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hannan54
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Hidden NIC problems.

All,

What was done :

P2V migration into ESX 3.0.1 (using VC 2.x). The old physical server was running Windows server 2000. It was upgraded to Server 20003 R2 SP2.

I've searched the forum and I found the below info. I've gone through the steps and I don't see the old Broadcom NIC's.

I'm still getting the "The IP address x.x.x.x you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter."

The only way I could get rid of this was to go through the registry and remove all entries of the old IP. I'm not sure if I'm going to run into problems as a result though. These servers aren't in production yet.

\----


After a physical conversation a number of “stale devices” will exist in the new virtual machine. These are hardware devices which are no longer required.

Windows 2000 & 2003

To identify which devices are no longer physically installed on your virtual machine, use the Microsoft environment variable devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices. This is explained in the Microsoft article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539

1. From the command prompt, type:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices = 1

2. Start the search. Type:

start devmgmt.msc

3. From the Device Manager, list the devices.

Select: View > Show hidden devices.

4. Deinstall the listed devices:

Select the device and uninstall it from the Device Manager.

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esiebert7625
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Make sure you type devmgmt.msc in the same command window that you typed set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1. If you type it using the Run command it will not work. The Set command is only effective in the one cmd window you opened, it will not be set in any additional cmd windows you open. Also having a space in devices = 1 may not work.

What should I do after I successfully convert my virtual machine?

If you change from a multi-processor system to a uni-processor system you need to manually change the HAL on the Windows server after the conversion. To do this go into Device Manager after the machine first boots and discovers it's new hardware and then click on Computer then right-click on the processor and select Update Driver. Then select Install from specific location and then Don't search I will choose the driver to install. Then select show All compatible hardware and select the appropriate processor. For example, if you went from a dual cpu to a single cpu then select ACPI uni-processor PC instead of ACPI multi-processor PC. You will need to reboot once you change this. To verify what HAL you are using you right-click your hal.dll in c:\windows\system32 and select the Version tab and select Internal Name and it should say halmacpi.dll for multi-processor acpi and halacpi.dll for uni-processor acpi. Next clean up all the non-present hardware after the P2V conversion. To do this go to a CMD prompt and type SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 and then DEVMGMT.MSC and then select Show Hidden Devices. Delete any old grayed out hardware. Next remove any vendor specific applications/drivers. For example on a HP server you should go to Add/Remove programs and remove any HP management agents, survey utility, array config utility, version control agent, etc. Also check your NIC and make sure there are no vendor specific drivers there (ie. teaming). Check the Services to see if all there is anything vendor specific related there and disable any services that are.

Fyi…if you find this post helpful, please award points using the Helpful/Correct buttons.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Thanks, Eric

Visit my website: http://vmware-land.com

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Message was edited by:

esiebert7625

View solution in original post

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esiebert7625
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Make sure you type devmgmt.msc in the same command window that you typed set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1. If you type it using the Run command it will not work. The Set command is only effective in the one cmd window you opened, it will not be set in any additional cmd windows you open. Also having a space in devices = 1 may not work.

What should I do after I successfully convert my virtual machine?

If you change from a multi-processor system to a uni-processor system you need to manually change the HAL on the Windows server after the conversion. To do this go into Device Manager after the machine first boots and discovers it's new hardware and then click on Computer then right-click on the processor and select Update Driver. Then select Install from specific location and then Don't search I will choose the driver to install. Then select show All compatible hardware and select the appropriate processor. For example, if you went from a dual cpu to a single cpu then select ACPI uni-processor PC instead of ACPI multi-processor PC. You will need to reboot once you change this. To verify what HAL you are using you right-click your hal.dll in c:\windows\system32 and select the Version tab and select Internal Name and it should say halmacpi.dll for multi-processor acpi and halacpi.dll for uni-processor acpi. Next clean up all the non-present hardware after the P2V conversion. To do this go to a CMD prompt and type SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 and then DEVMGMT.MSC and then select Show Hidden Devices. Delete any old grayed out hardware. Next remove any vendor specific applications/drivers. For example on a HP server you should go to Add/Remove programs and remove any HP management agents, survey utility, array config utility, version control agent, etc. Also check your NIC and make sure there are no vendor specific drivers there (ie. teaming). Check the Services to see if all there is anything vendor specific related there and disable any services that are.

Fyi…if you find this post helpful, please award points using the Helpful/Correct buttons.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Thanks, Eric

Visit my website: http://vmware-land.com

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Message was edited by:

esiebert7625

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hannan54
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Oh geez, I feel like a dumba** now. Running it from the cmd windows works. I'll award points and mark it as answered.

Thanks!

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esiebert7625
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No problem, trust me you're not the only one to do that!

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Steven_duckaert
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Great tip ! Saved us a lot of time.

Cheers

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