P2V of disk with multiple partitions

[DavideD]

Hello,

I'm working on a customer to convert his physical servers to vSphere 5.5 infrastructure.

I'm using converter 5.5 and have problems P2Ving one windows 2003 server with system disk with 2 partitions (C and E).

Physical Server

Disk 2: system disk with 2 partitions (C:, E: )

Vmware Converter

I have converted in following way:

Partition C:, G:, F: together

Partition E: standalone (converter 5.5 doesn’t support conversion of multiple partitions on the same disk).

Result is I have one virtual machine with 3 vmdk (disks C, G, F) and another “fake” virtual machine with only one vmdk (disk E).

I have moved the disk E vmdk to the folder of the “real” vm and added it to the virtual machine.

Boot.ini file is as following:

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003, Standard" /fastdetect

When I boot the virtual machine, I see the boot.ini menu, but the system doesn’t start and loop forever to boot menu.

Can anyone help me ?

thanks in advance

Best regards

Davide

[POCEH]

From the image I see that E is a system disk and C is system and active disk... could you upload log bundle to check the details?

[DavideD]

Hi Poceh,

to which log bundle do you referring to ? The converter log ?

tnx

[POCEH]

Yes, the converter's log bundle.

[DavideD]

Attached logfiles.

tnx

Davide

[POCEH]

Sorry for my misunderstanding but I can't catch up why you need to copy disk E: separately.

Normally Windows reconfig requires all system and active volumes to be converted all together for proper reconfiguration at end.

However you can try to reconfig only the destination VM again and then boot it, but if this don't work - convert all volumes - it should be fine.

HTH

[DavideD]

I must convert disk E separately, because if I try to convert C and E together, the process fails (converter start the task, vcenter create a new vm and immediately delete it. It seems Converter doesn't support conversion of multiple partitions on the same hd.

[POCEH]

This is interesting problem, could you upload log bundle with such failure? (C: + E:)

Converter supports multiple partitions for sure.

[DavideD]

No log is generated. Only Converter-gui.log file is created by failed job. The task fails with Unknown internal error.

[POCEH]

Non UI logs are placed in %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMWare\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\logs

Please upload latest converter-worker and converter-server logs.

[DavideD]

Logfiles attached.

tnx

[POCEH]

Ok, this is known bug... you can check RN for error: "Building partition list: Can't have more then one active partition on a disk." and "unknown internal error"

The simplest workaround is to use Converter 5.0

HTH

[DavideD]

Thanks POCEH,

next monday I'll be to the customer site and I'll try. I'll let you know.

thank you again

Davide

[DavideD]

Hi POCEH,

P2V with converter 5.0. was done correctly, but the virtual machine doesn't boot (loop to the windows boot.ini menu).

If start with recovery console, the "disk read error occured" errom message occurs.

[POCEH]

This is strange but you can try to reconfig only destination VM with Converter 5.5 now.

HTH

[DavideD]

Hello,

also with reconfig, the virtual machine doesn't start. But in the meantime I have P2V with converter 5.0.1 another server with disks configured in the same way, and this was converted correctly and the vm is started.

Now I'm thinking there are same problem in the physical disks or boot table of the server.

Davide

[indonez]

Have you try to change the thick to thin provision? I ever do the conversion, same condition like you, one physical disc with 2 partition, and I can move everything. But, I think, the most important thing is you just convert the C:\ drive first, because, the data partition we can copy manually later.

[POCEH]

Could you upload log bundle with failed conversion/reconfiguration with Converter 5.0?

[DavideD]

Attached the logfile of Converter 5.0 task.

I have tried to switch scsi0:0 and scsi0:1 with no luck.

[DavideD]

No, I have no tried to change the thick to thin provision. But the strange is that I have converted another server with exactly the same hard disk layout, and it is working.

For this reason I'm thinking about some physical error on hard disk.