Best method for...

[pshearduk]

Moving a VM from the free VMware server product. Scenario is 2 identical pieces of hardware (Dell PE2850, 4GB RAM, DUAL PROC, 5 X 146GB SPINDLES)... both server's are Windows Server 2003 SP1 and are running VMware server 1.02. I would like to shutdown a couple of Win XP SP2 VM's and move them on the the second server (which doesnt have many VM's running on it).

Would I simply shut down the VM's, copy the folders containg the *.vmx files etc over to the other server, and then open up via the VMware 1.02 console and then power on?

all help or pointers to other links etc greatly appreciated

thanks

Paul

[oreeh]

Simply copy them over.

Before powering on check the disk descriptors (the short VMDK files) and the VMX file if they reference absolute paths.

If yes correct the paths.

[pshearduk]

Hi and thanks for the reply =)

when I power on I get an error failure message that ends with the description of "[i][b]Cannot open the VM or Snapshot it depends on. Reason Failed to lock the file[/b][/i]"

Can you help further please?

thanks

Paul

[oreeh]

Do you copy all the files to the same path?

If not please post the directory contents and the VMX file

[pshearduk]

I will check that out and post some log files if required, many thanks...

brb

Paul

[pshearduk]

Ok just checked and the virtual machines are in the exact same folder structure .. [b]
servername\d$\virtual machines\[/b][/i]

in this folder we have 2 folders [b]Windows XP professional TEDSPSS1[/b][/i] and same folder name again but [b]TEDSPSS2[/b][/i]

Here are the contents of the [b]TEDSPSS2 VMX[/b][/i] file :-

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "4"

scsi0.present = "TRUE"

memsize = "512"

ide0:0.present = "TRUE"

ide0:0.fileName = "Windows XP Professional Gold-000002.vmdk"

ide1:0.present = "TRUE"

ide1:0.fileName = "Z:"

ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

floppy0.fileName = "A:"

Ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

Ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"

usb.present = "FALSE"

displayName = "Windows XP Professional TEDSPSS2"

guestOS = "winxppro"

priority.grabbed = "normal"

priority.ungrabbed = "normal"

powerType.powerOff = "soft"

powerType.powerOn = "soft"

powerType.suspend = "soft"

powerType.reset = "soft"

ide0:0.redo = ""

ide1:0.startConnected = "TRUE"

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

uuid.location = "56 4d 06 e3 35 1a ff 4c-d4 75 ef ef bc d7 aa 34"

uuid.bios = "56 4d 06 e3 35 1a ff 4c-d4 75 ef ef bc d7 aa 34"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:84:02:4d"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

workingDir = "."

checkpoint.vmState = ""

snapshot.action = "keep"

checkpoint.vmState.readOnly = "FALSE"

snapshot.protected = "FALSE"[b][/b][/b]

[pshearduk]

If I try and edit the info for this VM, and go to [b]hardware[/b][/i] and then [b]Hard disk[/b][/i] which I then select, I get this error :-

"[i][b]Failed to retrieve disk information for D:\Virtual Machines\Windows XP Professional - TEDSPSS2\Windows XP Professional GOLD-000002.VMDK. The parent of this virtual disk could not be opened[/b][/i]"

Help =(

Thanks

Paul

[oreeh]

please post the directory contents

[pshearduk]

here you go =)

[b] Volume in drive D is New Volume

Volume Serial Number is 60D4-A657

Directory of D:\Virtual Machines\Windows XP Professional - TEDSPSS2

05/16/2007 01:11 PM

.
05/16/2007 01:11 PM

..

05/11/2007 08:11 AM 8,664 nvram

05/11/2007 08:11 AM 53,416 vmware-0.log

05/10/2007 12:18 PM 174,253,657 vmware-1.log

03/04/2007 07:04 PM 64,158 vmware-2.log

05/16/2007 01:10 PM 24,877 vmware.log

05/16/2007 01:10 PM 7,813,398,528 Windows XP Professional Gold-000002.vmdk

10/02/2006 04:13 PM 17,179,869,184 Windows XP Professional Gold-flat.vmdk

02/23/2007 01:51 PM 0 Windows XP Professional.vmsd

05/16/2007 01:10 PM 1,097 Windows XP Professional.vmx

9 File(s) 25,167,673,581 bytes

2 Dir(s) 79,471,157,248 bytes free[/b][/i]

[oreeh]

Download the dsfok-tools - first hit in google for "dsfok"

put dsfo.exe and dsfi.exe into the VMs directory and run the following commands

dsfo.exe "Windows XP Professional Gold-flat.vmdk" 512 800 base.txt

dsfo.exe "Windows XP Professional Gold-000002.vmdk" 512 800 snapshot.txt

then post the two textfiles

[pshearduk]

Hi :-

Snapshot give's this output :-

[b]# Disk DescriptorFile

version=1

CID=05eb4b50

parentCID=122e1436

createType="monolithicSparse"

parentFileNameHint="D:\Virtual Machines\Windows XP Professional GOLD\Windows XP Professional Gold.vmdk"

\# Extent description

RW 33554432 SPARSE "Windows XP Professional Gold-000002.vmdk"

\# The Disk Data Base

#DDB

ddb.toolsVersion = "6531"[/b][/i]

Base.txt just outputs a txt file containing nothing?

[oreeh]

Interesting

you are running into a known Server issue

The snaphot descriptor shouldn't contain any paths in the parentFileNameHint - but it does and since you renamed the directory it can't find the base disk.

Second it seems that your base disk has a problem - there should be an output when extracting the descriptor.

Try copying the base disk again.

To solve your problem you either have to rename the directory or modify the descriptor of the snapshot.

If you decide to modify the descriptor you can either use an hex-editor or modify the snapshot.txt file and reinject it using dsfi.

Here's how to do it using dsfi:

edit the snapshot.txt that it looks like the following:

Disk DescriptorFile

version=1

CID=05eb4b50

parentCID=122e1436

createType="monolithicSparse"

parentFileNameHint="Windows XP Professional Gold.vmdk"

\# Extent description

RW 33554432 SPARSE "Windows XP Professional Gold-000002.vmdk"

\# The Disk Data Base

#DDB

ddb.toolsVersion = "6531"

make sure to add a line containing as many blanks as you deleted from the path

inject it into the snapshot using the following command

dsfi.exe "Windows XP Professional Gold-000002.vmdk" 512 800 snapshot.txt

Try powering the VM back on again

If this fails we have to deal with your base disk

[oreeh]

BTW: you should complain about the path bug here http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=80583

[pshearduk]

Thanks Oreeh, I'll edit the snapshot and let you know how I go..

many thanks for your info so far! Much appreciated

BrB

Paul