VMware Cloud Community
CableJeff
Contributor
Contributor

Error when moving a VM from one datastore to another

I am just starting out with VMware so everything is fresh.  I have a Netgear ReadyNAS 2100 and two hosts.  While waiting for my new hardware, i setup a couple virtual machines on an extra computer that has esxi 5.0.  Now that I have the 2 new computers and the NAS, I want to move my VM's to the Netgear but everytime I try to use the vsphere client to move or copy the vm's I receive an error "Error caused by file /vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxx-xxxxxxxx/GeneralServer/GeneralServer.vmx".  When I browse the new datastore, I can see the file but only one file.  If I try to copy one file at a time, i receive the same error for each file.  Also, it takes a very long time to copy anything!!!  I am connecting to the Netgear using iSCSI.

Does anyone have an idea why I receive an error every time or why it takes so long to transfer data?

Reply
0 Kudos
9 Replies
sa2057
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi,

What is the file size?  and could uou pl. check the block size...Here are the specification for VMFS block size

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&e...

Thanks

SA

Reply
0 Kudos
CableJeff
Contributor
Contributor

The first file it tried to copy out of the folder is 2.83KB,  the largest file is 41,943,040KB.   The file type of the datastore is VMFS5.54 with a block size of 1MB.  The capacity is 2.00TB and the maximum file size is 2.00TB.

Reply
0 Kudos
sa2057
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Sorry. What are the specifications of destination datastore?

Total size, block size when formatted

Thanks

SA

Reply
0 Kudos
CableJeff
Contributor
Contributor

Origination side details:

name: datastore1

device: Local ATA Disk

Drive Type: Non-SSD

Capacity: 227.75 GB

Free: 14.99GB

File System: VMFS5.54

Block Size: 1 MB

Destination details:

name: vmstore

device: LIO-ORG iSCSI Disk

Drive Type: Non-SSD

Capacity: 2.00 TB

Free: 2.00 TB

File System: VMFS5.54

Block Size: 1 MB

Reply
0 Kudos
zXi_Gamer
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Instead of copying,.. I would suggest to mount the Netgear NAS share to your Computers and do a vmkfstools -i operation on the vmdks. Once completed, umount this share from the computers and mount it to the new servers that you are about to get.....

Reply
0 Kudos
sa2057
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Could you pl. check the read/write permissions on NFS.

Thanks

SA

Reply
0 Kudos
CableJeff
Contributor
Contributor

Can you give me some detailed steps on how to do that?

Reply
0 Kudos
zXi_Gamer
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

I assume these vmdks are in local datastore of the extra computer. Right. Since you have configured the NetGear NAS box, just provide

esxcfg-nas -a <VOLNAME> -o <Netgear IP> -s <ShareinNetgear>

Once this is mounted, it will be available as a datastore in your extra computer. Now, perform vmkfstools -i <source.vmdk> <dest.vmdk>. Once this is completed, unmount the NAS volume from the extra computer and mount the share in your new computers as mentioned above...

Reply
0 Kudos
CableJeff
Contributor
Contributor

The solution was that the firmware in my Netgear was 4.2.19.  I updated to version 4.2.21 and my problem was solved.

Reply
0 Kudos