VSS error, Converter stops at 11% every time

[tdean]

hi all, cant seem to get started. im trying to do a p2v with an XP machine. i have plenty of disk space, the convert is only 14Gb. i have run chkdsk with no luck. everything seems to be in order, yet it fails every time at 11%. here is the error i get in the task progress part of the Converter software.

01:30:28 PM Step 1 : Connecting to VMware Converter Agent on localhost

01:30:28 PM Step 2 : Creating target virtual machine and converting data

01:30:30 PM Configuring parameters for the target virtual machine...

01:30:32 PM WARNING: Dropping extra floppies

01:30:32 PM WARNING: Dropping extra parallel ports

01:30:32 PM WARNING: Dropping extra serial ports

01:30:32 PM WARNING: Dropping the sound device

01:30:32 PM Creating target virtual machine...

01:30:36 PM Formatting target volume c:...

01:31:02 PM Taking a snapshot of the volume...

01:31:09 PM ERROR: Failed to take snapshot of a source volume.

Possible causes include not having any NTFS volumes on Windows XP or Windows 2003 source systems,

and not having enough free disk space.

here is the eventlog error that coinsides with it.

Event Type: Error

Event Source: VSS

Event Category: None

Event ID: 12293

Date: 3/25/2009

Time: 1:31:08 PM

User: N/A

Computer: TELECOMB-XP

Description:

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on the Shadow Copy Provider {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}. Routine details Cannot ask provider {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} if volume is supported. .

i have attached the temp log file hoping someone can help.

thank you

[GalNeb]

First some assumptions that you did not make clear:

You have at least 500 MB free disk space.

It is an NTFS volume not FAT.

these messages were in your log:

Vsnap does not have admin rights

Snapshotting
?\Volume{3379618e-fe16-11d9-8b3a-806d6172696f} using stcbasic.sys

stcbasic.sys not installed or snapshot creation failed. err=2

So:

Verify that the account you are using has full admin rights to the XP box.

Verify that the volume shadow service is set to run as system.

Verify that the Volume Shadow service is set for manual or auto and not disabled.

[tdean]

Hi Galneb,

server and ws have 70+Gb space.

ws is ntfs

i have tried running this as local and network admin with the exact same result. ive tried changing the volume service logon to local admin instead of system acct. would a complete reinstall of the converter software, as local admin make a difference? the local admin acct did not have a password until i assigned one 10 minutes ago. it is set for manual.

[victorg]

I don't think reinstalling Converter will help, since your problem appears to be in VSS configuration or the hard disk. Try solutions in this thread: http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/whssoftware/thread/6f05da1a-c10a-4806-ad27-d3de87ba9b31/ .

[tdean]

tried all the comments from the ms and event id articles. no luck. does it matter that we changed the serial number to one of our volume numbers and reactivated? here is the result of running vssadmin list writers

Microsoft Windows XP http://Version 5.1.2600

(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

H:\>c:

C:\>vssadmin list writers

vssadmin 1.0 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool

(C) Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corp.

Writer name: 'MSDEWriter'

Writer Id: {f8544ac1-0611-4fa5-b04b-f7ee00b03277}

Writer Instance Id: {bfa62ca2-4d57-4b2c-a3e9-d7a1124c83f4}

State: Stable

Writer name: 'Microsoft Writer (Service State)'

Writer Id: {e38c2e3c-d4fb-4f4d-9550-fcafda8aae9a}

Writer Instance Id: {2844c555-7ed1-41a7-b6ee-233dbbe343f0}

State: Stable

Writer name: 'Microsoft Writer (Bootable State)'

Writer Id: {f2436e37-09f5-41af-9b2a-4ca2435dbfd5}

Writer Instance Id: {edd0497f-4626-4369-b6cf-66703f56b339}

State: Stable

Writer name: 'IIS Metabase Writer'

Writer Id: {59b1f0cf-90ef-465f-9609-6ca8b2938366}

Writer Instance Id: {dd32d105-4e70-4c96-9936-19bbf4f5a7a5}

State: Stable

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'

Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}

Writer Instance Id: {f1fd9b35-9ae8-4b09-bb54-25232467ab59}

State: Stable

C:\>

Message was edited by: tdean

[GalNeb]

You didn't have a password on an admin account?!?!?!? Shame on you!! I have seen comments somewhere that not having a password on accounts being used by converter can confuse it. But as VictOrg says, it doesn't sound like that kind of problem.

Is there a drive on this system. I have had VSS complain when it couldn't put the shadow files on a different drive than was being shadowed, but I don't remember which OS version had the issue.

Is there a small managmet partition before the C: drive created by the manufacturer? Dell has been know to do that as well as Compaq/HP. Make sure you are not trying to copy it. VSS can't see it worth a darn.

Another assumption, there are not any unformatted partitions on the source machine and you have not selected them if there are. This new version (4) is not supposed to VSS volumes that you have not picked for conversion.

VSS does have one dependancy: "Remote Procedure Call (RPC)". Make sure it is running. It should be, you would probably be seeing other difficulties if it wasn't.

I am assuming you are trying to downsize this C: drive. OH, and I just remembered something I saw in the release notes. After looking at it, I doubt if it applies, but here it is anyway just for good measure. I don't think you mentioned where you were converting it to.

Cloning a large disk with a large amount of free space to an ESX destination fails
Selecting disk-based cloning with preserving the source disk size on the Conversion wizard Data to Copy page might cause the conversion task to fail if converting a large disk with a large amount of free space to an ESX destination. This issue is related to ESX connection timeout limitations.
Workarounds:

• Check the conversion logs, and if there are error messages with NFC failures, use the volume-based cloning method with or without resizing.

• Manually increase the timeout by modifying the<code>* writeTimeoutMS</code>* value in the<code>* converter-agent.xml</code>* file.
  For a detailed procedure, see Increasing the Write Timeout Value for Conversions to ESX Destinations (KB 1008305).

[tdean]

Hi again GalNeb,

im new here, i dont know why there wasnt an admin password on that machine. as far as the disks and partitions, nothing. one simple "C" drive. 75Gb with 60Gb free. i just ran this script and found there was an error loading vssui.dll so i downloaded that and put it in the system32 dir... again no luck.

cd\

pushd "c:/windows/system32"

regsvr32 ole32.dll

regsvr32 vss_ps.dll

vssvc /Register

regsvr32 /i swprv.dll

regsvr32 /i eventcls.dll

regsvr32 es.dll

regsvr32 stdprov.dll

regsvr32 vssui.dll

regsvr32 msxml.dll

regsvr32 msxml2.dll

regsvr32 msxml3.dll

regsvr32 msxml4.dll

net start vss

net start swprv