 verbose] [serialization,220] Serializing job 2

[continuum]

today VMware release Converter 5 beta - you may try that one as well.
Make sure you uninstall all agents from earlier tests as well.

If you want to go to plan B see my site http://sanbarrow.com/p2v2008r2.html

there I explain how to use sysinternals disk2vhd to do this task

[Gabriel_Chapman]

yeah I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to copy out the VHD's and work with them. These are pretty large, 150 and 250GB drives on a Hyper-V box. Frankly I it should work, but Converter can be pretty much hit or miss. The vague unhelpful error messages are not very helpful.

[continuum]

I would use Starwind Converter to convert the VHD to VMDK.
Then redefine the vmdk to adapter-type "buslogic" and create a new VM for it.

Then you can do the patching with Converter 3.0.3 "configure machine" option.

If you need help with rewriting the vmdk send a PM and I help via teamviewer

[continuum]

try the new beta 5
I just finshed a 2003 HyperV to ESXi V2V successfully

[Gabriel_Chapman]

went to try and use starwind to convert the VHD's and it balked as well with Error Opening File, my guess is there is something either corrupted or wrong with these virtual machines. Its happening on two different machines.

[continuum]

try Converter 5
I tried a few test cases from HyperV to ESXi and they worked

[Gabriel_Chapman]

converter 5 balked as well, I ended up getting starwinds to work, now I need to figure out the hardware config that will work with the new VM so that it wont bluescreen when it boots. I'm guessing its the controller.

[continuum]

if you get a 7b bluescreen when you start the VM do this:

edit the vmdk - make sure you have

ddb.adapterType = "buslogic"

edit the vmx - make sure you connect the vmdk as
scsi0:0.filename = "my-import.vmdk"

when that is done launch Converter - any version "should" do
start the "configure machine" wizard and point to the new vmx-file

that usually does it

[Gabriel_Chapman]

the vmdk's are actually not there, the flat files are but the associated smaller vmdk files that hold data are not visible through browsing the data store

[continuum]

what ? - you can see *-flat.vmdks in Datastorebrowser ?

The Datastorebrowser has a known bug/feature and does not display vmdk-files correctly - please check with Winscp again or use the web based datastore browser.

If the descriptorfiles are missing ... - that can be fixed

[wdbarker]

Off topic but ... I couldn't figure out how to leave a comment on your http://sanbarrow.com/p2v2008r2.html but there is an oversight that should be corrected. You direct folks to ControlSet001 when that may not be the active key. They must check HKLM/System/Select/Current to find out that the current control set is 1 (or 2 or 3). Probably anyone who knows how to mount an external registry file already knows this, but at 3 in the morning with a dead server, hacking the right tree is going to make a difference!

[mazday]

When importing a Hyper-V virtual machine running on Windows 2008 R2 by  using vCenter Enterprise Converter or Standalone Converter, disable UAC  for the user account that is used to access Hyper-V.

______________________

PS http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200035...

[continuum]

@ wdbarker

you are right - I will correct that

thanks for bringing this to my attention