VMware vCenter Converter 4.2 for vCenter Server 4.1 Release Notes
VMware vCenter Converter 4.2 | 13 Jul 2010 | Build 254483
vCenter Server 4.1 | 13 Jul 2010 | Build 258902
Last Document Update: 16 Aug 2010
Check periodically for additions and updates to these release notes.
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What's in the Release Notes
These release notes cover the following topics:
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Introduction to VMware vCenter Converter 4.2
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What's New
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Installation Notes
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Platforms
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Interoperability
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Supported Guest Operating Systems
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Prior vCenter Converter Releases
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Known Issues
Introduction to VMware vCenter Converter 4.2
With VMware vCenter Converter, you can automate the process of creating VMware virtual machines from physical machines running Windows or Linux, virtual machine formats that are not specific to VMware, other third-party image formats, and VMware virtual machines. Through an intuitive wizard-driven interface, vCenter Converter can convert multiple local and remote physical machines with minimum disruptions and downtime.
Benefits
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Convert physical machines running Windows or Linux operating systems to VMware virtual machines quickly and without any disruption or downtime.
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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.
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Enable centralized management of remote conversions of multiple physical servers or virtual machines simultaneously.
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Ensure conversion reliability through quiesced snapshots of the guest operating system on the source machine before data migration.
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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 4.2 is a substantial upgrade from vCenter Converter 4.1 and includes the following new functionality (previously found only in vCenter Converter Standalone 4.0.x):
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Physical to virtual machine conversion support for Linux sources including:
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1, 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0
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SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8.0, 9.0, 10.0, and 11.0
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Ubuntu 5.x, 6.x, 7.x, and 8.x
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Hot cloning improvements to clone any incremental changes to physical machine during the P2V conversion process
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Support for converting new third-party image formats including Parallels Desktop virtual machines, newer versions of Symantec, Acronis, and StorageCraft
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Workflow automation enhancements to include automatic source shutdown, automatic start-up of the destination virtual machine as well as shutting down one or more services at the source and starting up selected services at the destination
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Destination disk selection and the ability to specify how the volumes are laid out in the new destination virtual machine
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Destination virtual machine configuration, including CPU, memory, and disk controller type
In addition, vCenter Converter 4.2 adds functionality not found in the standalone Converter product including:
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Support for VMware vSphere 4.1 as source and destination targets
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Support for importing powered-off Microsoft Hyper-V R1 and Hyper-V R2 virtual machines
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Support for importing Windows 7 sources
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Ability to throttle the data transfer from source to destination based on network bandwidth or CPU
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IPv6 support
Discontinued Support
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You cannot schedule recurring conversion tasks with vCenter Converter 4.2.
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Support of the following operating systems is discontinued:
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VMware vSphere 4.1 is the last major release for VMware vCenter Converter plug-in. VMware will continue to provide technical support for vCenter Converter through the end of its support lifecycle. VMware will continue to update and support the free vCenter Converter Standalone product, which enables conversions from sources such as physical machines, VMware and Microsoft virtual machine formats, and certain third-party disk image formats.
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Installation Notes
Users with limited rights cannot install vCenter Converter 4.2 on Windows. You need to log in as an administrator to install vCenter Converter.
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Platforms
You can install VMware vCenter Converter 4.2 on the following platforms:
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Windows XP Professional (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Windows Vista (32 and 64-bit)
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Windows Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Windows Server 2008 R2
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Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Interoperability
vCenter Converter 4.2 supports the following sources and destinations:
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Destination
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Physical machine running an operating system noted in Supported Guest Operating Systems
Workstation 7.0.x, 6.5.x, 6.0.x, 5.x, and 4.x
Fusion 1.x and 2.x
vSphere 4.1
vSphere 4.0
ESX 3.x
ESXi 3.5 Installable and Embedded
ESX Server 2.5.x (if VirtualCenter 2.5 or later manages ESX Server)
VMware Server 1.x, 2.x
VirtualCenter 2.x
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, 11 (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 1
Norton Ghost version 10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 13.0, and 14.0 (.sv2i files)
Parallels Desktop for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS x 2.5, 3.0, and 4.0 2
StorageCraft ShadowProtect 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2 1
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VMware Workstation 5.5.x, 6.0.x, 6.5.x, and 7.0
VMware Player 1.x, 2.0.x, 2.5.x, and 3.0
VMware Server 1.x and 2.x
VMware Fusion 1.x, 2.x, and 3.0
ESX/ESXi 3.x, 4.0, and 4.1
vCenter Server 2.5, 4.0, and 4.1
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1 For conditions and limitations about importing Backup Exec System Recovery, ShadowProtect, and Consolidated Backup images, see the VMware vCenter Converter Installation and Administration Guide.
