V2V Conversion and E1000 NIC

[StudioxSWE]

Hi,

We are moving host from one vSphere vCenter to another by doing v2v conversions. However now we have identified an issue.

This is based on our initial checks, this might be incomplete or not accurate.

However what we have seen, after migrating a few VMs is that VXNET 3 adapters stick after moving them to the new vCenter (Windows Server 2003 and 2008 R2 VMs), i.e.. the IP address config stays the same.

E1000 adapters are however identified as new ones, meaning the old one will be hidden and the new one will loose all IP config data.

Does anyone know if this is expected behaviour?

VMWare converter is the latest.

All hosts runs VMWare 5.5 (U2)

vSphere is not on the same release on both sides

VMWare tools might have inconsistency (as its difficult to update VMWare tools on critical VMs) 

[rcporto]

You're changing the virtual hardware version too ? If yes, check if helps: VMware KB: Virtual NIC settings on a Windows guest are lost after a virtual hardware upgrade

[patanassov]

Hi

The wizard gives you the possibility to explicitly set the NIC controller type. The 'auto' option sets a default type based on the GOS type, which in your case is E1000.

HTH,

Plamen

[StudioxSWE]

Yes, the hardware is upgraded during the conversion. I have not found a way in the converter to avoid that. Could very well be the reason. It there a way in converter to avoid upgrades or when the VM starts? As far as I understand downgrade is not the easiest task.

[StudioxSWE]

An update - I have converted a VM, but did not upgrade hardware version (keept it at 9). That did not help, the E1000 adapters where placed on a different position in the PCI bus and showed up as new devices on the server.

[POCEH]

The network is always updated, at least as MAC, during conversion.

HTH

[StudioxSWE]

The mac address should have no impact, or do you have any other information to share?

[POCEH]

The network adapters are recreated during conversion, do you have any other information?

[StudioxSWE]

They do not contain the ethernet1.pciSlotNumber, that makes vmware create the adapter with a new slot number (Specially for E1000 adapters) windows re-create the adapter then as it belongs to a new slot on the PCI bus.

That means we cant really do V2V conversions as we need to re-create the network card settings on most adapters, making the migration somewhat cumbersome.