VMware Converter Enterprise and GSX machines with snapshot

[andreaspa]

Hi,

I noticed a funny thing yesterday... When you convert a GSX VM with a snapshot to ESX 3.x with VMware Converter Enterprise, it only imports the VM without the snapshot applied. I noticed this because it broke some of our machines that had AD accounts (Easy to repair tho, just boot the old one up again. Why did someone use undo disks on productions servers? sighs).

Is this a known bug or restriction with VMware Converter? The workarond is easy, just delete the snapshot and you're good to go. Let me know about your experiences and comments about this, I'd really appreciate it!

Regards,

Andreas

[uslacker99]

The way snapshots work is that VMware redirects all I/O to a different vmdk file when you start the snapshot. Hence, you should be cloning the new vmdk file rather than the old one.

[andreaspa]

Hi,

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough. The machine is shut down, and VMware Converter doesn't take the snapshot into consideration when migrating. IMO, there should be some kind of warning or option to merge the snapshot into the new diskfile somehow.

/Andreas

[alcors45]

Now it all makes sense.

I've been trying to use Convertor 3.0.2 to bring a VM from one VMserver to another and get rid of all the Snapshots and stuff (was doing it with the VM shutdown. When I do bring them over I can't login. Yep - all the accounts would have changed their passwords since the VM was originally built and the changes would have in the Snapshots.

Have just used Convertor to import whilst the VM was running and all is beautiful in the worl.

Thanks for that.