Converted Red Hat Linux 4 vm will not boot initrid error

[jaturley]

I attempted to P2V an oracle enterprise linux 4 vm folowing the instructions on this website.

http://tzahid.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E99E74DBE0A928BC!595.entry

Things went well until I attempted to boot after runing the mkinitrd command. The VM still will not boot I have procced to try the mkinitrid command several more times and have even tried the following command

mkinitrd --preload=mptspi ---with=mptspi -v -f /boot/initrd-2.6.9-42.0.0.0.1.ELsmp.img 2.6.9-42.0.0.0.1.ELsmp

I am running on ESX 4 update 1 and the vm hardware version is 7.

I am making an assumption that mptspi is the driver for the LSI logic scsi controller. But I have tried it with and with out those added commands and it will not work either way. Oracle linux is just a clone of Redhat so I assume what works for one will work for the other. Any help would be appricated. Thanks

[DSTAVERT]

It has been a while since I last did a Linux P2V. The reference site you mention is using Converter 3. If you haven't tried Converter 4 I would download it and retry your conversion. Converter 4 works very well. It changes LVM to scsi volumes and splits the partitions into separate disks.

[DSTAVERT]

Also Converter 4 works hot. You convert a running Linux server. Converter Standalone http://www.vmware.com/getconverter is a free download. There is also a Linux version of converter you can try.

[jaturley]

I am downloading convertor standalone but convertor is included in vsphere 4 when i try to import the linux vm it says it can not connect. DO I need the stand alone verison to do this?

[byoung111]

In order to P2V a linux box you must use the Standalone Converter.

Does vCenter Converter support Linux P2V?

Linux P2V is supported in vCenter Converter Standalone only.

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

[jaturley]

Thanks everyone for the help. I used the standalone convertor and it worked awesome. Jeff