Hi I'm trying to migrate a VM from a ESXi host on version 6 to a new ESXi host on version 7. For some reasons there are some issues with getting it started up. Here are what I have done and the errors I encountered along the way. Any ideas on how to fix this would be appreciated.
Step 1 - SCP / Register
This is how it looks like after the copy. After registering on the new host it complains to not able to find the vmdks. Looking at the content of the vmx it was apparent that the vmx file was using file names with 000001.vmdk suffix which was wrong. Not sure how the 000001 got there.
[root@esxi7:/vmfs/volumes/5e90fff6-b9710211-886e-0cc47a76f444/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48] ls -al
total 36701376
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 73728 May 28 18:08 .
drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 77824 May 28 15:24 ..
-rw------- 1 root root 21474836480 May 28 16:14 GNS3 - 2.2.3-flat.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root 8684 May 28 16:14 GNS3 - 2.2.3.nvram
-rw------- 1 root root 555 May 28 16:14 GNS3 - 2.2.3.vmdk
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 77 May 28 16:14 GNS3 - 2.2.3.vmsd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2609 May 28 16:14 GNS3 - 2.2.3.vmx
-rw------- 1 root root 16106127360 May 28 16:17 GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-flat.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root 558 May 28 16:17 GNS3 - 2.2.3_1.vmdk
[root@esxi7:/vmfs/volumes/5e90fff6-b9710211-886e-0cc47a76f444/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48]
[root@esxi7:/vmfs/volumes/5e90fff6-b9710211-886e-0cc47a76f444/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48] grep scsi.*fileName 'GNS3 - 2.2.3.vmx'
scsi0:0.fileName = "GNS3 - 2.2.3-000001.vmdk"
scsi0:1.fileName = "GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk"
[root@esxi7:/vmfs/volumes/5e90fff6-b9710211-886e-0cc47a76f444/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48]
Step 2 - Update to the correct vmdk file names
After updating the vmx file to match the disk name it looks like this.
[root@esxi7:/vmfs/volumes/5e90fff6-b9710211-886e-0cc47a76f444/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48] vi 'GNS3 - 2.2.3.vmx'
[root@esxi7:/vmfs/volumes/5e90fff6-b9710211-886e-0cc47a76f444/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48] grep scsi.*fileName 'GNS3 - 2.2.3.vmx'
scsi0:0.fileName = "GNS3 - 2.2.3-flat.vmdk"
scsi0:1.fileName = "GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-flat.vmdk"
Step 3 - Start Again
This time it complained to not able to enumerate disk. Not sure what this means.
Step 4 - Try Starting On Old Host
At this point I went back to the original host, re-register the machine, started but was given the same error about not being able to find the 00001.vmdk disks. So I edited the vmx file like above, and attempted to start but was given an error that the configuration is invalid.
And following is what I can see towards the end of the log.
2022-05-28T18:34:28.855Z| vmx| I120: MONITOR MODE: allowed modes : BT32 HV HWMMU
2022-05-28T18:34:28.855Z| vmx| I120: MONITOR MODE: user requested modes : BT32 HV HWMMU
2022-05-28T18:34:28.855Z| vmx| I120: MONITOR MODE: guestOS preferred modes: HWMMU HV BT32
2022-05-28T18:34:28.855Z| vmx| I120: MONITOR MODE: filtered list : HWMMU HV BT32
2022-05-28T18:34:28.855Z| vmx| I120: HV Settings: virtual exec = 'hardware'; virtual mmu = 'hardware'
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: OvhdMem_PowerOn: initial admission: paged 44489 nonpaged 3498 anonymous 77794
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: VMMEM: Initial Reservation: 491MB (MainMem=34816MB)
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: MemSched_PowerOn: balloon minGuestSize 13107 (80% of min required size 16384)
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: MemSched: properties ovhd: 0 mainmem: 0 pinned: 0 fpt: 0 ftCpt: 0 ls: 0 prealloc: 0
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: numa: VCPU 0: VPD 0 (PPD 0)
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: numa: VCPU 1: VPD 0 (PPD 0)
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: numa: VCPU 2: VPD 0 (PPD 0)
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: numa: VCPU 3: VPD 0 (PPD 0)
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: numa: VCPU 4: VPD 0 (PPD 0)
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: numa: VCPU 5: VPD 0 (PPD 0)
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: numaHost: 1 virtual nodes, 2 virtual sockets, 1 physical domains
2022-05-28T18:34:28.863Z| vmx| I120: CreateVM: Swap: generating normal swap file name.
