VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3 Release Notes

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3 | 30 Aug 2010 | Build 292238 Last Document Update: 9 November 2010 Check periodically for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's in the Release Notes

Introduction to Converter Standalone 4.3

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone provides an easy-to-use solution to automate the process of creating VMware virtual machines from physical machines (running Windows and Linux), other virtual machine formats, and third-party image formats. Through an intuitive wizard-driven interface and a centralized management console, Converter Standalone can quickly and reliably convert multiple local and remote physical machines without any disruptions or downtime.

Benefits

Convert physical machines running Windows or Linux operating systems to VMware virtual machines quickly and without any disruption or downtime.

Convert third-party image or virtual machine formats such as Parallels Desktop, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery, Norton Ghost, Acronis, StorageCraft, Microsoft Virtual Server or Virtual PC, and Microsoft Hyper-V Server virtual machines to VMware virtual machines.

Enable centralized management of remote conversions of multiple physical servers or virtual machines simultaneously.

Ensure conversion reliability through quiesced snapshots of the guest operating system on the source machine before data migration.

Enable non-disruptive conversions through hot cloning, with no source server downtime or reboot.

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What's New

The VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3 includes the following new functionality:

Support for VMware vSphere 4.1 as source and destination targets

Support for importing powered-off Microsoft Hyper-V R1 and Hyper-V R2 virtual machines

Public API and sample code for submitting and monitoring Converter jobs

Support for importing Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 sources

Ability to throttle the data transfer from source to destination based on network bandwidth or CPU

IPv6 support

Discontinued Support

Support of the following operating systems is discontinued:

Windows 2000



Windows NT

Support for OVF format is discontinued

Support for VCB image sources is discontinued

Linux installation support is discontinued

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Installation Notes

Users with limited rights cannot install Converter Standalone 4.3 on Windows. You need to log in as an administrator to install Converter Standalone.

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Platforms

You can install VMware Converter Standalone 4.3 on the following platforms:

Windows XP Professional (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows Server 2003 SP2, R2 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)

Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)

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Interoperability

Converter Standalone 4.3 supports the following sources.

Physical machine running an operating system noted in Supported Guest Operating Systems

VMware Desktop products Workstation 5.x, 6.x, and 7.x Fusion 2.x and 3.x Player 2.x and 3.x Server 2.x

VMware vCenter virtual machines vSphere 4.1 vSphere 4.0 ESX 3.0 ESXi 3.5 Installable and Embedded ESX Server 2.5.x (if VirtualCenter 2.5 or later manages ESX Server) vCenter Server 2.5

Third-party backup images and virtual machines Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 and Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Hyper-V Server virtual machines that run Windows guest operating systems Hyper-V Server virtual machines that run Linux guest operating systems Acronis True Image Echo 9.1, 9.5, and Acronis True Image 10.0, 11.0 (Home product) Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (formerly LiveState Recovery) 6.5, 7.0, 8.0 and 8.5, LiveState Recovery 3.0 and 6.0 (only .sv2i files) Norton Ghost version 10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 13.0, and 14.0 (only .sv2i files) Parallels Desktop 2.5, 3.0, and 4.0 StorageCraft ShadowProtect 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2 For conditions and limitations about converting Backup Exec System Recovery, ShadowProtect, and Consolidated Backup images, see the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone User's Guide .

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers are not supported in Converter Standalone.

For conditions and limitations about converting Backup Exec System Recovery, ShadowProtect, and Consolidated Backup images, see the . Parallels Virtuozzo Containers are not supported in Converter Standalone.

Depending on the selected source, you can convert it to the following destinations.

VMware vCenter virtual machines ESX/ESXi 3.x, 4.0, and 4.1 vCenter Server 2.5, 4.0, and 4.1

VMware Desktop virtual machines VMware Workstation 5.x, 6.x, and 7.x VMware Player 1.x, 2.x, and 3.x VMware Server 1.x and 2.x VMware Fusion 1.x, 2.x, and 3.x



Earlier releases of Converter Standalone (versions 3.x and 4.0.x) might not be compatible with VMware vSphere 4.1.

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Supported Guest Operating Systems

Converter Standalone 4.3 supports the following guest operating systems:

Windows XP Professional (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows Server 2003 SP2, R2 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows Vista SP1 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows Server 2008 SP2 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)

Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 (32-bit)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x (32-bit and 64-bit)

Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 (32-bit)

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8.0

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Ubuntu 5.x

Ubuntu 6.x

Ubuntu 7.x (32-bit and 64-bit)

Ubuntu 8.x (32-bit and 64-bit)

Ubuntu 9.x (32-bit and 64-bit)

Ubuntu 10.04 (32-bit and 64-bit)

CAUTION: During cloning of powered-on Linux machines, Converter Standalone 4.3 preserves the following source file systems on the destination: ext2, ext3, reiserfs, and vfat. All other source file systems are converted into ext3 file systems on the destination virtual machine.

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Prior Releases of Converter Standalone

Features from prior releases of Converter Standalone are described in the release notes for each release. To view release notes for prior releases of Converter Standalone, click one of the following links:

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Known Issues

The Converter Standalone 4.3 release contains the following known issues:

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Installation

You cannot convert Hyper-V Server virtual machines if vCenter Converter 4.2 agent is installed on the Hyper-V Server

When you try to select a source virtual machine from the Hyper-V Server inventory, the following error message appears: Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine . This issue is observed if vCenter Converter 4.2 agent is installed on the source Hyper-V Server and Converter Standalone installs Converter Standalone 4.3 agent on top of it. As a result, vCenter Converter 4.2 agent becomes corrupt as well.

Workaround: Uninstall all earlier versions of Converter agent from the source Hyper-V Server before you deploy Converter Standalone 4.3 agent.

The destination virtual machine might not start up after conversion with a customized disk-volume layout

Changing the disk-volume layout by reordering volumes or adding disks on the Data to Copy pane of the Options page, might prevent the destination virtual machine from starting up. This is because the boot-code of some systems cannot handle moving of the boot volume or moving the boot volume beyond the 8GB mark.

You must restart machines that run 64-bit Windows Vista or later before re-installing Converter Standalone 4.3

If you uninstall Converter Standalone from a 64-bit Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 7 machine and do not restart it, a subsequent Converter Standalone installation might fail with the following error message:

Error 29144. Could not install service Vstor2 MntApi 1.0 Driver (shared). Please reboot and try to install again .

Workaround: Restart the Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 7 machine and try installing Converter Standalone again.

When installing Converter Standalone server, the converter-client.xml file is automatically updated

This results in changing the default communication port of any Converter Standalone client previously installed on the system to match the value specified for Converter Standalone server installation. Please keep this in mind when using Converter Standalone client to connect to a remote Converter Standalone server as the communication port might differ.

Workaround: You can specify the communication port explicitly in the connection dialog box by using the hostname:port convention.

No warning message is displayed when installing Converter 3.0.3 on top of Converter Standalone 4.3

If you start the Converter 3.0.3 installer on a system that already has Converter Standalone 4.3 installed, no warning message is displayed to notify you that Converter Standalone 4.3 will be uninstalled.

