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gamania
Contributor
Contributor

VMware converter 5.0 will crash when using vCenter 5.1 as destination

converter 5.0 will crash when vcenter is upgraded to 5.1. Does anybody know any temp work around or fix? thanks

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arnaudov
Community Manager
Community Manager

I would like to thank everyone for your patience and for suggesting the various possible workarounds!

We have a Converter version which is capable of converting from\to vSphere 5.1 and we're releasing it later this week as "Converter Standalone 5.0.1".

I'm looking forward to hear your feedback about the 5.0.1 release.

-- Antoan Arnaudov

Product Manager @ VMware

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silus
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Can you provide any assurances that future versions of vsphere and converter will be tested together and both released in the same time? In order to not screw over your existing and potential customer base.

Making those who go and sell and install your products to customers look like idiots because vmware haven't done their job will not win you repeat business.

Are you able to shed any light on what actually went wrong? It's been mentioned that v5.0 was shipped just shortly before vsphere 5.1 (surely given the close time frame it could have been tested with 5.1 internally?), but Was this problem simply missed by QA? Did QA identify the issue but VMware deemed it a good idea to ship without a working converter tool, thus making 5.1 useless to huge portions of potential customer base?  What led to Vmware screwing up so badly and what steps will be taken to ensure it doesn't happen next time?

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arnaudov
Community Manager
Community Manager

vSphere is a live product which evolves every year so we can’t guarantee that “Converter Standalone 5.0.1” will be compatible with the future vSphere releases but we’re already testing against the upcoming vSphere codebase and we’ll make sure that there is a version of Converter which is compatible with it.

-- Antoan Arnaudov

Product Manager @ VMware

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silus
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It is a given that vsphere changes every year but surely as part of the releases if a new version of vsphere breaks compatibility it should be caught in QA and a new converter released at the same time? It is a very major tool.

Perhaps this a reason to bring back the integrated converter, that way there will be no choice but to have a working version with each release Smiley Happy

Anyway, very pleased 5.0.1 will be released imminently.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

> Perhaps this a reason to bring back the integrated converter, that way  there will be no choice but to have a working version with each release

Oh no - please dont bring that up.
It is a great progress not to have several versions - all of them outdated - integrated into all the different products


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Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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ivivanov
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Oh no - please dont bring that up.
It is a great progress not to have several versions - all of them outdated - integrated into all the different products

We won't :-). Nobody wants it and there are many reasons for not putting it back.

__________
It is worse!
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Mister_D_
Contributor
Contributor

arnaudov wrote:

vSphere is a live product which evolves every year so we can’t guarantee that “Converter Standalone 5.0.1” will be compatible with the future vSphere releases but we’re already testing against the upcoming vSphere codebase and we’ll make sure that there is a version of Converter which is compatible with it.

-- Antoan Arnaudov

Product Manager @ VMware

Antoan,

Although appreciated, your comments are not reasuring nor helpful. We just need one answer. E.T.A on the patch or release of the new converter that will fix this problem. As mentioned by other users, Administrators and Architects cannot make decision in the dark and we cannot honestly recommend our bosses the use of a products with major issue. I never seen a problem of this magnitud with VMware products. I would think VMware would want to make a more reasuring statemant to ensure no lost customers or lost of future sales, but then again I work in IT not business management.

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bulletlynn21
Contributor
Contributor

Same here. 4.3 converter does not work for us either...

HyperV is becoming more tempting.

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Bigi201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Antoan, thanks for the update. That is all we are asking for is some dates. We can now move on and use ESXi 5.1.

Now can you please have VMware fix the SSO issues and they delay in vSphere Client when opeining Console Tab?

Thanks.

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EdWilts
Expert
Expert

We're not happy with the direction of Converter either.  We have many systems in multiple DMZ segments that we need to convert.  This used to work with Converter 4.3 but with 5.0, VMware broke this because there is a new requirement that we HAVE to be able to talk to vCenter, not just the host.  We used to add a 2nd management kernel port to an ESXi host on the DMZ segment and use that for the conversion, but that doesn't work any more.  The only way to do do this now is to remove a host from vCenter.  We can't use Converter 4.3 for some of our guests because it doesn't support GPT disks whereas 5.0 does (plus nice features like aligning the disks on the fly).

It seems like it's a case of "2 steps forward, 1 step back".  For security reasons, we can't have our DMZ hosts talking to our internal vCenter servers - we can let them talk to a host we're dedicating for the conversion, but we can't let them talk to vCenter.  This used to work!

We opened a case but were told that this will not be fixed.  We're not a small shop with hundreds of Ent+ licenses but this doesn't seem to have any impact in getting a resolution.  Somebody decided that writing a KB article (2012310) explaining that they intentionally broke it was considered a resolution.

We're not happy.

.../Ed (VCP4, VCP5)
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ivivanov
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Not being able to connect to the host directly when it is managed is an entirely different problem. It is not a Converter restriction, but an ESX/vCenter change and it is there by design. You CANNOT create a new VM on a host when directly connecting to it if it is managed by a vCenter server. The create VM call will fail. In Converter 5.0 we added this check with the intent to warn the user earlier about the problem. With 4.3 the same task would fail on creating the target VM when pressing the Finish button. You need to open a case against vCenter/ESX but not against Converter in order to get more information on this issue. I don't know why did they introduce this restriction, but the guys from the vCenter/ESX teams may be able to explain in more details the reasoning behind this change.

__________
It is worse!
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EricBowen
Contributor
Contributor

Could we get clarification on "later this week" as to when the 5.0.1 converter will be released?  Need to make plans.

Thanks!

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trafsta
Contributor
Contributor

I'd like to know this too... it's 'crunch' time here so I spent Friday and Monday building a virtual ESXi 5.0 host but for whatever reason Converter 5.0 keeps insisting that the host I built does not support 64-bit VMs when I try to convert to it grrrr and I'm running out of ideas to get it working... so if its definitely getting released either tomorrow or Friday I'll try holding off for it... *sigh*

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ofirzvik
Contributor
Contributor

trafsta, sounds like you didnt enable the "Virtual mode" in the bios (or 64bit)

did you check it?

Ofir Zvik CTO Evolution Online / xGlobe Online
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trafsta
Contributor
Contributor

Bios of the ESXi virtual machine?

I'm essentially trying to do what this person did:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/408151

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ofirzvik
Contributor
Contributor

Yes,

send me the ESXi host hardware brand and model to my email, I think it's just a small flag in the BIOS 🙂

ofir [a-t] evolution dot co dot il 

Ofir Zvik CTO Evolution Online / xGlobe Online
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chowhoundb
Contributor
Contributor

Any updates to this? 

Do we know when 5.0.1 will be released? 

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trafsta
Contributor
Contributor

Only that it will be "this week". Running out of days though... Smiley Sad

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chowhoundb
Contributor
Contributor

This is beyond frustrating! 

My customers are waiting. 

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trafsta
Contributor
Contributor

So, Antoan Arnaudov, one more <work> day left this week for the release to take place. Can we still expect it to be released this week as you indicated?

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