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woolleysi
Contributor
Contributor

Upload to Server on Fusion Pro 8 Fails

I am trying to upload a VM from Fusion Pro 8 to my ESXi 6 box.

I can connect to ESXi OK and select the data store.  When I then click upload I get the following message:

Failed to open file: /Users/****/Virtual Machines/Windows Server 2008 x64/Windows Server 2008 x64.vmx

I can select Show in Finder and Fusion goes to the correct location.  I have also tried creating a clone and up;loading that as well as moving the machine to a different directory.  All result in the "Failed to open file" message.

Looking for any help.

Thanks.

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8 Replies
Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

Is there enough storage on the remote box?

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Michael Roy - PM/PMM: Fusion & Workstation
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woolleysi
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Michael

Yes, there is about 13TB of free storage on the system.

I have seen other people talking about this issue but to date no one has come up with an answer.

Thanks

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Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

Can you make it fail, then run 'Help > Collect Support Information', posting the resulting .tgz file here?

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Michael Roy - PM/PMM: Fusion & Workstation
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woolleysi
Contributor
Contributor

I have fixed the problem myself.  I copied the VM to an external USB HDD and then opened it in Workstation 11 on Windows.  I then connected to the ESXi Server and tried to upload.  The application actually gave a verbose error message.  The issue was that in the VMX file the CD-ROM was referencing an image file that did not exist.  I changed the settings to use the physical CD-ROM device and it uploaded without an issue from the Windows machine.

I tried the same in Fusion and it still failed!!!!!

Come on VMWare, lets have some consistency between Windows and Mac versions of the applications.  Why did one give a verbose error message and the other not.  And why does it still fail on Fusion?

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Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

That makes sense then. I agree we could do better with our error messages, I'll put this one on the feature request list.

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Michael Roy - PM/PMM: Fusion & Workstation
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mini2008
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Woolleysi,

Could you please give more detailed info about " The issue was that in the VMX file the CD-ROM was referencing an image file that did not exist.  I changed the settings to use the physical CD-ROM device" since we cannot reproduce this issue locally?

Thanks a lot~

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woolleysi
Contributor
Contributor

Hi mini2008

All of the settings for a VM are stored in the VMX file.  The lines that refer to CD-ROM may look like the following (potentially replace ide with scsi):

ide0:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
ide0:0.fileName = "<CD/DVD ROM name>"
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"

ide0:0.startConnected = "TRUE"

If you have mounted an image file, such as an ISO file, in the virtual CD you should see something in the fileName section.

My issue was that the CD-ROM was still linked within the VMX file to an image file at Path\To\File\Image_file.iso.

My assumption is that when I tried to upload the VM to the ESXi server it parsed the VMX file and then couldn't locate Path\To\File\Image_file.iso as the file no longer existed.

On the Windows side I went in the settings for the VM and to the CD/DVD setting and changed it from "Use ISO image file" to "use physical drive".  It then uploaded OK.  When I tried this on Fusion 8 Pro, it still would not upload so I don't know what the issue is there!!!

Below is the setting in Workstation 11.  Hope this helps.

Image.png

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Darcyz
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi woolleysi,

Welcome to Fusion Community.

I would like to try the issue step by step. Could you help me to check with it?  I cannot reproduce your issue.

A.  Attach an iso image use Virtual CDROM

Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 10.03.54 AM.png

B. remove the iso image in the specific location

C. Check the iso image in the vmx file

Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 10.04.55 AM.png

D. upload the vm to ESXi server(6.0), it will pop up an dialog to warn "iso image cannot be found"

Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 10.06.30 AM.png

Cheers.

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