2022-05-28T18:34:28.864Z| vmx| I120: FTCpt: (0 unk) vmk overheads: 0 pages (0 MB)
2022-05-28T18:34:28.864Z| vmx| I120: Swap file path: '/vmfs/volumes/557dc2e2-2c11eba8-1494-00259066ac58/backup/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48/GNS3 - 2.2.3-3872c110.vswp'
2022-05-28T18:34:28.864Z| vmx| I120: Disk_GetDigestDiskCount: numDigestDisks = 0
2022-05-28T18:34:32.938Z| vmx| A115: ConfigDB: Setting sched.swap.derivedName = "/vmfs/volumes/557dc2e2-2c11eba8-1494-00259066ac58/backup/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48/GNS3 - 2.2.3-3872c110.vswp"
2022-05-28T18:34:32.943Z| vthread-10| I120: VTHREAD start thread 10 "vthread-10" pid 648934
2022-05-28T18:34:32.943Z| vmx| W110: VProbes facility is disabled.
2022-05-28T18:34:32.943Z| vmx| W110: VProbes facility is disabled.
2022-05-28T18:34:33.028Z| vmx| I120: Monitor64_PowerOn()
2022-05-28T18:34:33.029Z| vmx| I120: vmm64-modules: [vmm.vmm64, mmu-hwmmu.vmm64, vprobe-none.vmm64, hv-vt.vmm64, gphys-ept.vmm64, vmsafe-none.vmm64, callstack-none.vmm64, vmce-none.vmm64, vvtd-none.vmm64, videio-none.vmm64, {SharedAreaReservations} .shared_per_vm_vmx:0x8c0, {SharedInterVcpuVmxSection}, {SharedInterVcpuSection}, <MonSrcFile>, e1000Shared=0xfffffffffc0d9000, hvLoadedAsAddr=0x1, useNPTAsAddr=0x1, numVCPUsAsAddr=0x6, busmemFrameSizeLog2AsAddr=0x2, busmemFrameSizeAsAddr=0x4]
2022-05-28T18:34:33.029Z| vmx| I120: vmm64-vcpus: 6
2022-05-28T18:34:33.040Z| vmx| I120: KHZEstimate 2400085
2022-05-28T18:34:33.040Z| vmx| I120: MHZEstimate 2400
2022-05-28T18:34:33.040Z| vmx| I120: NumVCPUs 6
2022-05-28T18:34:33.040Z| vmx| I120: UUID: location-UUID is 56 4d 56 d7 bf 5a 68 95-a0 7e 67 b6 a4 e8 7a 24
2022-05-28T18:34:33.040Z| vmx| I120: AIOGNRC: numThreads=2 ide=0, scsi=0, passthru=1
2022-05-28T18:34:33.040Z| vmx| I120: WORKER: Creating new group with numThreads=2 (2)
2022-05-28T18:34:33.040Z| vmx| I120: WORKER: Creating new group with numThreads=2 (4)
2022-05-28T18:34:33.040Z| vmx| A115: ConfigDB: Setting replay.supported = "FALSE"
2022-05-28T18:34:33.040Z| vmx| I120: StateLogger::Replay State = 0
2022-05-28T18:34:33.040Z| vmx| I120: StateLogger::minDEThreshold: 115
2022-05-28T18:34:33.040Z| vmx| A115: ConfigDB: Setting replay.filename = ""
2022-05-28T18:34:33.041Z| vmx| I120: WORKER: Creating new group with numThreads=1 (4)
2022-05-28T18:34:33.041Z| vmx| I120: MainMem: CPT PLS=1 PLR=0 BS=0 BlkP=64 Mult=2 W=25
2022-05-28T18:34:33.041Z| vmx| I120: MStat: Creating Stat vm.uptime
2022-05-28T18:34:33.041Z| vmx| I120: MStat: Creating Stat vm.suspendTime
2022-05-28T18:34:33.041Z| vmx| I120: MStat: Creating Stat vm.powerOnTimeStamp
2022-05-28T18:34:33.041Z| vmx| I120: VMXAIOMGR: Using: simple=Generic unbuf=Generic
2022-05-28T18:34:33.219Z| vmx| I120: WORKER: Creating new group with numThreads=1 (4)
2022-05-28T18:34:33.219Z| vmx| I120: FTCpt: (0 unk) State transition FTCPT_UNSET -> FTCPT_NOT_CONFIGURED (0:1)
2022-05-28T18:34:33.438Z| vmx| I120: WORKER: Creating new group with numThreads=16 (4)
2022-05-28T18:34:33.438Z| vmx| I120: WORKER: Creating new group with numThreads=1 (4)
2022-05-28T18:34:33.439Z| vmx| I120: MigrateResetStaleVMDBHostLog: Hostlog ./GNS3 - 2.2.3-989fa3d1.hlog doesn't exist.
2022-05-28T18:34:33.446Z| vmx| I120: MigrateBusMemPrealloc: BusMem preallocation complete.
