VMware Standalone Converter 5.0 fails converting linux phys machine

[Frank733]

I have converted a number of machine that are of the same physical construction.  While trying to convert a Linux 4.0 physical machine, I recieve a failed with the following error:

Cannot communicate with the remote host, either due to network errors or because the host is not responding.

Remote login using ssh is enabled.  When running converter I am able to see the statistics of the physical machine which tells me that access has been granted.  I have also verified that I could ssh into this machine remotely.   Once I run converter it goes for quite awhile before I get the failure.

I have attached the log file in two formats one being a wordpad format that has every error highlighted.  I have been searching these errors without any solution.  If anyone has an idea as to what the problem is, I would appreciate the help.

Thanks

[continuum]

Linux 4.0 ? - what is that - please be more specific.
Which kernel do you use ? - do you use LVM ?

[Frank733]

Sorry, this is RHEL 4.0;  2.6.9-101.ELsmp. This machine is on a standalowne network.  I am using static IP addresses and have a single physical drive with LVM.  No raid of course.

Thanks in advance for taking a look.

[ivivanov]

Can you export a log bundle for the failed task? It is not clear which host is not reachable...

[Frank733]

ivivanov, thanks for your response.  I assume you mean the entire .zip file so it is attached.   Please let me know if I have misunderstood your request.

[ivivanov]

Wow, for some reason there are only GUI logs in this archive. Did you switch the GUI client to task view and export the task logs from the failed task context menu?

The GUI logs still show that converter helper VM started successfully, but Converter Server was not able to connect to it and eventually gave up after 15 minutes.

Converter helper VM is actually the target VM, which was boot from an ISO image distributed with Converter. It contains a Linux distro which carries out the rest of the conversion process. The ISO image contains a Converter Helper service set up to start automatically and Converter Server is trying to connect to the Helper service. Is there a chance that you don't have network connectivity between the Converter Server machine and the target VM? Or, for example have multiple network cards on the source and have eth0 connected to a "wrong" (inaccessible) VM network on the target?

[Frank733]

All,

Thanks to those of you that were looking at this problem and trying to help me.  I was able to figure out the problem so I will post what I found for the community.

I was not aware that in converter if you select View-Jobs and select/highlight the job you could see the Log hightlights in a much more readable form.  In this case I was able to see that the converter was unable to connect to the Converter helper server.  I created an new job and VMhelper which is configured in the last step of the converter wizard.  Apparently, I had an error in my helper that was causing the problem.  Doing this removed the problem and allowed me to convert the machine.

Again, thanks to those who were trying to help.

[Frank733]

ivivanov,  I was working the problem while you were looking at it.  I just figured out my problem but you were on the right track.  Again, thank you for your help.  I can see by your response that most likely would have led me in the correct direction.  Learning new tools comes with the risk of a steep learning curve and lack of specific knowledge that can sometimes solve simple problems.

See my other post for my evaluation of what happened.

Thanks again.