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BlackHawk-VM
Contributor
Contributor

Converter 3.03 Works w/ESX Host but not Virtual Center

We have an issue where a conversion fails if we point it to the VC but works fine if pointed directly to an ESX host. The failure gets to about 2% then fails on a "cannot find file ..." error.

VC 2.5, ESC 3.5, Converter 3.03.

Thanks for any assistance you may be able to provide.

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IamTHEvilONE
Immortal
Immortal

can you attach an example log from a failure when sending to VirtualCenter? A hunch would be to check for proper name resolution to and from all computers involved, but a log file would be better to diagnose from.

take a look at this is a generic guide and all may not apply - for instance if you are not using VirtualCenter, there is no need to test the connection between ESX and VC.

Check basic network

  • ping from source system to VC host

  • ping from VC to ESX target system

  • ping from source system to ESX target system

  • ping from ESX target system to VC host

  • ping from ESX target to source system

Check the port usage (use telnet to verify)

  • Converter application to remote physical machine - 445 and 139

  • Converter application to VirtualCenter Server - 443

  • Converter application to ESX Server 3.x - 443

  • Physical machine to VirtualCenter Server - 443

  • Physical machine to ESX Server 3.x - 443 and 902

      • If you are using Converter 3.0.x, make sure you do not have a web server using port 443 while running Converter

Check credentials and privileges

  • Ensure that each username can login to all systems (you may want to create one admin account on all systems to simply the testing)

  • Ensure the user has permission to create a VM on the target system

  • Ensure the user has access to LUNs on the target system

  • Ensure the user has write privilege on target system storage devices

  • Verify that the user can create a new VM on each target system from VirtualCenter

Your Virtual Centcer user (if applicable) needs the following privileges:

  • Allow ReadOnly

  • Disk Access

  • Allow Virtual

  • Machine Files

  • Download

  • Inventory of VMs

Verify space requirements

  • Check available file space on all systems (Depending on your method you will either need space equal to the selected drive or to the space used on the source drive.)

  • Verify that the Target VMname does not exist on target system

  • Optionally, turn firewall off on 3.0.x ESX servers

Source: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/VMware_Converter_manual303.pdf

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BlackHawk-VM
Contributor
Contributor

We didn't grab the logs prior to redoing the conversion pointing at the ESX host. I do remember an error about 902 but the VC is listening on UDP 902.

We were using IPs, not names, to avoid name resolution issues.

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theanykey
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

I believe its TCP and UDP.

We have an issue where a conversion fails if we point it to the VC but works fine if pointed directly to an ESX host. The failure gets to about 2% then fails on a "cannot find file ..." error.

Sounds like a DNS issue. If you point to VC by IP, VC will still negotiate with ESX by hostname as designed. Either fix the host files or point to ESX directly by IP (avoid VC).

IamTHEvilONE
Immortal
Immortal

even if you point to VC by IP, I think it attempts to resolve the ESX by host name.

BlackHawk-VM
Contributor
Contributor

VC has no issues resolving the ESX names.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that ICMP is disabled on the firewall?

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BlackHawk-VM
Contributor
Contributor

Re-did the test...

The converter gives this:

01:21:09 PM Step 1 : Connecting to VMware Converter Agent on SERVER01

01:21:09 PM Step 2 : Creating target virtual machine and converting data

01:21:15 PM Configuring parameters for the target virtual machine...

01:21:19 PM WARNING: Dropping extra floppies

01:21:19 PM WARNING: Dropping extra parallel ports

01:21:19 PM Creating target virtual machine...

01:21:38 PM ERROR: Unable to open file %s

So I checked the log this time...

NfcNewAuthdConnectionEx: Failed to connect to peer. Error: Host address lookup for server ESX002 failed: The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested type was found

NBD_ClientOpen: Couldn't connect to ESX:902 Host address lookup for server ESX failed: The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested type was found

So I guess VC passes the ESX host by name and that is the issue. So it was the physical machine's HOSTS file that needed to be updated.

OK... now that we know that we'll add the VC and ESX servers into DNS and that should resolve our issue correct?

Thanks for the help.

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dconvery
Champion
Champion

I may be stating the obvious here...did you license converter properly or are you running it from the VI3 console? Another thing you can try if "pulling" the P2V does not work is install Converter on the source and 'push" it in.

Dave Convery, VCDX-DCV #20 ** http://www.tech-tap.com ** http://twitter.com/dconvery ** "Careful. We don't want to learn from this." -Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"
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theanykey
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Can you attach the entire log.

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BlackHawk-VM
Contributor
Contributor

"even if you point to VC by IP, I think it attempts to resolve the ESX by host name"

-- IamTHEvilONE

You nailed it on that.

Despite all the IP info being used in the wizard, when the actual communication came it sent the physical machine the ESX host's name, not IP.

Dropped a quick hosts entry on the physical machine and all is well.

Thanks

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IamTHEvilONE
Immortal
Immortal

:smileycool: Sweet!

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