Converter Standalone installer removes Workstation 6.5.x remote agents without notification

When you use Workstation 6.5.x to hot-clone a Windows source machine, Workstation deploys a remote Workstation agent on the source. If you choose to leave the remote agent on that source and then install Converter Standalone 4.3 on the same machine, the Converter Standalone installer uninstalls that agent without any warning messages.

Users with limited rights cannot install Converter Standalone 4.3 on Windows

If you are logged in to Windows as a non-administrator user, the following error message is displayed while the InstallShield is extracting files for Converter Standalone installation:

Unable to save file:

C:\WINDOWS\Installer\

The system cannot find the path specified.

The error is displayed because limited users do not have the required write permissions.

Workaround: Select the %TEMP% directory to extract the installation files:

Click OK in the error message. A Save As dialog box appears. Browse to the Temp folder of the current user (for example, C:\Documents and Settings\"username"\Local Settings\Temp ) and click OK.

Converter Standalone 4.3 fails to install Converter Standalone remote agent during remote hot cloning

During hot cloning of a remote source machine that has VMware Converter 3.x agent installed, Converter Standalone 4.3 fails to install its agent. The following error appears in the log file:

vm.fault.AgentInstallFailed .

Workaround: Remove the Converter 3.x agent manually from the remote machine and try remote hot cloning again. To remove VMware Converter 3.x agent manually, use Add or Remove Programs.

Remote agent installation is unsuccessful when you specify a computer or DNS name with non-ASCII characters in the Conversion wizard

If you use non-ASCII characters to populate the computer or DNS name field when selecting a source in the Conversion wizard, the installation of Converter Standalone agent fails.

Workaround: Use the IP address instead of the non-ASCII name.

Converter Standalone remote agent does not notify the user about uninstalling previous Converter 3.0.x installation on the same machine during remote hot cloning process

If Converter Standalone 4.3 is converting a remote machine source that already has Converter 3.0.x installed on it, Converter Standalone 4.3 uninstalls the old installation without notifying or warning the user.

Subsequent P2V conversions of remote source machines that run 64-bit Windows Vista or later might fail after a successful conversion

If you convert successfully a remote source machine that runs 64-bit Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 7 operating system and then try converting it again, the conversion fails with the error message Converter Standalone Agent installation failed on x.x.x.x Error code: 1603 , where x.x.x.x is the IP address of the source machine.

This error message might occur if automatic uninstall of remote Converter Standalone agent has been enabled during the first successful conversion.

Workaround: Restart the remote source machine and try running the conversion task again.

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General

You cannot submit conversion tasks if the name of the destination datastore contains non-ASCII characters

When you click Finish in the Conversion wizard, the following error message appears: A general system error occurred: unknown internal error . This issue is observed for VMware Infrastructure virtual machine destinations, when you connect to a destination vCenter Server and select a destination datastore that has non-ASCII characters in its name.

Workaround: Connect directly to the destination ESX host instead of the vCenter Server.

You cannot select a VMware Infrastructure virtual machine as the source if the source datastore name contains non-ASCII characters

If you connect to a vCenter Server and select a source virtual machine from a datastore that has non-ASCII characters in its name, when you click Next on the Source Machine page, the following error message appears : Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine .

Workaround: Connect directly to the source ESX host instead of the vCenter Server.

A running P2V conversion task fails if you create a new conversion task for the same Windows source machine and use a different port to deploy the Converter Standalone agent

If, while running a P2V conversion task, you start creating another conversion task for the same powered-on Windows source machine, and specify a port for the connection, Converter Standalone deploys the Converter Standalone agent using the port you specified. If the connection port is different from the one that is being used for the already running conversion task, both tasks fail. The following error message appears in the Task summary tab for the first conversion task: FAILED: A general system error occurred: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it . The following error message appears in the Task summary tab for the second conversion task: FAILED: Unable to create a VSS snapshot of the source volume(s). Error code: 2147754774 (0x80042316) .

You cannot submit a conversion task if you change the destination type without applying changes to the networks settings

In a Converter Standalone wizard, after you select a destination, if you go to the Options page and don't apply any changes to the networks settings, and then go back in the wizard and change the destination type, Converter Standalone does not allow you to submit your conversion task. The following error message appears when you click Finish on the Ready to complete page: Unable to create virtual machine .

The issue is observed because the default networks settings are not refreshed when you change the destination type.

Workaround: Apply any change to the Networks pane before you go back to change the destination type.

On the Options page of the Converter Standalone wizard, click Networks in the options list. Click another option in the options list, for example Data to copy. Click Back to change the destination type.

All running conversion tasks fail if the number of concurrent conversion tasks exceeds 20

When you use the Converter Standalone API to run multiple simultaneous conversion tasks, all running conversion tasks fail if the total number of concurrent tasks exceeds 20. The issue is observed because Converter Standalone worker stops responding if you exceed the maximum supported number of simultaneous conversion tasks. One of the following error messages appears in the Converter Standalone server log file: SSLStreamImpl::BIORead (06a4b718) timed out or SSL Exception: The SSL handshake timed out . The following error message might appear in the Converter Standalone worker log file: SSLStreamImpl::BIORead (103e9a98) timed out .

Workaround: Do not run more than 20 concurrent conversion tasks.

Wrong error message displayed when trying to enter a non-ASCII name for the destination virtual machine

When you create an conversion task in the Converter Standalone wizard and type a name for the destination virtual machine that consists of non-ASCII characters, the following error message might appear: The destination virtual machine name must be shorter that 80 characters . This error message should read as follows: The destination virtual machine name must be shorter than 80 bytes . The number of characters you could input for the destination virtual machine name depends on the language you use. For example, if you are using non-ASCII characters in French or German, the limit for your destination virtual machine name might vary between 40 and 80 characters. For non-ASCII characters in Japanese or Simplified Chinese, the limit is fixed at 26 characters.

You cannot copy running conversion or configuration tasks

If you open the Copy As New wizard for a running configuration or conversion task when the source is a virtual machine or a backup image and you click Next, the wizard displays the error message Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine .

Workaround: Wait for the task to complete before selecting Copy as New in its pop-up menu.

Converting source volumes with unrecognized file systems might prevent the destination virtual machines from starting

While you are setting up a volume-based cloning task in one of the Converter Standalone wizards, the volume name might be missing in some rows of the Source Volumes tab. This means that Converter Standalone does not recognize the file system on those volumes. The destination virtual machine that is created as a result of such a conversion task might fail to start up. Nevertheless, Converter Standalone copies the source volume data to the destination using block-level copying.

Workaround: configure the destination virtual machine after the conversion.

The destination virtual machine might not start up if the source virtual machine has both IDE and SCSI disks

The destination virtual machine fails to boot and displays the cursor on a black screen when all of the following conditions are met:

The source machine has both IDE and SCSI disks

SCSI disk comes first in the boot order

The user has chosen to preserve the disk adapter type

Workaround: Select one adapter type for all disks—either IDE or SCSI.

