Snapshot creation fails

[ben_jam_bell]

Hi All

Seems that a number of people are posting problems where converter returns an 'unknown error', I get the same, but when reading the logs get the following information.

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 error] \[pluginWin32,34] Error 2147754767 creating snapshot.

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 warning] \[snapshotVolumeFactory,120] Shapshot creation failed. driver=vss

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 verbose] \[snapshotVolumeFactory,149] Creating snapshot using vsnap

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 verbose] \[snapshotVolumeVSNAPWin32,124] Vsnap does not have admin rights

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 verbose] \[snapshotVolumeVSNAPWin32,127] Snapshotting
?\Volume\{e2973b79-eb8e-11d8-a574-806e6f6e6963} using stcbasic.sys

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 error] \[snapshotVolumeVSNAPWin32,137] stcbasic.sys not installed or snapshot creation failed. err=2

Does anyone know why snapshotting may fail? Logged into the server as server admin, no problems with ports or DNS, and have tried change the disk size as a previous post suggested this would force it to use a copy rather than a snapshot.... still fails. Takes about 23 seconds to fail.

Even though we have VirtualCenter and VI3 enterprise, we don't have a support agreement with VMware and as such not able to obtain Converter Enterprise, only starter.

Cheers

Ben

[continuum]

Try

net start vss

before you try again

[BrianBlack]

I am having this exact problem. I have 6 Physical servers that are ALL identical. 5 of the 6 converted wonderfully, but the remaining server refuses to convert. These are Win2K Server SP4, so there isn't a VSS Service. I checked the servers that converted successfully and they did not have the VSS Service either.

I've tried both a manual and remote agent install. I've renamed the destination VM. I've changed the disk sizes when converting. (These are all suggestions that I have found in the forums as possible fixes to other conversion issues.) None of these have helped.

Here is the error reported in my log file:

\[#2] \[2007-02-06 11:10:39.719 'App' 1712 verbose] \[snapshotVolumeFactory,149] Creating snapshot using vss

\[#2] \[2007-02-06 11:10:39.719 'App' 1712 warning] \[snapshotVolumeFactory,120] Shapshot creation failed. driver=vss

\[#2] \[2007-02-06 11:10:39.719 'App' 1712 verbose] \[snapshotVolumeFactory,149] Creating snapshot using vsnap

\[#2] \[2007-02-06 11:10:39.729 'App' 1712 verbose] \[snapshotVolumeVSNAPWin32,124] Vsnap does not have admin rights

\[#2] \[2007-02-06 11:10:39.729 'App' 1712 verbose] \[snapshotVolumeVSNAPWin32,127] Snapshotting
?\Volume\{5fb6f9e0-b5e6-11db-8b62-806d6172696f} using stcbasic.sys

\[#2] \[2007-02-06 11:10:39.749 'App' 1712 error] \[snapshotVolumeVSNAPWin32,137] stcbasic.sys not installed or snapshot creation failed. err=2

Message was edited by:

BrianBlack

Forgot to mention I am using VMWare Converter 3.0 Enterprise.

[admin]

VSS is only used for WinXP and Win2K3 machines since it is built-into the OS. For W2K and NT a non-VSS agent and service is installed which requires a reboot. Make sure that the agent installs properly.

[ben_jam_bell]

Hi, some further info and questions regarding the problem. Firstly the machine is a Windows 2003 Ent server, so based on the above assume that it will need to use vss.

Have checked that VSS is starting, auto, started etc, no change in status of the problem.

The server has been restarted a couple of time after converter installation, as is non production system which I am just testing converter on prior to any real work.

Converter worked fine copying my XP workstation.

Am suspecting that it will be just something installed upon the server stopping this? As do not see any other reason for people reporting 5 out of 6 working okay, and then one not working... but it would great to know what it could be. I have tried stopping anything from running which may not be needed, such as AV etc and has previously caused problems with snap shot software, but this has not resolved it either.

Below are some more error messages from the log, does the window one matter? As is near the start of the log, appears to continue on with the cloning for sometime after this error message.

\[volumeMappingInfoBuilder,178] Failed to get Windows unique ID

I would like to know what stcbasic.sys is, as the file does not exist on the machine, nor does goggle turn up anytthing on it...

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 error] \[pluginWin32,34] Error 2147754767 creating snapshot.

