Converted SBS 2003 server blue screens at boot: Software RAID-1 / Dynamic disk on source?

[sbarnhart]

I used Converter 4.3 to convert an SBS2003 install (two physical disks, 3 logical volumes software RAID-1 mirrored between the disks) to a brand new ESXi 4.1 system.

The conversion ran as normal but when booting the new VM you get about 2 seconds of the splash screen and then a blue screen with a 0x7b error. It blue screens in any boot mode (safe mode, AD restore, etc).

Since 0x7b is "missing device", I'm suspecting there's something about the source disk layout. Two hard disks with three partitions, each mirrored to the same partition on the other disk. While this is a proper Windows config, it's pretty unusual for most SBS/Windows installs which tend to be on hardware RAID. I'm pretty sure these are IDE disks, too.

Is it the dynamic disk/RAID setup on the source, or is something weird happening during the conversion -- ie, converted machine has no SCSI interface or no IDE? Would installing VMware tools ahead of time help? Cold cloning?

I'd like to have the opportunity to do this on an iterative basis, but it puts the business down and takes 2.5 hours per conversion process.

[VTsukanov]

Take a look at Troubleshooting a virtual machine that fails to boot with STOP 0x7B error & Best practices for using and troubleshooting VMware Converter & Troubleshooting checklist for VMware Converter

I have not ever seen any mention about VMWare converter support dynamic disks. According to my expirience SBS P2V convertion always has some problems.

[sbarnhart]

Thanks. Item 24 on the troubleshooting checklist is: "Break mirrored or striped volumes across multiple disks. Mirrored or striped volumes cannot be converted."

This may be contributing to the problem, although I'm reluctant to break the mirror, because in typical SBS fashion this server is kind of a clusterfrick and I'd rather not break it.

What other SBS related issues have you run into? I've not an SBS server before, but I have done numerous Exchange servers, DCs and even an Exchange/DC combination without any issues.

[sbarnhart]

I hate to reply to my own post, but I managed to squeeze in a little test conversion and the "fix" appears to be forcing the destination machine to use a SCSI controller. I used LSI logic (it's the recommended SCSI controller for a new SBS 2003 VM in ESXi 4.1).

My test conversion only involved the C: drive and none of the other 3 volumes, but I didn't bother breaking the mirror. The converted test system booted without issue and I was able to log in.

There are other issues, like product activation (geeze, I hope this wasn't an OEM SBS install), making sure Exchange and everything else runs correctly, but at least I can boot the VM without a STOP 0x7b error.

[VTsukanov]

Well congratulations, I hope that the remaining issues will be solvable .