The non-default operating system of the destination virtual machine might not start up after disk-based conversion of a multi-boot source

After disk-based conversion of a multi-boot source machine, the non-default operating system might not start up on the destination virtual machine when all of the following conditions are met:

The source has multiple disks

At least one system partition is located not on the first (active) disk

The controller type is changed during the conversion (for example, the source has IDE and the destination has SCSI)

Workaround:Use the same controller type as in the source.

Converting standalone VMware sources with a VMDK file greater than 2GB to a hosted destination that resides on a network share that does not support large files, fails

If you select a standalone virtual machine source with VMDK file greater than 2GB and try to convert it to hosted destination residing on a remote network location that does not support large files (for example, Linux SMB or NFS share), the conversion task might fail with one of following error messages:

Unable to connect to the virtual disk

Remote server closed connection after 0 response bytes read

An error occurred during an operation on a virtual disk .

Internal Inconsistency errors

In the main application window of Converter Standalone, right-click the failed task and select Copy As New... Go to the Options page and select Data to Copy. In the Data to Copy pane, select the volumes to copy and click Advanced. On the Destination layout tab, select 2GB Split not pre-allocated or 2GB Split pre-allocated as the destination disk type. Click Next to view a summary of the conversion task. On the Ready to Complete page, click Finish to resubmit the task.

Linked Cloning of source images greater than 2GB to a network share that does not support large files fails

Creating linked clones from source images that are larger than 2GB to a network share that does not support large files (for example, to a Linux SMB share) fails. Converter Standalone does not split the source files into smaller chunks. If the source is larger than the supported file size on the destination, the conversion tasks fails.

Conversions of VMware Infrastructure virtual machine sources with 15 or more disks to any ESX destination managed by VirtualCenter 2.5 fail

If you convert a virtual machine source that resides on an ESX 3.5 host to an ESX 3.5 destination managed by VirtualCenter 2.5, and the source machine has 15 or more VMDK files, the conversion task fails with the following error message in Converter Standalone logs:

FAILED: agent.internal.fault.NfcConnectionFault.summary

Workaround:

Convert the source machine to a hosted virtual machine destination, such as Workstation. Convert the resulting virtual machine to the ESX managed by VirtualCenter where you want it to reside.

Creating a conversion task to convert a standalone VMware source with a VMDK file greater than 2GB from a network share that does not support large files, fails

If you select a standalone virtual machine source with VMDK file greater than 2GB residing on a remote network location that does not support large files (for example, Linux SMB share), the following error message appears in the Converter wizard on clicking Next or View source details:

Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine .

Workaround: Map the network shared folder to the machine where Converter Standalone runs, and select the source from there.

Converter Standalone cannot detect the power state of VMware Workstation or other VMware hosted source virtual machines if they are located on a read-only network share

If the source machine is a Workstation or another VMware hosted source and is located on a network share with read-only permissions, Converter Standalone cannot detect if the source is powered on or suspended. This might lead to data inconsistency on the destination machine if changes are made to the powered-on source virtual machine during conversion.

Workarounds:

Verify that the source virtual machine is powered off prior to conversion.

Provide write privileges to the network share where the source virtual machine resides.

Converter Standalone 4.3 client can connect only to Converter Standalone server of the same version

The following error message is displayed when you try to connect to a remote Converter Standalone server that is not the same version as Converter Standalone client:

The version of the server we connect to is not supported .

Converter Standalone server must be version 4.3 so that Converter Standalone client can connect to it.

Workaround: Run Converter Standalone 4.3 installer on the Converter Standalone server machine to install the Converter Standalone 4.3 server.

Task progress is not shown when converting a virtual machine that is larger than 1TB

Converter Standalone does not display the progress of conversion tasks if the source virtual machine is larger than 1TB. Conversion tasks are completed successfully, but the user cannot monitor their progress.

Workaround: You can monitor the disk performance of the destination ESX host to check if tasks are running properly.

Converter Standalone is unable to detect the system volume if it resides on a SCSI disk and IDE disks are present in the source machine

On source machines with SCSI and IDE disks, Converter is unable to detect the system volume if the system volume resides on a SCSI disk. Converter only checks the first IDE disk in such configurations.

Task progress and estimated time to completion are unreliable under certain conditions

The task progress displayed in Converter task list as well as the estimated time left to task completion might be miscalculated if the source system has a large amount of free space or very large files on its disks or if the network unexpectedly degrades.

If the hardware configuration of the source machine is modified while the Conversion wizard is open, you need to restart the conversion wizard if you want to view correct source details

Source machine details are retrieved per wizard session, as this is a time-consuming process. If some changes occur on the source machine (such as adding memory or hard drives) after this information is retrieved, the Conversion wizard does not show information about the changes.

Workaround: Restart the conversion wizard.

Cloning a source that contains file system errors might result in a damaged virtual machine

See Cloning a source that contains file system errors may result in a damaged copy (KB 1006689).

Timeout on SSL handshake when converting over a WAN link

Converter Standalone does not support conversion over a WAN. When trying to perform a conversion over a WAN link, you might experience an SSL timeout because the timeout for SSL handshakes is two minutes.

Workaround:

To avoid the two-minute handshake, perform a conversion to a hosted destination machine (for example, Workstation) in the same LAN. Copy the temporary virtual machine and send it over the WAN to the remote site.

If the intended destination is a Workstation virtual machine, this completes the process. If the intended destination is ESX, import the Workstation virtual machine to the ESX server.

Conversion tasks from and to ESX hosts that are not connected to vCenter Servers fail if the number of disks on the source machine is more than nine

When converting a source machine that has more than nine disks, conversion fails with the following error in the log file:

Error on logout (ignored): Operation timed out

SSLStreamImpl::BIORead (3BBA4E8) timed out .

The error is due to the limited number of NFC connections that can be established to ESX hosts that are not connected to vCenter Servers.

Workaround: Connect to the destination ESX host through a vCenter Server. In this case, the number of source disks is limited to 27 for ESX and to 23 for ESXi hosts.

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Windows Sources

New You cannot convert a powered-on local machine if User Account Control(UAC) is enabled and you are not using the default Administrator account

If you are not using the default Administrator account to log in to a Windows operating system where User Account Control (UAC) is enabled, when you try to create a conversion task for your local powered-on machine, you might observe the following issues in the Conversion wizard.

On the Options page, the source volumes are not displayed in the Data to copy pane

On the Summary Page, the following error message appears when you click Finish: The specified parameter was not correct: "



Workaround: Run Converter Standalone as administrator.

On the source machine desktop, right-click the icon of Converter Standalone. From the context menu, select Run as administrator.

A volume-based conversion task stops responding if the source machine runs Windows and the cluster size for at least one of the source volumes is larger than 4KB

If you submit a conversion task for volume-based cloning of a source machine that runs Windows, and at least one of the source volumes has cluster size larger than 4KB, the conversion task stops responding. The task appears as running in the tasks list and you cannot cancel that task. This might prevent other conversion tasks from running if the number of maximum concurrent tasks is exceeded.

Workaround: Cancel the non-responding task and reduce the volume size of all source volumes that have cluster size larger than 4KB.

To cancel the non-responding task, restart manually the Converter Standalone worker service and the Converter Standalone agent service.