2022-05-28T18:34:33.446Z| vmx| I120: TimeTracker host to guest rate conversion 2305769592604704 @ 2400085000Hz -> 0 @ 2400085000Hz
2022-05-28T18:34:33.446Z| vmx| I120: TimeTracker host to guest rate conversion ((x * 2147483648) >> 31) + -2305769592604704
2022-05-28T18:34:33.446Z| vmx| I120: Disabling TSC scaling since host does not support it.
2022-05-28T18:34:33.446Z| vmx| I120: TSC offsetting enabled.
2022-05-28T18:34:33.446Z| vmx| I120: timeTracker.globalProgressMaxAllowanceMS: 2000
2022-05-28T18:34:33.446Z| vmx| I120: timeTracker.globalProgressToAllowanceNS: 1000
2022-05-28T18:34:33.446Z| vthread-11| I120: VTHREAD start thread 11 "vthread-11" pid 648935
2022-05-28T18:34:33.447Z| vmx| I120: Unable to find file GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk
2022-05-28T18:34:33.447Z| Worker#0| I120: Unable to find file GNS3 - 2.2.3-000001.vmdk
2022-05-28T18:34:33.447Z| vmx| I120: Unable to find file GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk
2022-05-28T18:34:33.447Z| vmx| A115: ConfigDB: Setting scsi0:1.redo = ""
2022-05-28T18:34:33.447Z| Worker#0| I120: Unable to find file GNS3 - 2.2.3-000001.vmdk
2022-05-28T18:34:33.447Z| vmx| I120: DISK: OPEN scsi0:1 'GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk' persistent R[]
2022-05-28T18:34:33.447Z| Worker#0| A115: ConfigDB: Setting scsi0:0.redo = ""
2022-05-28T18:34:33.447Z| Worker#0| I120: DISK: OPEN scsi0:0 'GNS3 - 2.2.3-000001.vmdk' persistent R[]
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| vmx| I120: Unable to find file GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| Worker#0| I120: Unable to find file GNS3 - 2.2.3-000001.vmdk
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| vmx| I120: OBJLIB-FILEBE : FileBEOpen: can't open '/vmfs/volumes/557dc2e2-2c11eba8-1494-00259066ac58/backup/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48/GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk' : Could not find the
file (393218).
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| Worker#0| I120: OBJLIB-FILEBE : FileBEOpen: can't open '/vmfs/volumes/557dc2e2-2c11eba8-1494-00259066ac58/backup/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48/GNS3 - 2.2.3-000001.vmdk' : Could not find t
he file (393218).
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| Worker#0| I120: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: DescriptorOpenInt: failed to open '/vmfs/volumes/557dc2e2-2c11eba8-1494-00259066ac58/backup/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48/GNS3 - 2.2.3-000001.vmdk': Could
not find the file (60002)
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| vmx| I120: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: DescriptorOpenInt: failed to open '/vmfs/volumes/557dc2e2-2c11eba8-1494-00259066ac58/backup/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48/GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk': Could not
find the file (60002)
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| vmx| I120: DISKLIB-LINK : "/vmfs/volumes/557dc2e2-2c11eba8-1494-00259066ac58/backup/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48/GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk" : failed to open (The system cannot find the
file specified).
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| Worker#0| I120: DISKLIB-LINK : "/vmfs/volumes/557dc2e2-2c11eba8-1494-00259066ac58/backup/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48/GNS3 - 2.2.3-000001.vmdk" : failed to open (The system cannot find
the file specified).
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| Worker#0| I120: DISKLIB-CHAIN : "/vmfs/volumes/557dc2e2-2c11eba8-1494-00259066ac58/backup/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48/GNS3 - 2.2.3-000001.vmdk" : failed to open (The system cannot find
the file specified).
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| vmx| I120: DISKLIB-CHAIN : "/vmfs/volumes/557dc2e2-2c11eba8-1494-00259066ac58/backup/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48/GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk" : failed to open (The system cannot find the
file specified).
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| Worker#0| I120: DISKLIB-LIB : Failed to open 'GNS3 - 2.2.3-000001.vmdk' with flags 0xa The system cannot find the file specified (25).
2022-05-28T18:34:33.448Z| vmx| I120: DISKLIB-LIB : Failed to open 'GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk' with flags 0xa The system cannot find the file specified (25).
2022-05-28T18:34:33.449Z| vmx| I120: Msg_Post: Error
2022-05-28T18:34:33.449Z| vmx| I120: [msg.disk.fileNotFound] VMware ESX cannot find the virtual disk "GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk". Verify the path is valid and try again.
2022-05-28T18:34:33.449Z| vmx| I120: [msg.disklib.FILENOTFOUND] The system cannot find the file specified
2022-05-28T18:34:33.449Z| vmx| I120: [msg.disk.noBackEnd] Cannot open the disk 'GNS3 - 2.2.3_1-000001.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.