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 warning] \[snapshotVolumeFactory,120] Shapshot creation failed. driver=vss

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 verbose] \[snapshotVolumeFactory,149] Creating snapshot using vsnap

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 verbose] \[snapshotVolumeVSNAPWin32,124] Vsnap does not have admin rights

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 verbose] \[snapshotVolumeVSNAPWin32,127] Snapshotting
?\Volume\{e2973b79-eb8e-11d8-a574-806e6f6e6963} using stcbasic.sys

\[#11] \[2007-02-06 10:49:14.928 'App' 3292 error] \[snapshotVolumeVSNAPWin32,137] stcbasic.sys not installed or snapshot creation failed. err=2

Cheers

Ben

[BrianBlack]

Looks like I may have resolved my issue...

I confirmed that the VMWare Converter Service was installed and running on the source server. I uninstalled the agent, rebooted, reinstalled the agent and rebooted again. I restarted the VMWare Converter Service on the VMware Converter Manager server. Finally, I deleted the previous "Import Machine" task that I had created and created a new task. ( I had simply been re-running this task on each attempt to convert the server.)

Previously, the task went from 1% to 5% to 97% very quickly before indicating that the task had failed. I am now 15 minutes (about 75%) into the conversion process and it certainly looks promising...the progress bar is moving along as it did with the previous conversions.

I don't know if this will help anyone else, but it seemed to fix the issue I was having.

Message was edited by:

BrianBlack

Just a quick follow-up to confirm that the task did complete successfully.

[teamloser]

I did the uninstall - reinstall - seems to be working so far.....

[ben_jam_bell]

I continue to have the same problem after doing the above, I still think this must be related to the some issue of the physical machine either software or hardware, as only this can explan why it will work on one system and not another.

[jpcartal]

I had the same issue and finally solved it.

The machine I was trying to convert was running XP SP2 on a single FAT32 partition and this is where the problem comes from since VSS can't work without a NTFS partition.

The solution I found is to plug a NTFS formated USB drive on the source machine.

[wino]

Hi all,

I have the same problem.

I run the VMware Converter 3.0 Starter in a VMware session.

My source system is a W2K machine.

What I know is the XP and W2K3 has a build in VSS service.

And W2k has not this service, so there is a 3rd party product called VSNAP from Storagecraft and it seems that VMware is using this one.

BenJamBell: not clear why you get this message on your W2k3 system, normally this should work with vss and not using vsnap.

How can I see that the vmware converter agent is installed and active on my physical machine? I had the impression, that it was not started after the reboot (via the converter console). The Console says like "...waiting for agent..." and this more or less for ever.

[Clayton_J]

Hi All,

I was running into the same problem and after troubleshooting for a few days and reading all I could, was able to convert my W2K Advanced Server to a Virtual Machine. The steps I made were:

1. Uninstall Converter

2. Reboot

3. Reinstall Converter

4. (unrelated?) Clustered my 2 ESX Servers in VI3

5. (unrelated?) synched the time on my 2 ESX Servers by pointing them to an NTP

6. Ran Converter from the Server using Terminal Services

Synching the time and clustering the two hosts resolved a plethora of issues (Proper Performance Display, VMotion, & Converter) and that was the only change aside from the reinstallation of converter.

[magnusvr]

Howdy,

I was having the same problem when P2V:ing an old Nt4-machine. It went to 2% then said it couldn't make a snapshot. Solved it. It was the .2 that did the trick for me, I think.

1. Uninstalled agent from Nt4. Rebooted.

2. Ran the Convertor from another machine than before. Worked.

/Magnus

[benG00]

I have run into the same issue. Attempting to move a Virtual Machne from VMWare Server to ESXi 3.5

The VM was Windows 2000 Advanced Server

Followed examples above including uninstalling the converter, rebooting and reinstalling. This did not help.

Finally got it working after moving the snapshot folder to a different drive.

Hope this helps

Ben Gasser

[BertVanRossen]

Hi Ben,

How did you move the snapshot folder ?

Kind regards,

Bert

[radio_müsli]

solved it by running checkdisk: chkdsk c: /f

[buytech]

chkdsk c: /f /r, then regsvr32 /i c:\windows\system32\swprv.dll and restarted vss services worked for me. Urgh!!

[Nummagumma2]

Identical errors, very different root cause for mine. VSS would not start on the client at all. Turned out to be related to COM+ corruption. Took a lot of hacking to fix. See this link for the steps