ubuntu p2v - converter fails generic error

[Daisychick]

Hello,

I'm new to vmware and I'm trying to teach myself. I have ubuntu 11.10 running on a spare laptop with linux converter server 4.0.1. I have the Converter Standalone Client 4.0.1 installed on a windows 7 machine. I have an ESXi server cluster running 4.1.0 that I'm a superadmin on. I'm trying to use the windows machine to convert the ubuntu machine from physical to virtual. I go the through the wizard and everything looks fine. I click start, it starts, and then stops and disconnects with a very generic error "Error: Unable to create the virtual machine 'ubuntu-test-machine'." no other reason given.

Can someone point me in the right direction? Either documentation is limited or my googling needs work because I'm having a hard time finding info on this. It's either outdated or a little to vague for a beginner. Point me in the right direction and I'm sure I can figure it out.

I appreciate any help. Screenshots attached.

[ivivanov]

I think the problem is that you are usingi an old version of Converter. Can you try to install Converter 5.0?

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

[Daisychick]

there is no 5 for linux and when I tried to use 5 on windows and 4 on linux, it would not connect.

[Daisychick]

I just installed the vconvertor plugin into the vsphere client and am attempting to import that way. So far, it seems to be working. at 67%.

[ivivanov]

Yes, Converter 5.0 is only for Windows, however it still can convert physical Linux sources. I still recommend trying Converter 5.x because Ubuntu 11 is with GRUB2 boot loader, but the Converter plug-in that ships with vCenter 4.1 supports only GRUB1 and the target VM might not boot.

[Daisychick]

You are so right! I installed the converter 4 plugin and... looks like grub didn't get loaded. It failed to boot. I'll try ver. 5 again.

[Daisychick]

and I'm back to the problem I was dealing with yesterday. I can't connect with version 5. The ubuntu machine is running 4.0.1 server. Are they compatible?

[ivivanov · Accepted solution]

You need to connect to the *Windows* 5.0 server. You don't need anything installed on the Linux source. After that you can select to convert a live Linux machine and there you enter the hostname or IP address of the source. You need to have SSH enabled and allow root to ssh remotely.

[Daisychick]

well, I would just like to say, THANK YOU. I feel really stupid now. That makes way more sense. You would think that the hundred or so docs I read might have mentioned that. I think I will make a how to for dummies. I just started converting. The only bad thing is that it seems like it's going to take a lot longer than doing it from the vsphere client. I think this is the solution to my problem though. Thank you again.

[Daisychick]

well, no luck on that one. looked good. even looked like it was booting as I watched it through the console. Got this error message.

FAILED: A general system error occurred: Crypto Exception: error:02001005:system library:fopen:Input/output error:unable to load C:
\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\ssl\rui.crt

what on earth does that mean? is it having a problem authenticating?

[Daisychick]

I found the answer in another post. It's a windows UAC issue. Le Sigh. However, it is going strong now and cloning. I'm pretty sure that's a good sign. thanks for all the replies.

[Daisychick]

nope. failed again. at 99%. UGH.

FAILED: An error occurred during the conversion: 'GrubInstaller::InstallGrub: /usr/lib/vmware-converter/installGrub.sh failed with return code: 127, and message: Installing GRUB1 on (hd0)... /vmware-updateGrub.sh: 59: grub:
not found Error installing GRUB Error running vmware-updateGrub.sh through chroot into /mnt/p2v-src-root '

I'm googling but, there's not a lot on this.

[ivivanov]

Ohh 😞

It looks like a problem with detecting the proper GRUB version - it says "Installing GRUB1" instead of GRUB2. Can you export the task logs and post them? Or send them to me as a private message if you don't want them on the web? You should switch the Converter GUI to task view from the toolbar and then select the failed task, right click on it and select "Export logs" command.

GRUB2 support is a really "gray" area, we've been working on it for Ubuntu 10 and only with default installation, however most likely there are some changes in Ubuntu 11 that break our code.

[Daisychick]

it exported a zip file with a lot of logs. which ones do you want? And it doesn't matter. This is just a test on a fresh ubuntu install before I try it on the machine that actually needs to be virtualized so there shouldn't be any sensitive info.

[ivivanov]

Just upload the whole ZIP archive

[Daisychick]

I PM'd you with a link.

[ryan509]

Any fix to this yet?  I have the same GRUB problem at 99% doing a p2v on Ubuntu 10.10.

[ivivanov]

I am not sure the problem is the same in your case. The original problem was that version string format has been changed from Ubuntu 10 to Ubuntu 11. On Ubuntu 10.04 (which we used for development) the version string looks like

    grub-install (GNU GRUB 1.xx)

however on Ubuntu 11 it has been changed to

    grub-install (GRUB) 1.99-12ubuntu5

As you can see the format is different, so our code fails to detect the version correctly and defaults to GRUB1 to avoid any regressions, however GRUB1 code cannot deal with GRUB2 boot loader.

I am not sure when this change happened and what is the format for Ubuntu 10.10, however if it is similar to the second form, then you are having the same issue. On the other hand if it is similar to the first version, then the problem must be somewhere else. Can you upload the task logs? (switch Converter GUI to Task view, right-click on the failed task and select "Export logs" command).

[wthrower]

Is there a workaround or solution to this issue with converter defaulting to grub1 on recent versions of Ubuntu?

[ivivanov]

I have tried a "hackish" approach - to "fix" grub-install on the *source* to return the version in the expected format and then grub patching on the target succeeds and it boots successfully (I have tried with default installation of Ubuntu 11 Desktop + SSH server). Since grub-install is a shell script you can add these lines in the beginning:

if [ $# -eq 1 -a "$1" = "-v" ] ; then

  echo "grub-install (GNU GRUB 1.99-12ubuntu5)"

  exit 0

fi

it only checks if -v is the only argument and it returns a version string that Converter can recognize. With all other arguments it works as before. After that the conversion completes successfully and the target VM boots. You should revert the changes on the source after it has finished.

Keep in mind this is not tested and not supported in any way - just a workaround that worked for me.