2022-05-28T18:34:33.449Z| vmx| I120: ----------------------------------------
2022-05-28T18:34:33.450Z| vmx| I120: Vigor_MessageRevoke: message 'msg.disk.noBackEnd' (seq 9606924) is revoked
2022-05-28T18:34:33.450Z| vmx| I120: DISK: Opening disks took 3 ms.
2022-05-28T18:34:33.450Z| vmx| I120: Module Disk power on failed.
2022-05-28T18:34:33.450Z| vmx| I120: VMX_PowerOn: ModuleTable_PowerOn = 0
2022-05-28T18:34:33.450Z| vmx| I120: SVMotion_PowerOff: Not running Storage vMotion. Nothing to do
2022-05-28T18:34:33.621Z| vmx| A115: ConfigDB: Setting replay.filename = ""
2022-05-28T18:34:33.621Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [648911 mainDispatch.c:1188]: VMAutomationPowerOff: Powering off.
2022-05-28T18:34:33.622Z| vmx| W110: /vmfs/volumes/557dc2e2-2c11eba8-1494-00259066ac58/backup/GNS3-2.2.3_2020-04-13-06:20:48/GNS3 - 2.2.3.vmx: Cannot remove symlink /var/run/vmware/root_0/1653762868010132_648911/co
nfigFile: No such file or directory
2022-05-28T18:34:33.622Z| vmx| I120: WORKER: asyncOps=2 maxActiveOps=2 maxPending=1 maxCompleted=1
2022-05-28T18:34:38.108Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [648911 mainDispatch.c:4292]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=1, newAppState=1873, success=1 additionalError=0
2022-05-28T18:34:38.108Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [648911 mainDispatch.c:4292]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=0, newAppState=1870, success=1 additionalError=0
2022-05-28T18:34:38.108Z| vmx| I120: Transitioned vmx/execState/val to poweredOff
2022-05-28T18:34:38.108Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [648911 mainDispatch.c:4292]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=0, newAppState=1870, success=0 additionalError=0
2022-05-28T18:34:38.108Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [648911 mainDispatch.c:4331]: Error VIX_E_FAIL in VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished(): Unknown error
2022-05-28T18:34:38.113Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [648911 mainDispatch.c:4292]: VMAutomation_ReportPowerOpFinished: statevar=0, newAppState=1870, success=1 additionalError=0
2022-05-28T18:34:38.114Z| vmx| I120: Transitioned vmx/execState/val to poweredOff
2022-05-28T18:34:38.114Z| vmx| I120: VMIOP: Exit
2022-05-28T18:34:38.540Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [648911 mainDispatch.c:843]: VMAutomation_LateShutdown()
2022-05-28T18:34:38.540Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [648911 mainDispatch.c:793]: VMAutomationCloseListenerSocket. Closing listener socket.
2022-05-28T18:34:38.625Z| vmx| I120: Flushing VMX VMDB connections
2022-05-28T18:34:38.625Z| vmx| I120: VigorTransport_ServerCloseClient: Closing transport 32263660 (err = 0)
2022-05-28T18:34:38.625Z| vmx| I120: VigorTransport_ServerDestroy: server destroyed.
2022-05-28T18:34:38.630Z| vmx| I120: VMX exit (0).
2022-05-28T18:34:38.631Z| vmx| I120: AIOMGR-S : stat o=2 r=0 w=0 i=0 br=0 bw=0
2022-05-28T18:34:38.631Z| vmx| I120: OBJLIB-LIB: ObjLib cleanup done.
2022-05-28T18:34:38.631Z| vmx| W110: VMX has left the building: 0.
Step 5 - Try Again On New Host
I was giving it a try again on the new host first by deleting the files, re-copying from the old host, updating the vmdk names in the vmx files, registering the machine but by now it's giving me a cryptic name with an Invalid status despite the register was successful.
2 Solutions
@MaxB @a_p_ for the info and guidance. I can see I should be pointing to the vmdk descriptor files from the vmx file, and not the -flat.vmdk flat files.
The reference shared by @MaxB is helpful and I did go through the commands to generate the temp vmdk descriptor files but didn't rename them to match the correct names, as the actual vmdk descriptor files were already there. It's good to know that there is a process to recover this if required.
I did update the vmx file to point to the original vmdk descriptor files, but still am seeing the following. I'm not sure if it's related but the very first time when I registered this VM on the new host it was successfully done with a proper name and at least I was able to start it, just that it was complaining about not being able to find disk, etc. Now it appears that even just registering the VM again, after having de-registering it, doesn't work. I also have deleted the files on the new host and re-copied them from the old host, after having started it again un-successfully on the old host. I haven't tried updating the vmx file on the old host to point to the correct vmdk descriptor (non-flat) files yet as I thought it must be something we can resolve on the new host. Any ideas on what I need to do to register the VM on the new host correctly?
