VMware Cloud Community
formatdynamics
Contributor
Contributor

cannot clone VM - broken pipe

Hello,

I'm trying to move a vmware server 2 VM to ESXi 4.0.0 (my apologies, i could not find a ESXi 4 dicussion section).

I shut down the VM guest os on vmware server 2 and copied the VM directory over to the ESXi server (from the ESXI unsupported console, using scp).

Following this i tried to use vmkfstools -i /path/myvm/myvm.vmdk /path/clonedvm/myvm.vmdk to clone the machine so i could then import it into ESXi (by creating a new vm and using the newly cloned disk).

While this worked on my linux VMs, on a windows XP SP2 vm i tried (i tried 2 seperate ones) i got the error:

Failed to open '/path/myvm/myvm.vmdk': Broken Pipe (2097161).

If i try to create new VM from the vSphere client and use the existing myvm.vmdkdisk I get the same broken pipe error.

Restarting the physical ESXi server did not help.

The guest VMs are version 7 and use the BusLogic controller.

Any help is appreciated.

-Tony

Reply
0 Kudos
8 Replies
marcelo_soares
Champion
Champion

What is the size of the VMDK file? Check if is the same of the original one and that it don't have more than 256GB in size. (I never tried copying a so large file into the local ESX4 VMFS... don't know if it throws you an error or not).

Marcelo Soares

VMWare Certified Professional 310

Technical Support Engineer

Linux Server Senior Administrator

Marcelo Soares
Reply
0 Kudos
bulletprooffool
Champion
Champion

VMware server VMDKS are not supported on ESX.

to move a VM you'll have to use VMWare convereted and convert the Virtual machine.

One day I will virtualise myself . . .
Reply
0 Kudos
formatdynamics
Contributor
Contributor

No larger than any other vmdk file that cloned successfully. Largest is 1.5G.

1560215552 Aug 20 11:35 ../WindowsXPPro-nosp/nosp-s001.vmdk

1395916800 Aug 20 11:35 ../WindowsXPPro-nosp/nosp-s002.vmdk

65536 Aug 20 11:33 ../WindowsXPPro-nosp/nosp-s003.vmdk

437 Aug 20 11:29 ../WindowsXPPro-nosp/nosp.vmdk

-Tony

Reply
0 Kudos
formatdynamics
Contributor
Contributor

I can confirm that is not true and that i have successfully used vmkfstools to create clones of a vmware server VM disk and imported the new disk into ESXi.

-Tony

Reply
0 Kudos
marcelo_soares
Champion
Champion

I think so... I already did from VMWare Workstation/Server and worked ok...

Well... while you do the vmkfstools process, see the output of a taill -f at the /var/log/vmkernel and /var/log/messages. Something will have to show up to you.

Marcelo Soares

VMWare Certified Professional 310

Technical Support Engineer

Linux Server Senior Administrator

Marcelo Soares
Reply
0 Kudos
marcelo_soares
Champion
Champion

Ah, another thing... at the original files, do a md5sum and then do the same thing at the ESX. The Checksums must be the same. If the copy is changing the files, you can try copying with a USB stick or a CD.

Marcelo Soares

VMWare Certified Professional 310

Technical Support Engineer

Linux Server Senior Administrator

Marcelo Soares
Reply
0 Kudos
formatdynamics
Contributor
Contributor

The MD5s were the same, but i figured out a solution.

In vmware server i changed the disk files to a single disk file using:

vmware-vdiskmanager -r myvm.vmdk -t 2 myvmnew.vmdkThen i rewmoved the myvm files from the directory, then transferred the directory over and when i ran the vmkfstools on the myvmnew disk it worked fine.So for some reason it seems it didn't like the multiple vmdks. Thanx, -Tony

Reply
0 Kudos
IsaacWolfe
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks to everyone for posting. I was having the same issue and it was fixed by removing additional disks above the C: drive from the server. I did not have to convert from a thin disk before I moved the disks. I only had to remove the additional disks from the VMServer virtual guest.

Reply
0 Kudos