Troubleshooting and Data Collection During Offline P2V

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When the P2V process fails there can be a number of issues to identify. A number of situations are discussed below. The machine being virtualized is referred to as the Source machine. The location where the virtualized machine is being copied is the Destination Host.

Use this article as your main reference for all P2V issues
P2V: Converting Physical Computers to Virtual Machines in VMM
     https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc764232.aspx

Requirements for the Source Machine
To perform a P2V conversion, your source computer:
- Must have at least 512 MB of RAM.
- Must have an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) BIOS - Vista WinPE will not install on a non-ACPI BIOS.
- Must be accessible by VMM and by the host computer.
- Cannot be in a perimeter network (also known as a DMZ, demilitarized zone, and screened subnet) where the firewalls or IPsec settings prohibit communication.
- Must contain one of the following supported operating systems:
- Windows Server 2008 (32-bit)
- Windows Server 2008 (64-bit)
- Windows Server 2003 (32-bit) SP1 or later
- Windows Server 2003 (64-bit) SP1 or later
- Windows 2000 Server SP4 or later (Offline P2V only)
- Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4 or later (Offline P2V only)
- Windows XP Professional (32-bit) SP2 or later
- Windows XP Professional (64-bit) SP2 or later
- Windows Vista (32-bit) SP1 or later
- Windows Vista (64-bit) SP1 or later

Errors and Resolutions
- Third party applications can lead to failures
- Disable all antivirus using MSCONFIG and reboot
- Disable all monitoring software such as Insight Manager (optional)
- Disable IIS on the source machine if running

Network Related - Source machine
Make sure that when rebooted into WinPE there is an IP address. There is a command prompt on the console. Type 'ipconfig /all' and verify with the customer that all IP settings are correct and match that of the SCVMM Server and Destination Host

If the IP starts with 169.254.x.x this is an auto-configed IP. This means there is no DHCP serve to provide an IP address or there are problems with the NIC drivers. It is preferable that the source and destination host are on the same subnet. If not test all routing by pinging…
- Ping the SCVMM and Host SCVMM servers by DNS name, not IP. If they do not resolve, correct DNS
- Ping the IP address of the default gateway and DNS servers. If they do not reply, correct IP settings
- If IP information needs to be set manually in WinPE, at a command prompt type:
‘netsh interface ipv4 set address "Local Area Connection" static 10.241.0.7 255.255.0.0 10.241.0.2 1’
Where:
‘netsh interface ipv4 set address "Local Area Connection" static %ipaddr% %subnet% %dns server% 1’

Network Related - Source and SCVMM machines
On Windows 2003 machines follow the 'Workaround' in this article (disregard the fact that it is a SQL KB. It is correct). This will disable TCP Offloading in Windows 2003 SP2, which can lead to a number of networking issues.

942861 Error message when an application connects to SQL Server on a server that is running Windows Server 2003:
"General Network error," "Communication link failure," or "A transport-level error"
     https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;942861

WMI and 'Access Denied' errors
Follow the article on this site ‘WMI Errors and SCVMM’

During 'Scan System' operation
Example Error
VMM does not have appropriate permissions to access the resource on the <destination_computer> server. Ensure that Virtual Machine Manager has the appropriate rights to perform this action.
ID: 2910
Details: Access is denied (0x80070005)

Resolution #1
- Make sure the computer object for the SCVMM server is in the Administrators group on the source machine
- Make sure the account specified in the SCVMM Admin Console is a member of the Administrators group on the source machine.
- SCVMM 2008 - If the machine is in a workgroup, make sure the Domain specified along with the Account and Password is actually the name of the source machine, not the domain of the SCVMM server

Resolution #2
Ensure that the following services are not set to 'Disabled,' and that you can start them successfully on the source machine
- WMI
- Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
- HTTP SSL
- RPC

Resolution #3
Enable auditing of object access to determine if the account specified in SCVMM or the SCVMM computer object are failing to access the source machine as required. Look for 'Failure' in the security log once configured and tested.

- Follow the first section of the article below 'For the local computer'
325898 How to set up and manage operation-based auditing for Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
     https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;325898

- Record any settings under 'Audit Policy' that are already configured
- Change configure all Policies to record Success and Failure
- If any Policies have an icon of gray servers instead of blue 0's and 1's you will not be able to make this change and must involve the customer's Group Policy administrator
- Back at a command prompt type 'gpupdate /force'
- Try the scan again, then check the Security log for ’Failure’ audits
- Set all Policies back to the state you recorded them as before making changes

Resolution #4
Make sure the DCOM (DCOMLaunch) service is set to Automatic and running. (Thanks to Pramod for this tip)

Non-ACPI HAL
If the source machine has a non ACPI HAL P2V cannot be performed.

P2V: Converting Physical Computers to Virtual Machines in VMM
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc764232.aspx

309283 HAL options after Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 Setup
https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;309283

249694 How to move a Windows installation to different hardware
https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;249694

 

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