Unable to obtain hardware information

[GREnvoy]

I'm trying to convert a number of VMs from ESX to ESXi. I get the error message "Unable to obtain hardware information for the sleected machine."

I've read a few threads here, but so far nothing I have tried helps. I have tried pointing directly at the machine hosting, at the vCenter machine. Sometimes it works one way or another, but when it does work it seems to always pick a different VM and convert that. So say I'm trying to convert VM B, I go through all the steps and then it converts VM A. So then I try VM C, same thing it converts VM A.

I've attached the Converter Logs. I'm not really sure what I should be looking at with them.

[Troy_Clavell]

what is the OS you are trying to convert? Have you tried the latest VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3

[GREnvoy]

I believe that all the VMs I'm having problems with are Server 2008 R2

I am using version 4.3 build-292238

[Troy_Clavell]

I should have looked into the logs before posting, as I found you are using the most current version. The VM(s) in question, if you edit settings and go to the options tab--Guest OS. The Version listed is W2K8 R2? If not, change it to R2. Also, you can try changing it to just W2K8, and then if the conversion works, change the OS back to R2 post conversion.

[GREnvoy]

I've changed that around to 2008 64 bit, to 2003 64 bit, but nothing really seems to work.

[GREnvoy]

And like I said, I can play around and get it to start converting, but the ones that have this problem seem to convert as the wrong machine. On the Inventory list on the destination it says the correct VM, but the converter shows the wrong VM. When I start up the VM on the dest it is indeed the wrong VM.

[GREnvoy]

And when you say to switch to Windows 7, I just simply use vSphere to do this in the edit configuration and say Ok? Anything else special to be done?

[admin]

Hi GREnvoy,

I think that this is exactly what Troy meant in his reply.

But I want to ask you about these ESX VMs you're trying to convert.

Are they on the same ESX datastore and are you sure they are all ok - can you try to perform a P2V of one of these problematic VMs to the desired destination host?

What versions are the source and destination ESX servers?

[GREnvoy]

After a lot of trial and error I was finally able to convert my VMs.

I had to revert back to Converter 4.0.1 build-161434. Then when I changed the Guest OS to Server 2008 64-bit it worked and converted the proper machine.

No matter what I did with Converter 4.3.0 build-292238 I could never get it to convert without converting the wrong VM.

I was converting from ESX 4.0.0, 208167 cluster to ESXi 4.1.0, 260247. I assume it's obvious, but they were completely different machines and datastores.

[admin]

One more thing - can you enable Converter verbose log level, reproduce the problem and attach the logs again?

You can set this log level by editing converter-server and converter-worker xml files:

1. Open the xml file and find this tag:

<log>

<name>vmware-converter-server</name>

<level>info</level>

</log>

2. Change info to verbose

3. Save the file and restart Converter services