2 Parallels Virtuozzo Containers are not supported in vCenter Converter.
Windows virtual machines running on Citrix XenServer 4 Enterprise Edition and Virtual Iron version 4.2 can be imported as live sources with vCenter Converter 4.2.
Earlier releases of vCenter Converter (versions 3.x and 4.1.x) might not be compatible with VMware vSphere 4.1.
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Supported Guest Operating Systems
vCenter Converter 4.2 supports the following guest operating systems:
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Windows XP Professional (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Windows Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Windows Server 2008 R2
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Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 (32-bit)
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 (32-bit)
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SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8.0
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SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Ubuntu 5.x
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Ubuntu 6.x
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Ubuntu 7.x (32-bit and 64-bit)
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Ubuntu 8.x (32-bit and 64-bit)
CAUTION: During cloning of powered-on Linux machines, vCenter Converter 4.2 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 vCenter Converter
Features from prior releases of vCenter Converter are described in the release notes for each release. To view release notes for prior releases of vCenter Converter, click one of the following links:
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VMware Converter Enterprise Update 4 for VirtualCenter 2.5
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VMware Converter Enterprise Update 3 for VirtualCenter 2.5
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VMware Converter Enterprise Update 2 for VirtualCenter 2.5
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VMware vCenter Converter for vCenter Server 4.0
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Known Issues
The vCenter Converter 4.2 release contains the following known issues:
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Installation
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General
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Windows Sources
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Linux Sources
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Third-Party Formats
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Localization
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Administration Guide and Help
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Installation
You must restart machines that run 64-bit Windows Vista or later before re-installing vCenter Converter 4.2
If you uninstall vCenter Converter from a 64-bit Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 7 machine and do not restart it, a subsequent vCenter Converter 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 vCenter Converter again.
vCenter Converter 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 vCenter Converter 4.2 on the same machine, the vCenter Converter installer uninstalls that agent without any warning messages.
vCenter Converter 4.2 fails to install vCenter Converter remote agent during remote hot cloning
During hot cloning of a remote source machine that has VMware Converter 3.x agent installed, vCenter Converter 4.2 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 vCenter Converter agent fails.
Workaround: Use the IP address instead of the non-ASCII name.
vCenter Converter 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 vCenter Converter 4.2 is converting a remote machine source that already has Converter 3.0.x installed on it, vCenter Converter 4.2 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 vCenter Converter 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 vCenter Converter 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
New You cannot convert source virtual machines that run on non-English Hyper-V servers
If the operating system of a Hyper-V server runs in a language other than English, vCenter Converter cannot display the inventory of that Hyper-V server. Therefore, you cannot select a virtual machine source to convert.
Workaround: Change the language of the operating system on the Hyper-V Server before you start the Conversion wizard.
You cannot submit a conversion task if you change the destination type without applying changes to the networks settings
In a vCenter Converter wizard, when you select a destination first, then go to the Options page and don't apply any changes to the networks settings, if you go back in the wizard and change the destination type, vCenter Converter does not allow you to submit your conversion task. This 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.
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On the Options page of the vCenter Converter wizard, click Networks in the options list.
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Click another option in the options list, for example Data to copy.
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Click Back to change the destination type.
