probleme importing windows 2000 porfessional

[thomas_dolley]

Hi guys,

I'm triyng to convert one of my physical server into a VM with vmware convterer 3.0.2 and i ve got some troubles that i'm unable to solve.

my physical server is Windows 2000 professional SP2

And vmware convterter is unable to install the agent on the physicalm server.

I ve got the following messages

" Unable to connect to the remote VMware converter Agen. The remote host is not accessible using Microsoft Network Services It may be down or firewall"

So to bypass this problem I ve got 2 solutions :

• find which windows component is missing, but I'm really not a windows Administrator so I ve got no idea

• install the agent locally, but i didn't find any information about how to do this does anyone have this information

Thanks lot

Best regards

Thomas

[asatoran]

To install the agent, install Converter on the machine to be converted. During installation, a typical install will instal both Converter and the agent. A custom install, you have the choice to install just the agent.

If your problem is a firewall and you can't shut it off, you may want to run Converter from the machine to be converted since the firewall may still block the agent even after the agent is installed. Just chose "This physical machine" as your source.

[karemabdou]

i use the cold clone cd and it's working. try it.

[hdokes]

I am having the same issue however I did figure out that the install agent file is also loaded on the host machine when converter is installed so I moved that to the Win2000 server machine I want to convert and installed it there. It installed just fine and the service is running. I still can not 'connect' to the agent however even tho I can move files from the target to the host through mapped drives. I found that vm converter uses ports 445 and 139. Using a port sniffer I found these ports to be open.

The Win2k server is an ancient server that I can't take out of service as it is hosting MANY websites that can not be easily converted due to development in Cold Fusion many years ago along with older versions of MySQL and php. By porting this to new hardware in a VM I eliminate the fear of eventual failure of the existing server (which has long since outlived it's designated life... it just hasn't figured it out yet).

There is no firewall between these systems and they are on the same subnet however on different domains.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Later.....

Ok... discovered this in the event log on the target when I started the agent manually. While the agent runs.... perhaps this will shed a bit more light on the issue:

Event Type: Information

Event Source: ufad-p2v

Event Category: None

Event ID: 1

Date: 1/21/2009

Time: 9:31:08 PM

User: N/A

Computer: NEWWEB2

Description:

The description for Event ID ( 1 ) in Source ( ufad-p2v ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. The following information is part of the event: ufad-p2v service started.

[hdokes]

On another note.... I also am converting an existing win 2003 machine as it resides on a dual xeon system worthy of being a vm host itself. I was giddy with the prospects of taking a physical system and making it a virtual and all was going like clockwork.... until....

It appears that it was nearing completion however the task process status reads as follows:

10:59:30 PM Step 1 : Connecting to VMware Converter Agent on 192.168.70.3

10:59:30 PM Step 2 : Creating target virtual machine and converting data

10:59:30 PM Configuring parameters for the target virtual machine...

10:59:31 PM Creating target virtual machine...

10:59:38 PM Formatting target volume c:...

11:00:18 PM Taking a snapshot of the volume...

11:00:24 PM Cloning source volume c: into target virtual machine...

11:57:46 PM Formatting target volume d:...

11:58:27 PM Taking a snapshot of the volume...

11:58:30 PM Cloning source volume d: into target virtual machine...

01:43:33 AM Updating boot sectors...

01:43:33 AM Skipping boot.ini update...

01:43:33 AM Skipping drive letter mapping adjustment...

01:43:35 AM Step 3 : Preparing target virtual machine

01:43:42 AM ERROR: Unknown error returned by VMware Converter Agent

It appears to have successfully 'moved' both hard drive images from the src to the dst. There is also a corresponding vmx file. With 97% of the process completed, and looking at the log file on the machine (a 3rd server) with converter installed on it it did not show any obvious errors in the log file vmware-converter-0.log. The last few entries are as follows:

2009-01-21 11:44:33.306 'Ufa' 3932 info Plugin started

2009-01-21 11:44:33.306 'App' 3932 info UfaClientPlugin Start

2009-01-21 11:44:33.321 'App' 3932 info UfaSlavePlugin Start

2009-01-21 11:44:33.321 'App' 3932 info SysMigrationPlugin Start

2009-01-21 11:44:33.321 'App' 3932 info SysReconfigPlugin Start

2009-01-21 11:44:33.321 'App' 3932 info VMImporterPlugin Start

2009-01-21 11:44:33.321 'App' 3932 info ufad-p2v service started

The above looks to be associated with the converter however and not the actual conversion process. I could find no other log files on the converter host nor the dst c:\windows\temp directory. In fact, there was no vmware-temp subdirectory in the temp directory on the dst. server.