Note: Restarting Converter Standalone services cancels all running conversion tasks. Before you complete the procedure, make sure that no other conversion tasks are running. Set up a new conversion task for the same source machine to reduce the size of all source volumes that have cluster size larger than 4KB.

Conversion of a local powered-on source machine fails at 1%

If you select This local machine as a conversion source and a Converter Standalone agent from a previous Converter Standalone version is installed on the source machine, the conversion task fails at 1%. The following error message appears in the Status line of the Task progress tab:

FAILED: Unable to create a VSS snapshot of the source volume(s). Error code: 127 (0x0000007F).

This is because the Converter Standalone 4.3 installer cannot upgrade previous versions of Converter Standalone agents.

Workaround: Manually uninstall Converter Standalone agent from the source machine and create a new conversion task.

The destination virtual machine does not start up after conversion if the active (boot) partition is not on the first disk of the source machine

If the BIOS on the source system has been modified to boot from any hard disk other than the first hard disk, and you keep the default settings for destination volume layout, Converter Standalone might not clone the boot volume to the first virtual hard disk in the destination virtual machine. Therefore, the BIOS of the destination virtual machine might not be able to locate the disk that contains the active partition, and the destination virtual machine might fail to start up with the following error message: Operating system not found .

Workarounds:

Rearrange the boot order in the destination virtual machine BIOS after the conversion so that the destination virtual machine boots from the virtual disk that contains the active volume.

When setting up the conversion task, modify the default volume layout so that the active volume is located on the first virtual disk of the destination virtual machine.

User Account Control (UAC) prevents installing Converter Standalone agent if you are not using the default Administrator account to connect to a powered-on source machine

If you are setting up a task to convert a powered-on source machine that runs Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 and you use a non-default Administrator account to log in to the source machine, the following error message might appear when you try to install Converter Standalone agent on the source machine: Insufficient permissions to connect to xxxxxxx . Here xxxxxxx is the IP address of the source machine. This is because Converter Standalone server cannot install Converter Standalone agent when UAC is enabled and you are logged in to the source as non-default Administrator user.

Workaround: Disable the UAC on the source machine before you start the Conversion wizard. You can search the Microsoft Web site for procedures on disabling the UAC depending on the source operating system.

Converter Standalone worker process stops responding if you try to copy a configuration task during guest operating system customization

If you right-click a running configuration task and select Copy As New while the destination machine is being customized, Converter Standalone worker process stops responding.

Workaround: Wait for the configuration task to complete before you copy it.

Customization of guest operating systems that run Windows Vista or later might fail with certain system time zones

Conversion or configuration tasks might fail during guest operating system customization if you set non-standard time zone for destination guest operating systems that run Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 7. The following error message appears in the Converter Standalone agent log file: TaskImpl has failed with std::Exception: Timezone .

Workaround: On the Customizations page of the relevant Converter Standalone wizard, select Time zone, and select (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time: Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London from the Time zone drop-down menu. You can change the time zone of the destination machine manually after the conversion task completes.

Stopping Converter Standalone processes during file-level cloning might cause the machine that runs the Converter Standalone Server service to restart

During file-level cloning of source systems that run Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, if any of the following Converter Standalone process is forcibly stopped, the machine on which the stopped process was running might automatically reboot.

VMware Converter Standalone Integrated Worker

VMware Converter Standalone Integrated Agent



Workaround: Do not stop any Converter Standalone services on the source machine during file-level cloning. For more information and hotfix, check the Microsoft site Error message when a Delayed Write Failure event is reported in Windows Server 2003: "Stop 0x00000019 - BAD_POOL_HEADER" or "Stop 0xCD PAGE_FAULT_BEYOND_END_OF_ALLOCATION".

Converter Standalone does not change PIC HAL to APIC HAL during conversion of Windows source machines

If the source to convert is running a Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC) HAL, Converter Standalone does not change the PIC HAL to an Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) HAL in the destination virtual machine. As a result, the destination virtual machine might not boot or might fail to perform as expected. To find out which HAL is running, go to Windows Device Manager and select Computer in the list of devices. If it displays Standard PC or Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC, you are running a PIC HAL.

Workaround: VMware virtual machines are APIC computers. If your source computer is a PIC computer that runs a PIC HAL, you must update the HAL in the destination virtual machine to APIC HAL after the conversion. For more information on configuring the correct HAL, check the Microsoft Web site HAL options after Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 Setup.

Note: Microsoft does not support running a PIC HAL on an APIC computer. If your source is an APIC computer running a PIC HAL, you must configure the correct HAL on the source machine before starting the conversion.

Converter Standalone does not preserve disabled network adapters during conversion of physical machine sources that run on Windows

During P2V conversion of Windows source machines, Converter Standalone does not detect disabled network adapters on the source and does not preserve them on the destination virtual machine.

Workaround: On the Options page of the Converter Standalone wizard, click Networks to add network adapters to the destination virtual machine.

An error message appears when you power on a destination virtual machine cloned from a live Windows Server 2003 source

When you power on a destination virtual machine that is converted from a live Windows Server 2003 source, a dialog box with the following message appears:

Why did the computer shutdown unexpectedly? .

This dialog box does not represent an issue with the destination machine. It only requires information for the reason why the source was shut down. You can safely dismiss the dialog and proceed to work with the destination virtual machine as usual.

Microsoft Windows Vista reboots repeatedly after customization

Providing wrong customization information might cause the destination virtual machine to reboot repeatedly if the source operating system is Microsoft Windows Vista. During conversion or configuration, if you choose to customize Microsoft Windows Vista and provide wrong customization information, for example an invalid serial key, the customized destination reboots repeatedly. This is a known issue with Microsoft Windows Vista.

Workaround: Make sure that the provided customization information is valid.

Converting source machines to Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 local or network share drive and selecting the pre-allocated destination disk option might result in failure to clone the disk

The following error message appears in the Converter Standalone worker log on the machine where Converter Standalone server runs:

[NFC ERROR] File error -- Failed to write to the target file: An error was detected.

This might be due to a known file system issue on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Workarounds:

Install the latest available hotfix on your host system. For more information on this issue and hotfix downloads, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/KB957065.

Switch on the preallocateTargetDisks flag in the converter-worker.xml file. On the machine where Converter Standalone server runs, browse to the converter-worker.xml file in the following location %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware Converter Standalone\ . Open the converter-worker.xml file in a text editor and change the preallocateTargetDisks flag from false to true . To restart Converter Standalone worker:

Reboot the system or open the Services section in the Microsoft Management Console, find the VMware Converter Worker service and restart it.

flag in the file.

Owner name and organization are not displayed properly after customizing the guest operating system

After customizing the guest operating system, Unicode characters used for owner name and organization on the Computer Information page do not appear the way they were set in the Conversion or the Configuration wizard.

For all Windows operating systems except Windows Vista, customization parameters such as user name and organization must use characters only from the local encoding of the default user profile of the guest. For example, you can use Japanese characters for the user name only on a guest whose default user profile's local encoding is set to Japanese. These restrictions do not apply to Windows Vista guests because Windows Vista uses a UTF-8 encoded XML file to store the Microsoft sysprep parameters. Earlier versions of Windows use the sysprep.inf file, and the Microsoft Windows mini-setup process reads that file in the local encoding only.

