VMWare Converter - IDE to SCSI

[autoxr]

Hi I used Standalone converter to do a P2V of an old Dell PE SC1420 with a IDE RAID controller.  The P2V worked but when I try to boot the VM, I get a blanks screen with a cursor and can't go any further.  I found this link that seems to address the issue.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=101619...

The issue with this is that ESXi doesn't give you console access out of box.  I know that I can enable console access but I don't want to do anything to jeopardize supportability of this system from VMware.  That said that only thing that I can see to get around this is to download the VMDK file to my computer and edit it there.  I noticed that a flat file is downloaded as well and would like to know if this is the file that I could edit to change the drive type from IDE to SCSI.  Thanks in advance.

[continuum]

Hi
that looks more like the vmdk has no active partition.

did you tell the Converter to change the controller ?

the "keep existing" and "ide" options will usually NOT work.

Only Converter available that does not by habbit misconfigure the job is 3.0.3

If you look at the directory of the VM with the datastorebrowser you will only see
name.vmdk

actually there is
name.vmdk
name-flat.vmdk

you only need to edit the small textfile
name.vmdk

To download the name.vmdk start the download with datastorebrowser and abort it after name.vmdk arrived.
You do not need todownload or  edit name-flat.vmdk

By the way - do not edit ide to scsi like described in that kb.
That is over simplified - better see my notes
http://sanbarrow.com/vmdk-basics.html#changeadapter

Also the more important part is to edit the vmx correctly

[autoxr]

Hi Continuum,

Thanks for the info.  I am using VMware Converter 3.0.3, but I don't remember which option I chose during initial setup.  It seems as though I picked the wrong option because I have used 3.0.3 to successfully to convert the exact same model server (w/IDE RAID) into a VM w/SCSI.  I took a look at your link and it does have a great deal of information.  I think if I have a choice, however, I'd like to know how to change the controller option in converter. Thanks again.

Edit: I checked my vm and it has a Bus Logic Parallel SCSI Controller.

[Troy_Clavell]

It's in step 3 of the conversion process.  However, you may need to use 4.x.  I don't remember in 3.0.3 if there is a step in which to change controller type.

see below thread, for screen shots

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/250129

[autoxr]

During initial setup of 3.0.3, I know that I was given a choice of Disk Controller, and how many CPUs to give the VM.  After this initial setup, I am no longer given the option to change these settings.  I tried deleting the existing jobs from the vmware folder in my profile but this only removed the jobs.

[Troy_Clavell]

you may have to start the conversion again, from scratch.

[RParker]

During initial setup of 3.0.3, I know that I was given a choice of Disk Controller, and how many CPUs to give the VM.

You can change this AFTER the conversion, no real need to change it now.

[autoxr]

Scratch my last post on changing the controller/cpu.  I checked my notes and I was not given a choice of controller or cpu. 

Here is my current situation.

• I have a Dell PowerEdge SC1420 with Windows 32bit x86.
• I have successfully converted other machines of the same model type and OS with 3.0.3.
• I installed and ran converter 3.0.3 and it ran w/o errors.
• My new VM shows that it has a Buslogic Parallel SCSI controller
• When I check the name.vmdk file, I see that is is configured for - ddb.adapterType = "buslogic"
• When I try booting the VM, I get a black screen with a cursor.
• I tried the latest version of Converter (4.3.0), but this locked up another server of the same model type and OS.  I'm reluctant to try it on this server.

What do I need to edit to get my VM to boot up?

[Troy_Clavell]

you may want to start with the below KB.  Also, keep close attention to the bottom where it talks about editing the boot.ini

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006296

[RParker]

Edit the VM, change the boot options to boot into BIOS first.

Then in the BIOS change the boot order, make sure you expand the VM disk, change it to VM Virtual SCSI drive as the FIRST drive, bootable add-in cards need to be LAST.  I found this out the hard way.

Hopefully this will fix it for you.

[autoxr]

Just a quick update.  After a few more attempts at virtualizing my server with converter, I found that the vm will actually boot if I choose to keep my c: and d: partitions in the same vmdk.  In my first attempts, I told converter to create a vmdk for each partition.