Scheduled conversion tasks fail with error The object or item referred to could not be found
If you install a vCenter Converter Server and connect it to a vCenter Server that already has a vCenter Converter Server connected to it, scheduled conversion tasks appear to fail. The following error message appears in the Status column of the Recent Tasks list in the vSphere Client: The object or item referred to could not be found.
Workaround: Make sure only one vCenter Converter Server is connected to the vCenter Server at a time.
Wrong error message displayed when trying to enter a non-ASCII name for the destination virtual machine
When you create an import or export task in the vCenter Converter 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.
The VirtualCenter inventory cannot be loaded in vCenter Converter wizards
If you perform an export task to VirtualCenter or import task from VirtualCenter with large number of virtual machines, vCenter Converter wizards cannot display the inventory.
Workaround: To import or export machines to or from large inventories, connect directly to the ESX host instead of the vCenter Server.
Updated vCenter Service Status for com.vmware.converter shows error during vCenter Converter installation
During the vCenter Converter installation process, if you specify a short server name for vCenter Converter to register with the vCenter Server, the vCenter Service Status might display the error Unable to retrieve health data from https://servername for com.vmware.converter.
Workaround:
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If you are installing vCenter Converter on a remote machine in relation to vCenter Server, use fully qualified domain name or IP address to register vCenter Converter with vCenter Server.
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If you are installing vCenter Converter on the machine where vCenter Server runs, currently there is no workaround.
You cannot copy running conversion or reconfiguration tasks
If you open the Copy As New wizard for a running reconfiguration 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.
A cancelled conversion task appears to remain running in the Task Summary window
If you open the Task Summary window of a cancelled conversion task, its status is displayed as Running although it appears cancelled in the Recent Tasks pane of the vSphere Client. This is because it takes some time for the vCenter Converter server to clean up all processes related to a cancelled conversion task.
You can ignore this visualization issue.
Workaround: Wait for a few minutes after cancelling a conversion task. When task clean-up is completed, vCenter Converter server updates the task status in the Task Summary window accordingly.
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 vCenter Converter wizards, the volume name might be missing in some rows of the Source Volumes tab. This means that vCenter Converter 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, vCenter Converter copies the source volume data to the destination using block-level copying.
Workaround: Reconfigure the destination virtual machine after the conversion.
If you open more than one vCenter Converter wizards, you can work only with the wizard you opened last
For example, if you open the Import Machine wizard followed by the Reconfigure Virtual Machine wizard, you can work only with the Reconfigure Virtual Machine wizard.
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:
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The source machine has both IDE and SCSI disks
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SCSI disk comes first in the boot order
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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:
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The source has multiple disks
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At least one system partition is located not on the first (active) disk
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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.
Importing 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:
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Unable to connect to the virtual disk
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Remote server closed connection after 0 response bytes read
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An error occurred during an operation on a virtual disk
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If conversion is successful, the following error message related to the VMDK file might appear when you power on the destination virtual machine:
Internal Inconsistency errors
Workaround:
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In the main application window of vCenter Converter, right-click the failed task and select Copy As New...
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Go to the Options page and select Data to Copy.
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In the Data to Copy pane, select the volumes to copy and click Advanced.
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On the Destination layout tab, select 2GB Split not pre-allocated or 2GB Split pre-allocated as the destination disk type.
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Click Next to view a summary of the conversion task.
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On the Ready to Complete page, click Finish to resubmit the task.
Creating a conversion task to import 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:
agent.internal.fault.FileOpenError.summary.
Workaround: Map the network shared folder to the machine where vCenter Converter runs, and select the source from there.
vCenter Converter 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, vCenter Converter 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:
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Verify that the source virtual machine is powered off prior to conversion.
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Provide write privileges to the network share where the source virtual machine resides.
Conversion task fails if the name of the destination virtual machine contains certain characters
If the name of the destination virtual machine contains special characters (slash (/), backslash (\), colon (:), asterisk (*), question marks (?), quotation marks ("), or angle brackets (<>), conversion fails with the following error message:
agent.internal.fault.ImageProcessingTaskFault.summary.
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