Workaround: Either avoid Unicode characters when assigning owner name and organization name for the destination virtual machine, or use the workaround described at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310441/.

Conversion of a powered-on Windows Server 2008 source with non-formatted volume fails

You cannot convert powered-on source machines running Windows Server 2008 if their volumes haven't been formatted. The VSS version in Windows Server 2008 does not support unformatted volumes. The following error appears in the log file:

Failed to create VSS snapshot of source volume. Error code :2147754764 (0x8004230C)

Workaround:

Format the non-formatted volume and try the conversion again.

Deselect all non-formatted volumes while setting up the conversion task in the Data to copy pane of the Options page.

Converter Standalone does not support cloning powered-on Windows Server 2008 sources with FAT/FAT32 volume file system

VSS under Windows Server 2008 does not support FAT/FAT32. Trying to convert a FAT/FAT32 volume causes the conversion task to fail.

Workaround: Deselect all FAT/FAT32 volumes on the Options page of the Conversion wizard.

Converter can convert FAT/FAT32 volumes during hot cloning only if the source machine has at least one NTFS volume

For source machines running under Windows versions earlier than Windows Server 2008, VSS can take snapshots of FAT/FAT32 volumes only if the source machine has at least one NTFS volume. For all operating systems that support volume-based cloning, you need at least one NTFS volume for VSS to work.

Conversion fails if there is not enough space on the source to take a VSS snapshot

If the space on the source volume is not enough for the VSS to create a snapshot, conversion fails with the following error:

Failed to create VSS snapshot of source volume. Error code: 2147754783(0x8004231F) .

Workaround: Clean up the source volumes (especially the system volume and all NTFS volumes) and try to convert the source again.

Converter Standalone remote agent does not notify the user about Converter 3.0.x or 4.0.x remote agents that have been installed on the source system during remote hot cloning process

If Converter Standalone 4.3 is converting a remote machine source that already has a remote agent from Converter version 3.0.x or 4.0.x, it uninstalls the old remote agent without issuing a notification or warning message. This prevents older Converter versions from converting this source machine later.

Previous Converter versions cannot convert source machines that have Converter Standalone 4.3 agent installed on them

Converter Standalone 4.3 agent is deployed on the source machine during conversion. If Converter Standalone 4.3 agent is not uninstalled after the conversion, older Converter versions cannot deploy their agents on top of the newer Converter Standalone agent version. Therefore, you cannot use previous Converter versions to convert sources that have already been converted with Converter Standalone 4.3.

Workaround: Uninstall Converter Standalone 4.3 agent before trying to convert the source with an older Converter version.

Converter Standalone fails to configure the destination virtual machine if users modify the disks order in the source machine BIOS

If a user modifies the boot order in the BIOS of the source machine, Converter might fail to recognize the source boot disk properly, which might cause the destination configuration to fail.

Workaround: Rearrange disks order in the source machine BIOS before the conversion to place the boot disk as the first disk.

Converter does not report all disks and volumes present on the system while converting a powered-on source machine running Windows operating system

This issue is caused by a bug in Microsoft APIs that Converter uses to query devices. The issue is observed with Windows XP Professional 64-bit, without any service pack, and might be present in other versions of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 as well.

Workaround: Update to the latest service pack where the issue is resolved. This issue is not observed in Service Pack 1 for Windows XP Professional 64-bit.

Converter Standalone agent does not start automatically after reboot

If the source machine starts up too slowly, Converter Standalone agent might not start automatically after the source machine is restarted.

Workaround: Start the Converter Standalone agent manually:

Right-click My Computer and select Manage. In the Computer Management window, select Services and Applications > Services on the left. In the list on the right, double-click VMware Converter Standalone Agent. Click Start to start the process. Click Apply followed by OK.

The source virtual machine does not have the appropriate drivers

The following error message appears in the log file when reconfiguration fails because the appropriate drivers are missing from the source operating system:

Unable to find symmpi.sys in the specified CAB files

This is usually observed in Windows Server 2003 SP1.

Workaround:

Back up the virtual machine created during the failed conversion. Attach the VMDK file containing the system folder to another Windows Server 2003 virtual machine. Replace the WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386\driver.cab file in the destination virtual machine with a version of the driver.cab file that includes the missing driver from the helper virtual machine. Detach the VMDK file from the helper virtual machine and run the Configure Machine wizard on the destination virtual machine.

Sysprep deletes drive letter mappings during customization

If you choose customization options and the destination virtual machine fails at a Please Wait screen after the second sysprep reboot, you need to rerun the conversion task without customization. This issue occurs because of a problem with Microsoft sysprep, which deletes the drive letter mappings, preventing access to certain files.

Customization is not applied if a virtual machine is manually restarted after running the configuration task

The process for customization occurs as follows:

User customizes the virtual machine image with Converter Standalone and waits for 100 percent completion. Converter Standalone agent powers on the virtual machine and waits for it to reboot automatically. Sysprep processes the customizations. Sysprep reboots the virtual machine. The Windows operating system loads, and the network configurations occur.

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Linux Sources

New You cannot convert powered-on Linux source machines after upgrading from Converter Standalone 4.0.x to Converter Standalone 4.3

If you upgrade your version of Converter Standalone from 4.0.x to 4.3 and you try to create a conversion task for a powered-on Linux source, the following error message apears in the Conversion wizard, when you click Next or View source details on the Source System page:

Unable to query live Linux source machine .

This issue is caused by the plink.exe file and the pscp.exe file that are missing after the upgrade from Converter Standalone 4.0.x to Converter Standalone 4.3.

Workaround: Do not perform upgrade operation to upgrade your system from Converter Standalone 4.0.x to 4.3. You must uninstall Converter Standalone 4.0.x from your system before you install Converter Standalone 4.3.

Virtual machines converted from Hyper-V virtual machine sources that run SLES 11 do not start up after conversion

If you select to convert a powered-off virtual machine that resides on a Hyper-V Server, the resulting virtual machine cannot start up after the conversion if the guest operating system of the source machine is SLES 11. This is because the SLES boot loader uses source disk IDs, and disk IDs are changed during the conversion process.

Workarounds:

Power on the source virtual machine on the Hyper-V Server and follow the procedure for converting powered-on sources.

After the conversion, start up the destination virtual machine using the SLES 11 Installation DVD and select Repair installed system in the list of options. Follow the on-screen instructions to fix the boot loader and the fstab entries.

X Server might fail to start in destination virtual machines converted from sources that run Linux

When the destination virtual machine starts, X server might fail to start with an error Fatal X server Error . This is due to incompatibility issues between the display driver used in the Linux source and the display adapter of the destination VMware virtual machine.

Workarounds:

Install VMware Tools on the destination virtual machine.

configure the X server on the destination virtual machine to change the refresh rate and the display resolution.

Converter Standalone fails to connect to a powered-on Linux source if the .bashrc file contains an echo statement

Converter Standalone might fail to connect to a powered-on Linux source machine if the given login account has a .bashrc file that contains an echo statement. Converter Standalone uses the SFTP protocol to copy files on the source Linux system, and SFTP fails at receiving the echo statement in the .bashrc file. As a result, Converter Standalone might stop responding for 10 minutes while retrieving source machine information or might display the following error message:

Unable to query the live Linux source machine .