I decided to give it a go within the vmware server console and attempt to 'open' the newly created vm. I pointed it to the vmx file and all seemed to be going smoothly. It recognized all the hardware, including two drives, in the hardware list. Upon the point of starting however it displayed this error:

Windwos could not start because of a comptuer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the seleted boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.

With no obvious reason in any of the feedback for the error, 1. is there a way to have the process pick up where it left off to see if it complete, or 2. is there something I can do within the vmware server console to manually complete the process?

An observation.... the new vm shows it with two scsi drives and the src drives are actually ide. Not sure this makes a difference however it is inconsistant.

[continuum]

>An observation.... the new vm shows it with two scsi drives and the src drives are actually ide.

Not sure this makes a difference however it is inconsistant.

Thats expected behaviour.

Converter always changes IDE-drives into SCSI-drives as the ESX can not use IDE-disks.

___________________________________

description of vmx-parameters:

VMware-liveCD:

[hdokes]

Does IDE vs SCSI make a difference if I am porting to VM Server 1.03?

Also, I resized the drives to 20gb each from the 130gb size they were. In both cases they had 15gb or less occupied.

[hdokes]

Ok... I have been successful at porting the windows 2000 server over. I did it through the cold boot method which worked like a champ. Already have the vm running on vm server 1.03 and have discarded the old hardware.... yeah!!!

Now... still having issues regarding the 2003 server edition. Trying to do this through the hot method. No matter how I configure it.... I get the same result. Gets through 97% of the process and then gives an unknown error on the destination agent. Mind you... the destination is the same server that successfully received the windows 2000 server conversion.

I have noticed that the src 2003 server has SP1 and the dst has no SP's. Can this be the issue?

[karemabdou]

did u try to power up the machine or the process destroy the machine

[hdokes]

By powering up I am assuming you mean did I try powering up the resultant vm. After the conversion it was apparent that it did transfer both drives complete from the source server to the destination VM machine and it did create the .vmx file. I imported it into the VM console and did try to start it however I effectively received a 'no boot partiion' error.

Since my last posts I have attempted conversion to another vm server with same version of vmware server 1.03 and received the same results. I then upgraded this same vm server to vmware server 2.0 and attempted again. Again.. same result. The conversion in every case gets to 97% complete and starts step3 with the error "Unknown error returned by VMware Converter Agent". The last 3 lines before step 3 read as follows:

updating boot sectors

skipping boot.ini update

skipping drive letter mapping adjustment

The converter agent I am using is version 3.03.

This is a bit frustrating as unlike the successful win2000 server conversion I performed with a cold convert... I haven't been able to convert anything using the hot convert method. Unfortunately, the win2003 I am currently trying to convert can not be taken down for the 4+ hours it takes to do a cold convert.

I guess the one thing that seems apparent here is that it certainly looks as tho the local conversion process on the source machine completes it's tasks (transfering the drive data) then once it's done hands the process over to the destination agent to complete the process. This is where I am sure it is hiccuping. It would be nice if there were a way to 'resume' this process as all the data has been transferred.. it's just a matter of OS adjustment to allow it to run in the VM after that. As the data transfer part of it is the most time consuming... being able to 'resume' the process at the destination end would be a nice feature. I have wasted countless hours going through these motions at 4+ hours a pop.

I'm certainly open to suggestions here and/or will provide any additional information that may help.

[R-Sommer]

I always prefer another method of migration: Using an Image SW (like Acronis TrueImage), boot with its CD the desired pc and create an Image. This procedure is very fast, so the downtime for the pc is very short (especially if I only image the system partition). After that I have enough time for migration using VMware Converter and making as much tests as needed (where the VM is not attached to the same network of course). When it at least fit my needs, I know the strategy and time needed, so I plan the real migration.

[hdokes]

Great idea R-Sommer. A bit embarrased I didn't think of it myself. I use true image all the time. Just have never used in conjuction with VM yet.

Will give it a shot and report back.

Thanks

[karemabdou]

i try this and it's working too

[hdokes]

Well I have to admit... it was a bit tedious... not a lot of info out there on the process... took some major discovering... but I finally got the win2003 physical server converted to a vm under vmware server 2.0 using acronis echo enterpise and never had the server down. I'm a happy camper now. If any one is looking for pointers on this.. feel free to email me and I'll detail it here.

[R-Sommer]

Congratulation. Sending an e-mail with questions to you, would be nice. But posting your expirience here or as a document would be better, because it will be found through the search functions of this forum.

And don't forget to mark this thread answered and/or usefull, if you like.