"Unable to Obtain Hardware information for the selected machine"

[davidc2013]

Summary:

I am trying to migrate two VMware virtual machines from Linux VMware server 2.01 to a VMware infrastructure install running VMWare ESXi 5.1.0.   When I try and use the Standalone converter to convert the VMware virtual machine to 5.1 I get the error "Unable to Obtain Hardware information for the selected machine".   I have followed the various suggestions on how to deal with this issue and am still Unable to import the machines.

More info:

I have a Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit) server and a  Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (32-bit) server VMWARE virtual Machine image I am trying to migrate.

To do this I shut the machines down and copied the entire machine folder from the Linux server to a Windows 2008 R2 enterprise machine.

I have then run the VMWARE standalone converter (by right clicking on it and running as administrator)

I have gone into "convert machine" and selected "VMware Workstation or other VMware virtual machine"

I have gone and selected the vmx file from the machine I wish to import

Upon selecting "View Source Details" and or "next"  I get that error: "Unable to Obtain Hardware information for the selected machine"

I COULD run the Stand Alone importer on the machines however I would rather use the offline images.  The import process changes all the hardware and the change in hardware means reapplying the windows license keys.  Which means "what else is going on in the important software we use if windows is now thinking the hardware has changed THAT much?"

[bupt_Henry]

I started the Converter process using the local machine, here it is the log.forget the last three.

[patanassov]

Hi

The error is:

Failed to get capacity for \\.\PhysicalDrive0: error opening disk device: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process (32)

Do you have any antivirus or backup/replication services running, or anything else that might get exclusive access to the disks? If so, stop them and try again.

HTH

Plamen

[bupt_Henry]

1,The situation is the server has 2 disk.The system disc C: and the hardware E:.We made the disc mapping on disk E: using storage machine(some equitment like that).Is this will cause the P2V failure？Cause the system disk is local and we've done nothing about that.

2,the physical machine runs windows server 2008 R2 sp1.Is this OK for the P2V？Cause I checked the Converter's realse notes,it shows suppot the Windows 2008 server R2,not sp1.

[patanassov]

1. I didn't get that about E: disk. Is that a separate physical disk or a partition? The message in the log is about PhysicalDrive0 which I guess should include C: as well.

2. SP1 is fine.

[bupt_Henry]

The disk E: is a separate physical disk which is on another storage device.It's a logical disk.Do you mean I have to try to stop services one by one to test which service is the problem……Any other way?Cause the server is running Oracal,VSS,Intpub and so on.Right now I have stop the antivirus sofeware and still can't make it.

[rcporto]

I strictly recommend you disable all non-Microsoft services (except VMware Converter services), reboot the server and try again... if you cannot do this now, try this on non business hours.

This recommendation you can found on VMware KB: Best practices for using and troubleshooting VMware Converter

To disable services, just do the following:

Run the System Configuration Utility(msconfig) on the source server to reduce the number of services and applications running on startup, all software except for All Microsoft Services and VMware Converter Service. For more information, see http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1...Using the Windows System Configuration utility (1004010).

[bupt_Henry]

Thanks for the advice.I will try and give the result to you guys.

[NewVeeEmm]

Hi Guys...

Im having this problem also.

It is a new setup of esxi 5.5 with 5 luns / 1 datastore per lun & vice versa.

Using vSphere Client 5.5 and vCenter Standalone COnverter 5.5.2 Build 1890136.

I have 4 vms, one vm per datastore.  None of the vms are interdependent nor do they share any files between them.

One datastore is empty, and Ive been trying to move a VM from another datastore to this one, to free up the bigger disk for another new vm.

But it is impossible now for me to either copy the vm through the datastore browser, or to access the vms via vcenter converter standalone, to convert it and move it that way.

For the latter, it tells me it is unable to obtain hardware information.  It says this now for all vms in my esxi!

I have tried to create a new admin for the whole esxi but it makes no difference.