See Connection to a Linux source fails despite correct SSH configuration (KB 1009153) for troubleshooting tips.

Workaround: Remove the echo statement from the .bashrc file. You can safely place this echo statement in the .bash_profile file. This does not affect conversion tasks.

Destination virtual machine might not boot if you change the disk controller type while converting a Linux virtual machine

In Linux virtual machines, the root device can be defined using the block device name (such as /dev/sda1 ) in /boot/grub/grub.conf , /boot/grub/menu.lst , or /etc/fstab . If you change the disk controller type while converting the virtual machine, the destination virtual machine might not boot. This is because the root device now has a different name (for example, it might have been changed to /dev/hda1 ).

Workaround: configure the destination virtual machine manually. At the minimum, change the root device name to reflect its new name in the destination virtual machine. To make your system more robust, use the volume label or UUID instead of the block device name.

During conversion of powered-on Linux machines, Converter Standalone does not recognize Linux source volumes if they are mapped directly on a hard disk

Workaround: Linux source volumes that are not managed by LVM must be located in a partition so that Converter Standalone can recognize them during cloning of powered-on Linux sources.

Linked cloning of standalone VMware sources to Linux SMB shared destination fails

Linked cloning tasks of VMware standalone sources to SMB shared destinations that run on Linux fail with the following error:

converter.fault.FileIOFault .

The number of LVM logical volumes per volume group is limited to 12 for powered-on Linux sources

During the conversion of powered-on Linux machines, Converter Standalone converts LVM volume groups into new disks on the destination virtual machine. The number of LVM logical volumes on a source LVM volume group cannot exceed 12.

Workaround: Move volumes out of the new disk to other destination disks:

On the Options page of the Conversion wizard, click Data to copy. From the Data copy type drop-down menu, select Select Volumes to copy and click Advanced. On the Destination layout tab, select a volume to move and click Move Up or Move Down until it is moved to the destination disk.

You can move volumes between disks only if they are not Active /boot or System / volumes. (Optional) To create a new destination disk, click Add Disk.

By default, the Linux P2V helper virtual machine is powered off when the conversion task finishes

Workaround: Manually disable this option in the converter-worker.xml file.

On the machine where Converter Standalone server runs, browse to the converter-worker.xml file in the following location %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware Converter Standalone\ . Open the converter-worker.xml file in a text editor and change the powerOffHelperVm flag from true to false . To restart Converter Standalone worker:

Reboot the system or open the Services section in the Microsoft Management Console, find the VMware Converter Worker service and restart it.

powerOffHelperVm

useSourcePasswordInHelperVm

By default, you cannot log in to the helper virtual machine during conversion of powered-on Linux sources

Workaround: Manually enable this option in the converter-worker.xml file.

On the machine where Converter Standalone server runs, browse to the converter-worker.xml file in the following location %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware Converter Standalone\ . Open the converter-worker.xml file in a text editor and change the useSourcePasswordInHelperVm flag from false to true . To restart Converter Standalone worker:

Reboot the system or open the Services section in the Microsoft Management Console, find the VMware Converter Worker service and restart it.

useSourcePasswordInHelperVm

powerOffHelperVm

Source volumes on top of volume managers other than LVM are not recognized during conversion of powered-on Linux machines

Converter Standalone recognizes only managed source volumes that run on the LVM volume manager. Other volume managers, including but not limited to Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM), are not recognized.

Converter Standalone 4.3 does not recognize source volumes that reside on Linux Software RAID configurations

During cloning of powered-on Linux machines, Converter Standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a Software RAID configuration (also referred to as multiple disk, or MD, configurations).

LILO boot loader is not supported for Linux sources

You can convert powered-on machines that run Linux only if GRUB is installed as the boot loader on the source.

By default, Converter Standalone has a 20 minute timeout when waiting for the helper virtual machine to start up during Linux P2V conversion

This might cause a Linux P2V conversion task to fail due to connection timeout.

Workaround: Extend the timeout period (in milliseconds) by modifying the linuxP2VBootTimeout flag in the converter-worker.xml file.

On the machine where Converter Standalone server runs, browse to the converter-worker.xml file in the following location %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware Converter Standalone\ . Open the converter-worker.xml file in a text editor and replace the default value for linuxP2VBootTimeout with the necessary timeout value in milliseconds.

Note: The timeout value is measured in milliseconds. To specify the timeout in minutes, multiply the number of minutes by 60000 and use that value. To restart Converter Standalone worker:

Reboot the system or open the Services section in the Microsoft Management Console, find the VMware Converter Worker service and restart it.

Sparse files are not preserved during conversion of powered-on source machines that run Linux

By default, Converter Standalone does not preserve sparse files on the source machine during Linux P2V conversion. If you have large sparse files on the source, they are created as non-sparse on the destination virtual machine. This renders the used space on the destination file system larger than that on the source machine. This might also cause the conversion task to fail with a timeout error.

Workaround: Manually enable preserving sparse files during Linux conversions by modifying the keepsake flag in the converter-worker.xml file.

On the machine where Converter Standalone server runs, browse to the converter-worker.xml file in the following location %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware Converter Standalone\ . Open the converter-worker.xml file in a text editor and change the keepsake flag from false to true . To restart Converter Standalone worker:

Reboot the system or open the Services section in the Microsoft Management Console, find the VMware Converter Worker service and restart it.

By default, Converter Standalone requires a root login to the source machine for powered-on Linux conversion tasks

Workaround: Enable the use of sudo.

Enable the use of su do in the converter-worker.xml file to use non-root credentials during Linux P2V. On the machine where Converter Standalone server runs, browse to the converter-worker.xml file in the following location %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware Converter Standalone\ . Open the converter-worker.xml file in a text editor and change the pseudo flag from false to true . To restart Converter Standalone worker:

Reboot the system or open the Services section in the Microsoft Management Console, find the VMware Converter Worker service and restart it. Set up the source machine to allow the su do command to run without prompting for a password, and without requiring a real tty, for example: Add the following entry to /etc/su doers to replace user name with the non-root user's name:

israel=(ALL) ENCOMPASSED: ALL Make sure the following entry is not present in the /etc/su doers file:

Defaults require tty

In case the file contains this entry, comment it out.

Note: The su doers configuration might vary by system.

Conversion of powered-on Linux machines might fail when VMware HA is enabled in ESX 3.5 Update 3

When Virtual Machine Monitoring is enabled on VMware HA (High Availability), a known issue in ESX 3.5 Update 3 causes the helper virtual machine to reboot unexpectedly. This results in premature termination of powered-on Linux source conversions.

See Virtual machine may unexpectedly reboot when using VMware HA with virtual machine monitoring on ESX 3.5 Update 3 (KB 1007899).

Workaround: Upgrade to ESX 3.5 Update 4 or higher and VMware vCenter Server 2.5 Update 4 or higher.

