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VMware Clone BSOD

Hello

I'm having an issue with cloning a running W2K8 R2 server VM. The original server has Win 2008 R2 Std. This clones successfully.. However, when starting the clone VM, I get the following :

"autochk program not found - skipping AUTOCHECK"

....then BSOD

"STOP: C000021a Fatal System Error
The Session Manager Initialization system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc000003a

However, when I cold clone the original VM, the clone works fine.

Hope you can help?

Thank you

bgoering

According to http://communities.vmware.com/thread/288439 (on 2nd page of thread) you must make the clone from a powered off vm. Review items from first page also as users have reported issues with customization breaking it, MSDN media insteal of VL or Retail media, etc.

Good Luck

nico-

ASKER

I managed to fix this by looking at the vmlog in the relevant datastore. I searched for the word"fail"
and then saw the CD ROM was failing ..

I removed the CD ROM from the Clone through Edit Settings and the Clone powered on okay.

I then powered off, added the CD ROM from Edit settings on the clone and again it worked fine.

The difference seemed to be the virtual node .. on the original it was 0:0 .. on the clone it was 1:0 !

nico-

ASKER

minus 500 for me..

The machine rebooted about 30 mins later and went back into the cycle above !!

nico-

ASKER

didn't work after all

bgoering

Did you try cloning from powered down vm?

nico-

ASKER

Yep. Check out the original question at the end.

That works fine. It's really for learning more than in practice and interest to see why cloning isn't working from the live VM. Just a bog standard 2008 R2 install. Nothing else installed on the running VM box, except whatever MS Updates chucked on there.

bgoering

Ah - didn't notice that only saw clone running vm part. Are you doing customization on the clone? If so can you try the clone of the running vm with no customization?

nico-

ASKER

thanks for the reply
the "no customisation works fine" cloning from running VM and from a template .. i wonder if this is just a 2008 std r2 thing ? .. cloning doesn't even work when using customisation from a template created from the running VM.

maybe it's a weakness in vmware ? i wonder why they would have the functionality there without it actually working ?

bgoering

Don't know - 2008 customization is a bit different than for older versions of Windows. What customization options are you selecting? Might try with only selecting on option at a time until it breaks. Is vm a domain member?

nico-

ASKER

ha ha .. yeah, i was thinking the same thing.. but i think even if i don't select anything, it will be selecting the default option / settings .. eg typical settings instead of custom for networking .. rather than off and on

bgoering

I know for some earlier version I used to have to lie to vmware about OS type to get things to work. You might want to try to set the guest os type to Vista x64 and see what happens.

Also found article that might be worth a look: http://www.happysysadm.com/2010/11/vmware-windows-2008-r2-template.html

bgoering

nico-

ASKER

thanks bgoering .. i'll try those out today

nico-

ASKER

the vista thing didn't do the trick ..
i also tried blank password as vmware's vSphere VM Admin Guide puts that as a pre req.

i'll check the other options out now

nico-

ASKER

the second was replacing with a backup of the reg .. it's the first time i've powered the VM up after cloning so obviously no backup available .. also, it's not the ideal to do reg hacks for cloning .. goes against the whole time saving operation .. maybe ESX 5 approach might be easier

there's still the lengthy win 2008 template to follow .. but it's looking like it's a cold clone or no clone until they bring out ESX 5

bgoering

That is a bummer - I haven't actually tried this myself (always do cold clone just to ensure consistancy when generating a template) - but I might give it a shot when I get some time because I am interested now.

nico-

ASKER

I thought : http://vmetc.com/2009/08/13/windows-server-2008-deploy-from-template-guest-customization-update/ was the answer and then realised when it said "change the OS to Vista" before changing to a template, that the VM has to be switched off for this to happen. Which is basically a cold clone, which we know already works!

bgoering

You know, using the VMware converter to create a copy (clone) of a running vm may work to generate a template.

nico-

ASKER

can't export using vm converter whilst the VM is running !

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

bgoering

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nico-

ASKER

ah, i was using the plug in through vpshere client
might give that a go ! thanks

nico-

ASKER

so .. can't clone on the fly with a running vm .. but vm standalone converter did do the trick!

always good to have a plan b :)

thanks bgoering .. point coming your way mate

nico-

ASKER

not an easy one this ..

easily worth 500

mmunger

Did you get a resolution to this? I keep getting the same bsd.