topic Failed to start the (P2V) VM on ESXi server in ESXi Discussions

Failed to start the (P2V) VM on ESXi server

m4biz — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 16:45:19 GMT

Hi.

1) I've virtualized (P2V) a physical Windows server 2003 machine by means VMWare Converter.

Then I've tried to import it and run in VMWare Workstation12 and all works without issue.

(with exception of this - skippable - error:

2) Than I've changed hardware compatibilty by means VM > Manage:

so that the VM will be compatible wirh my ESXi 5.1 server

3) At this pont I've copied all VM's file to the ESXi 5.1 datastore

4) Then I've tried to start the copied VM on the ESXi 5.1 server but this error (not skippaple) is showed on the screen and I can't start the VM on the ESXi 5.1 server

Any idea?

Thanks in advance

Re: Failed to start the (P2V) VM on ESXi server

continuum — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 00:52:10 GMT

You created the VM with Workstation-compatible VMDKs. ESXi needs a different VMDK-format.
Try to convert the vmdks with vmkfstools -i.
Syntax would look like this:
cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore-name/directory-of-p2v-vm/

vmkfstools -i current.vmdk new.vmdk

Anyway - attach your vmx-file to your next reply.
I would have expected that it first complains about an incompatible vmdk for scsi0:0

Re: Failed to start the (P2V) VM on ESXi server

m4biz — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 13:56:04 GMT

Hi continuum,

Thanks for your reply.

An additional information:

even when I start the P2V machine from inside VMWare Workstation I see a similar message:

But - differently from ESXi server, in this case I can succesfully skip the message and connect to the VM that works without issue.

Attached to this post the requested vmx file

I hope this will be useful