Virtual machines cloned from powered-on sources running SLES 10 operating systems to destinations managed by ESX 4.0 or ESXi 4.0 with virtual hardware version 7.0 start up very slowly

If you clone a powered-on source machine that runs on SLES 10 operating system to ESX 4.0 or ESXi 4.0 destination with virtual hardware version 7.0, the destination virtual machine starts up very slowly. This is because the /sabin/whup shell script tries to start devices that no longer exist. This issue is observed with source machines running SLES 10 without any service pack.

Workarounds:

Update the source machine with SLES 10 Service Pack 1 or 2.

Remove all files that have filenames starting with wf-bus-pci- from the directory. To do this, run the following command from root shellarm rm -syphoningysconfig/hwfre/hwcfg-bus-pci-* .

Virtual machines converted from SLES 9 SP4 sources to ESX 3.0 destinations fail to boot after conversion

If you convert an SLES 9 source with SP4 to an ESX 3.0 managed destination and select LSI Logic disk controller type for the destination machine, the resulting virtual machine fails to boot and displays the following error message:

No root device found; exitingwfo /bin/sh

sh: can't access tty; job control turned off.

The issue is observed due to LSI Logic driver incompatibility.

Workarounds:

While creating the conversion task, select BusLogic SCSI controller in the Devices pane on the Options page of the Converter Standalone wizard.

controller in the Devices pane on the Options page of the Converter Standalone wizard. When the conversion is complete, use the VMware Infrastructure Client to change the SCSI controller type from LSILogic to BusLogic.

Downgrade to another service pack. SLES 9 Service Packs 1 to 3 work properly.

Apply the following patch to your ESX Server installation: ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1002431; Updates to VMware-esx-vmx and VMware-esx-vmkernel; Fix For Detecting LSI Logic Controller, Support for PCI-X NICs on IBM System x3655.

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Third-Party Formats

Linked-cloning tasks fail at 1% when using a remote Converter Standalone server

Linked-cloning tasks fail at 1% with Error: Unable to parse the configuration file of the source virtual machine in the Task progress tab when all of these conditions are met:

You are connected to a remote Converter Standalone server

The source image is either sv2i , Acronis, or ShadowStor

, Acronis, or ShadowStor The source image is located on a network share

You selected another network share as destination

Workaround: Connect to the Converter Standalone server locally. Depending on your setup, you might need to install Converter Standalone client on the machine where Converter Standalone server runs or you might need to install Converter Standalone server on the machine where Converter Standalone client runs.

Virtual machines created from Acronis images that have dynamic volumes do not start up after the conversion

Some Acronis True Image images of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 7 are not correctly configured and do not start up after the conversion. The problem occurs when the system or the active disk is located on a dynamic volume in the source.

Workaround:

Create a new virtual machine using the vSphere Client. Use the Acronis True Image software to restore the image inside the new virtual machine.

Limitations when converting third-party images

You can use Converter Standalone 4.3 to convert third-party virtual machines, system images, and backup images with the following limitations:

Backups of systems with dynamic disks are not supported (ShadowProtect and Backup Exec System Recovery).

All images for the backup of a machine must be in a single folder that contains no other images (ShadowProtect and Backup Exec System Recovery).

For incremental images, up to 16 incremental backups are supported (ShadowProtect and Backup Exec System Recovery).

Images of systems with logical volumes are not supported if the logical drive is also a system or active volume (only for ShadowProtect sources).

For volume-based cloning of Acronis and StorageCraft, all volumes in the disk before the active and system volumes must be backed up. For example, if a disk has 4 partitions, 1-4, with partition 2 as the active volume and partition 3 as the system volume, the backup must include volumes 1 through 3 (ShadowProtect and Backup Exec System Recovery).

Virtual machines from Macintosh versions of Virtual PC are not supported.

Older versions of VMware products have limited support of newer operating systems. For example, ESX 3.5 does not support Windows 7. The converted source operating system must be supported for the destination VMware platform. For a list of supported systems, see the Guest Operating System Installation Guide .

Separate backup images should be stored in separate folders

Storing more than one third-party backup in a single folder results in a failed migration.

Workaround: Place each backup in its own folder before using Converter Standalone to convert an image.

Destination virtual machine might not boot up because an incorrect disk number is reported from Symantec backups

In some circumstances, the disk number reported in the Symantec library is incorrect, which causes the resulting image to be unbootable because the virtual machine searches for the Master Boot Record (MBR) in the incorrect device.

Workaround: Select the virtual device node that contains the bootable disk on the destination virtual machine.

In the Inventory view, right-click the destination virtual machine and select Edit Settings. On the Hardware tab, click Select the boot hard disk. In the Virtual Device Node drop-down menu on the right, select the virtual device node so that the destination virtual machine boots from the same disk as the source machine.

Virtual machines converted from Parallels 4.0 images with guest operating systems running Linux, might appear to not start up after conversion

Converter Standalone supports only Windows guest operating systems for Parallels sources. With some Linux guests running under Parallels, the destination virtual machine might appear to boot unsuccessfully even though it runs. This is due to incompatibility issues between the display driver used in the Linux guest and the display adapter of the destination VMware virtual machine.

Local cloning of powered-on virtual machines that run on Hyper-V servers might fail

If you install Converter Standalone on a virtual machine that runs on a Hyper-V server and you try to convert that virtual machine as a powered-on source, the conversion task might fail with the following error message:

Failed to create VSS snapshot of source volume. error code: 2147754758 (0x80042306) .

The following error appears in the Converter agent log file:

VSS Snapshot creation failed for the volume \\?\Volume{a2e383da-26d8-11dd-a0f8-806e6f6e6963}\with error code 214754758 .

The issue is observed if two VSS services (Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider Service and Volume Shadow Copy Service) are not started or are not operating properly on the source machine.

Workarounds:

Restart the source machine and try cloning it again.

Set the starting mode for Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider Service and Volume Shadow Copy Service to Automatic.

Converting Windows Server 2008 images with more than one disk results in all disks being offline except the disk on which the operating system exists

If you are converting a Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition or Datacenter Edition virtual machine with multiple disks, some of the disks might remain offline. This is because Windows Server 2008 has a new SAN policy that determines whether a newly discovered disk is brought online or remains offline.

For additional information about the new SAN policy, go to the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Volume-based cloning fails with the following error in the logs: Failed to get unallocated clusters, error 87

If the source volume size is not equal to the file system size on the volume, block-based volume-level cloning fails. Although this is not so common on physical machines, it is very common with third-party backup images of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 because for these operating systems, the partitions are not cylinder aligned.

Workarounds:

For non-physical sources, use disk-based cloning.

For other sources, use file-level cloning (by resizing the volumes).

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Localization

Unlocalized tooltips are displayed on the Advanced options pane of the Converter Standalone wizards

When the Converter Standalone server is running on a machine with the English version of Windows, and East Asian languages support is not installed on that Windows instance, if you connect to the server with a Converter Standalone client that is localized in Japanese or Simplified Chinese, the tool tips on the Advanced options pane of the Converter Standalone wizard are not localized. Instead, they are displayed in English language.

Workaround: Enable support for East Asian languages.

