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gllanderasFlag for Spain

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Error importing a vmware machine into ESXi

Hello,

I have a VMware Server 2.0.1 with one machine that is running, the machine is a Windows 2000 Server with Virtual Hardware Version 7.
It also has 2 SCSI disks on a BusLogic SCSI controller.

Now I installed the ESXi v5 in another server and I'm trying to import the virtual machine into the ESXi using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone (I tried with versions 4.01, 4.3.0 and 5.0.0) but the precess fails.

The error at the Converter is:

Type: Convert virtual machine to virtual machine
Status: FAILED: fault.DeviceUnsupportedForVmVersion.summary

I downloaded the log files, and there I can see this errors:

at vmware-converter-server-3.log:

[2012-01-03 18:02:34.196 03008 info 'App'] [taskSpec,357] [Task] Caught an exception while waiting on the agent task to complete. Gathering agent logs before propogating the exception further. Exception message: vim.fault.DeviceUnsupportedForVmVersion

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at vmware-converter-agent-3.log:

[#5] [task-1] [2012-01-03 18:02:32.714 01732 error 'App'] CreateVm task failed: The device or operation specified at index '1' is not supported for the current virtual machine version 'vmx-04'. 
[#5] [task-1] A minimum version of 'vmx-06' is required for this operation to succeed.
[#5] [task-1] [2012-01-03 18:02:32.761 01732 error 'App'] [vmiImportTask,629] void __thiscall Converter::Agent::Internal::VmiImportTask::ScheduleClone(bool) -- Error during creation of target VM
[#5] [task-1] [2012-01-03 18:02:32.761 01732 error 'task-1'] TaskImpl has failed with MethodFault::Exception: vim.fault.DeviceUnsupportedForVmVersion
[#5] [task-1] [2012-01-03 18:02:32.761 01732 info 'task-1'] void __thiscall Converter::Agent::Internal::VmiImportTask::CloseImportSource(void) -- Closing the import source.
[#5] [task-1] [2012-01-03 18:02:34.040 01732 info 'task-1'] ConvertTask updates, state: 4, percentage: 0, xfer rate (Bps): <unknown>
[#5] [task-1] [2012-01-03 18:02:34.040 01732 verbose 'PropertyProvider'] RecordOp ASSIGN: info, task-1
[#5] [task-1] [2012-01-03 18:02:34.040 01732 error 'App'] Task failed: The device or operation specified at index '1' is not supported for the current virtual machine version 'vmx-04'. 

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Any idea? Thanks.
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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Windows 2000 is not supported by VMware Converter later than 3, so I would recommend try VMware Converter 3.0.

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Thanks for your answers, hanccocka, I will try tomorrow (I'm not at the office) with Converter 3.0.3.

I hope not to have problems connecting an old version of Converter with the lastest version of ESXi...

Any way, I think that Converter 4.0.1 supports Windows 2000, I must check it.
Fizicist, the virtual machine is not powerd-on, and before converting it, I deleted the snapshots. And I'm doing the conversion through a third computer.

Computer 1: A Windows 2003 with VMware Server
Computer 2 (virtual): Windows 2000, the computer to be imported into ESXi. It is powerd-off.
Computer 3: A Windows 7 with VMware Converter Standalone
There is one thing that I think that has no influence, but just in case...

The virtual machine has 2 disks of 100GB each one, splitted in 2GB files and the disk space is not preallocated.

When I configured the conversion at Converter, I changed the disk mode to 'thin' because I have no free space for the disks 'inflated'.

It's the only change that I do while configuring the conversion, and I tried indicating the version 7 of the virtual hardware and with version 8.
I would recommend and use an older version  of converter, as support for older OS, was being removed from later versions of converter.

It will make no difference which version you use to connect to ESXi.

It's ALWAYS recommended to install converter on the VM, to be converted, you'll have less issues.
To ensure a conversion happens with no issues, it's best to not change any items, and leave as defaults.

At what percentage does it fail?
I don't know at what percentage it fails, but it was after 5 minutes running.

In others attempts it fails up to 20 minutes after began, but the difference it is possible a networks issue.

I will try with the version 3.0.3 and if it fails the I will try to reduce the disks to 50GB or less and then do the conversion without change anything.
I'm curious to ask the group.  OS limit on Converter version I believed to be a limit on a physical machine running the OS.  Recently had to virtualize a Win2k machine and ran into that problem.  Author: gllanderas already has a virtual system (windows 2000) with all the associated .vmx, .vmdk files.  My understanding is that he needs to move a configuration meant for VMServer to ESXi.  Converter does this, but I didn't believe the OS limit applied to an OS once it's virtualized.  I could be wrong.
Didn't mean to go off topic.  Never mind.
@Fizicist: Seriously, post a question, and myself and other experts can discuss.
Although you've already virtualized it, the logs seem to indicate that the machine may have one or more "hardware" devices that are not supported for conversion. There are two places to asses this:
1) have you added some local support for special devices in VMware Server for this VM that are not compatible with an ESX-based VM? I'd look for USB, serial or other devices, and remove them from the VM configuration before relying the conversion.
2) when you originally virtualized the machine, was it a P2V or clean install? If the former, you'll want to check to make sure the hardware registry in the VM is cleared of placeholder entries for unused devices (NICs, GPUs, etc) that could be causing Agent to have heartburn. See http://networkadminkb.com/KB/a70/how-to-remove-hidden-hardware-devices-from-device-manager.aspx for the method to reveal hidden devices.

Of course, you'll want a good backup of the VM before you go editing the configuration or the machine itself...
Probably the problem was with the conversion of the disks to thin.

I installed Converter 3.0.3 and tried to import the virtual machine into the ESXi server, but it fails.

Then I tried to import another virtual machine (a Windows XP SP2, virtual hardware 4, powered-off) and it fails too! In this case the error was: VMX file is corrupt  but it is not true, I can power-on the virtual machine on a VMware Server 2.0.2 and it runs ok.

Then I installed the SP3 of XP on the machine and raise the virtual hardware version to 7, powered it off again and tried to import it into the ESXi server, with same error: VMX file is corrupt.

I desinstalled Converter 3.0.3 and installed the version 5.0.0 and with this version I could import the Windows XP into the ESXi server.

Then I made a copy of the Windows 2000 virtual machine on the computer with that has the Converter and deleted the second disk, so now it has one disk of 100 GB. At this moment the Converter is working importing it to the ESXi, and it seems to work ok. In this case I didn't change the type of the disk to thin.

I will try a few things more and tell you what happens. :)
@millardjk, the Windows 2000 virtual machine is a P2V with few hardware configurated:

1 CPU
768MB
2 HD SCSI, 100 GB each one and disk space is not preallocated
1 network adapter (bridged)
a CD/DVD drive (IDE)
1 SCSI controller - BusLogic
1 USB controller

I can remove the USB controller, it is not necesary, but first I'm going to check if it is a problem of the conversion of the disks to thin instead of thick
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It's ALWAYS recommended to install converter on the VM, to be converted, you'll have less issues.
I found the solution while trying the things commented by the experts, but their comments helped.
Thanks for your help, I split the points between the solutions that was more helpful for me.