When trying to copy and paste, via vsphere client, it attempts the task, then reports errors and halts, the error being unable to access vmdk.

I have the vms split into resource pools, but obviously the admin root user has full access.

I have tried to re-propagate the admin permissions, but no difference after doing this either.

When I try to create a new Administrator User Group, to try to add this / propagate this group to the vm, I receive the following error:

Call "HostLocalAccountManager.CreateGroup" for object "ha-localacctmgr" on ESXi "192.168.2.70" failed

SO then I tried to create a new vm in the empty datastore, and use the old vm disk for it. Once created, I tried to copy and paste the vmdk to the new datastore, with a view to changing the path for the new vm disk.

20% through the 60gb copy, it halts and says:  Error caused by file /vmfs/volumes/_____.vmdk.

All vms were powered off prior to this.  The vm works fine and has no issues when running from the old datastore. No errors or bugs, no performance issues hinting towards any data corruptions.

When trying to download the vmdk to a local folder, it returns an immediate error "failed" with no further explanation.

If this is an error or corruption solely related to this one vm, why does vcenter converter now no longer read the configurations of any of the other vms?

[ivivanov]

This is a generic message which is displayed in most cases when there are source problems. Can you turn worker service logging to 'verbose' (instructions how to do it are available at VMware KB: Increasing the logging levels to verbose for vCenter Converter application components ), *restart the worker service* and provide the worker log with the failure for investigation?

[NewVeeEmm]

Hello and thank you.

Here you go... logs as requested.

I have tried to log in as both the root admin and a local admin with full rights when connecting to server from Converter standalone.. to attempt to rule out any permissions issues

[NewVeeEmm]

Ok, update.

I repaired my local installation of Converter standalone. Then enabled verbose logging again.

I also removed my local windows 7 from my domain (I read somewhere else on the forum that this may contribute to access / permissions issues).

I then attemped to convert the vm again.   This time, Converter could access the machine in order to execute the conversion process.

However, 2% in it failed.  Log attached here. 

[POCEH]

As I see you try to migrate Linux disks with Windows environment - this is not possible, at least the Windows do not understand and respectively can't mount Linux file-systems!

Conversion of Linux goes through different execution path.

[ivivanov]

The actual error in the log that is causing the failure is

2014-08-27T01:27:54.380+01:00 [05216 warning 'Default'] [,0] [NFC ERROR] NFC_CANCELLED
2014-08-27T01:27:54.380+01:00 [05216 warning 'Default'] [,0] [NFC ERROR] Nfc_GetPutFile:  Error inside NfcFile_Stream

Converter is using an internal protocol called NFC to transfer data from and to ESX datastores. This protocol is implemented in a component, that Converter is consuming as a binary. For some reason there is an error in this protocol while transferring the data. From Converter point of view this is a single function call - Nfc_GetPutFile(), which should return when all the data is transferred. Unfortunately there is no logging of the NFC component and we cannot imagine what could have gone wrong.

As a workaround I would suggest to try an older Converter version - 5.1.1 or 5.0.1 - there were some changes in the NFC component so there is a chance the older version (using the older component) to work better.

[ManivelR]

Hi All,

I tried to convert the Windows 2003 server using vCenter converter 5.1.0 but it was not not happened.

I.e tried from both ways(local host and vCenter server).

Solution:-

I uninstalled vCenter converter 5.1.0 and installed the older version on my local host(vCenter converter 5.0.1).Now the P2V works fine without any issues.

Cheers..!!!

Manivel

[Bowman4864]

The issue for me was my antivirus. i was running Avast free antivirus and as soon as i uninstalled it I was able to obtain hardware information and convert the physical machine to virtual.

I hope this helps someone.

[next4ideas]

For me, i just restart Vmware server and works.

[serega170374]

Сlick the right mouse button on the icon -> run as administrator -> run the conversion process

[niloshima]

yeah AV caused this is issue for me. Once AV unloaded all looks good