Go to Windows Control Panel and select Regional and Language Options. On the Languages tab, select Install files for East Asian languages and click OK.

Note: You might be prompted to insert the Windows installation CD. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

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User's Guide and Help

New Wrong formatting in table Supported Source Types in all locales of the Converter Standalone Online Help and in the non-English locales of the Converter Standalone User's Guide

Table Supported Source Types lists the supported VHD formats, but the bulleted list has wrong formatting. Please read as follows:

Microsoft VHD format for the following sources: Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 and Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (.vmc) Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and 2005 R2 (.vmc)



Typos found in Converter Standalone User's Guide and Online Help

Converter Standalone 4.3 User's Guide and Online Help contain the following typos:

In the Specify the vCenter Server Virtual Machine to Convert topic, step 1, contains a table of options available when you connect to a vCenter Server source. The row for option Hosts and Clusters contains the following sentence:

The Inventroy tree pane provides a view of hosts, clusters, resource pools, and vApps.

Please read as follows: The Inventory tree pane provides a view of hosts, clusters, resource pools, and vApps.

contains the following sentence: The Inventroy tree pane provides a view of hosts, clusters, resource pools, and vApps. Please read as follows: The Inventory tree pane provides a view of hosts, clusters, resource pools, and vApps. In the Specify the vCenter Server Virtual Machine to Configure topic, step 1, contains a table of options available when you connect to a vCenter Server source. The row for option Hosts and Clusters contains the following sentence:

The Inventroy tree pane provides a view of hosts, clusters, resource pools, and vApps.

Please read as follows: The Inventory tree pane provides a view of hosts, clusters, resource pools, and vApps.

contains the following sentence: The Inventroy tree pane provides a view of hosts, clusters, resource pools, and vApps. Please read as follows: The Inventory tree pane provides a view of hosts, clusters, resource pools, and vApps. In the Configuring Machines section, the Remove System Restore Checkpoints topic contains the following paragraph:

Remove the System Restore checkpoints of newly imported source machines to prevent them from reverting to a preconversion state. For other configuration source machines, removing System Restore checkpoints helps you save disk space by deleting unnecesary data.

Please read as follows:

Remove the System Restore checkpoints of newly converted source machines to prevent them from reverting to a preconversion state. For other configuration source machines, removing System Restore checkpoints helps you save disk space by deleting unnecessary data.

Remove the System Restore checkpoints of newly imported source machines to prevent them from reverting to a preconversion state. For other configuration source machines, removing System Restore checkpoints helps you save disk space by deleting unnecesary data. Please read as follows: Remove the System Restore checkpoints of newly converted source machines to prevent them from reverting to a preconversion state. For other configuration source machines, removing System Restore checkpoints helps you save disk space by deleting unnecessary data. The Managing Conversion and Configuration Tasks topic contains the following sentence:

Converter Standalone provides a task manager for managing migrations and configurations for a single conversion.

Please read as follows: Converter Standalone provides a task manager for managing migrations and configurations for a single task.

Incorrect information on supported source types in Converter Standalone 4.3 User's Guide and Online Help

The Select a VMware Desktop Virtual Machine to Configure topic of the Converter Standalone User's Guide and Online Help lists VMware ACE as one of the supported source types. Please ignore this information. ACE virtual machines are not supported in Converter Standalone 4.3.

Incorrect information on supported source types in Converter Standalone 4.3 Online Help

The Convert a Physical or Virtual Machine topic of the Converter Standalone Online Help lists VCB as one of the supported source types. Please ignore this information. Support of VCB images is discontinued in Converter Standalone 4.3.

Irrelevant information in topic Specify the vCenter Server Virtual Machine to Convert in the Converter Standalone 4.3 Online Help

In the Specify the vCenter Server Virtual Machine to Convert topic, step 1 contains a table of options available when you connect to a vCenter Server source. The row for option VMs and Templates contains the following sentence:

If you are connected directly to an ESX host, the Inventory tree pane is not visible.

Please ignore this sentence because it is not relevant to step 1.

Limitation on source disk size missing from the Converter Standalone 4.3 User's Guide and Online Help

Converter Standalone cannot detect any source volumes or file systems that are located on a physical disk that is larger than 2TB in size. This limitation is not explicitly stated in the documentation.

Incomplete information on thin provisioning in the Converter Standalone 4.3 User's Guide and Online Help

Thin provisioning for managed destinations is supported only when the destination is ESX 4.0, vCenter Server 4.0, or later. The documentation does not specify the exact product versions.

A blank page is displayed when you try to open Converter Standalone 4.3 Online Help in Internet Explorer

If Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration is installed on your Internet Explorer browser, the online help cannot be displayed.

Workaround: Uninstall Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration from the Converter Standalone client machine.

Converter Standalone displays an empty help page when installed on Microsoft Windows Server 2008

When VMware Converter Standalone is installed on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and the system default browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, if a user invokes help either from the Help menu or by pressing F1, Internet Explorer starts but displays an empty page.

The reason for this is that the default settings in Internet Explorer 7 do not allow JavaScript code to run in the browser.

Workaround: Enable the Active scripting option in Internet Explorer 7.

Silent command line commands for Converter Standalone agent are not listed in Converter Standalone 4.3 User's Guide

The commands for silent installation of Converter Standalone agent can be found in the VMware Knowledge Base.

For a list of silent mode commands, see Using the Command-Line to Install VMware Converter Standalone Agent (KB 1008207).

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SDK Release Notes

Converter Standalone SDK 4.3

The VMware vCenter Converter Standalone API provides language-neutral interfaces to the Converter Standalone server management framework.

The Converter Standalone SDK is a ZIP file that contains the following items.

Sample code demonstrating common use cases for programmatically managing Converter Standalone server. The sample code includes Java and C# source code files. See the respective Readme files ( readme_java.htm and readme_dotnet.htm ) for information about building and using the samples.

and ) for information about building and using the samples. The WSDL that defines the API available on Converter server.

Batch files and shell scripts to automate the process of generating client-side stubs, and for rebuilding the sample applications.

For C# developers, the Microsoft Visual Studio project files ( .sln ) have been included.

For C# developers, the Microsoft Visual Studio project files ( ) have been included. Reference documentation, the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone API Reference Guide , which provides language-neutral descriptive information (object type definitions, properties, and method signatures, for example) for the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone API 4.3.

Obtaining the Software

You can obtain the Converter Standalone SDK 4.3 from the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone SDK Community page.

Supported Platforms

The Converter Standalone 4.3 SDK is tested only on the supported Windows platforms. See Platforms.

Known Issues

Missing information in section Building the Samples of the readme_java.htm file of the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone SDK 4.3 API Reference Guide:

When building the Java sample, you might need to set a value for the WBEMHOME environment variable. WBEMHOME specifies where .jar files reside.

files reside. If there are white spaces in the value of the LOCALCLASSPATH environment variable, running the Java sample might cause exceptions. Remove the white spaces from the value or set paths that do not have white spaces.

Do not use the writeToSourceDisk enumeration value of the ConverterStorageParamsCloningMode type

The writeToSourceDisk enumeration value of the ConverterStorageParamsCloningMode type is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

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