Unable to reconfigure Windows 2K8 R2 VM. BSOD 7b on boot

[JHier]

Thank you for taking the time to read this. 

Trying to convert physical server to virtual

Physical server is Windows Server 2008 R2 64 bit

Running ESXi 5.5 cluster

Using VMware Stand Alone Converter version 6.1.1 installed onto the physical machine itself.

During the convert machine process the program stops at 98% with message unable to reconfigure machine. 

I checked the datastore and did find the vmdk was there. 

I then tried to configure machine with only the 'reconfigure destination virtual machine' option selected and I get a failed message during the "Updating the boot sectors of the destination machine" process...

Error: An error occurred during the reconfiguration.

Status: FAILED: A general system error occurred: InternalError

Trying to boot the VM gives a 7B BSOD which is "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE bug check frequently occurs because of a boot device failure."

I have read that this can occur because of LSI Logic SAS issues.

Here is what I have tried so far.

I manually and successfully built a 2K8 R2 VM using an install media ISO and booted into the OS so I know that my process and my cluster work correctly.

I used the newly created and working 2K8 R2 VM and restored a server backup image I took from the physical server.  I now get the 7B boot BSOD on this once working VM

I created another new 2K8 R2 VM and pointed it to the VMDK of the converted VM.  I get the 7B BSOD

After some reading and research online, I copied the following files from a good running 2K8 R2 VM into the non functioning converted VM's \Windows\System32\drivers location

LSI_SAS.sys

LSI_SAS2.sys

LSI_SCSI.sys

Into the system registry I imported the following reg keys which I first exported from the working 2K8 R2 VM

LSI_SAS.reg

LSI_SAS2.reg

LSI_SCSI.reg

I also verified that each of these Values had their REG_DWORD = 0

The last thing I tried was to take a ghost image of the physical machine, and then restore the ghost image to the hard drive of a newly created 2K8 R2 VM.  I was actually very surprised that I could do this in the first place.  But upon booting the ghosted VM I once again get the 7B BSOD.

So now I have come here as I am not sure what to try next. 

Before I post all the logs is there something simple I am missing?  I've converted systems before without issue but never a 2K8 R2 server/

Thanks in advance

[Rosen Tomov]

Could you upload log bundle?

[JHier]

Thanks for the reply.

I am attaching the latest logs.

[Rosen Tomov]

The problem is that Converter could not see software and system hives:

2016-03-11T07:16:04.251-05:00 warning vmware-converter-worker[06072] [Originator@6876 sub=task-8] [PopulateVolumeMountPoints] Failed to get mountpoints for volume 945/2+9+0000010000000000: 50 (type = 2, code=3)

2016-03-11T07:16:04.251-05:00 info vmware-converter-worker[06072] [Originator@6876 sub=task-8] [LogMessagesForQA] MNTAPI OS Info:   edition:  root:  Service Pack: 0  Ver: 0.0

There are few possibilities:

- check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\hivelist to see where your hives are placed, Converter looks for them in %windir%\system32\config folder only

- I see only reconfiguration in logs, but if you change disks alignment and do not run reconfiguration while converting, the resulting VM could not be reconfigured in this way (only both together operations could succeeded).

HTH

[JHier]

Thank you very much for your reply.

I checked the hivelist as you suggested.  This is what I found

Key Name:          HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\hivelist

Class Name:        <NO CLASS>

Last Write Time:   3/10/2016 - 1:09 PM

Value 0

  Name:            \REGISTRY\MACHINE\HARDWARE

  Type:            REG_SZ

  Data:           

Value 1

  Name:            \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM

  Type:            REG_SZ

  Data:            \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM

Value 2

  Name:            \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE

  Type:            REG_SZ

  Data:            \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Windows\System32\config\SOFTWARE

Value 3

  Name:            \REGISTRY\USER\.DEFAULT

  Type:            REG_SZ

  Data:            \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Windows\System32\config\DEFAULT

Value 4

  Name:            \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SECURITY

  Type:            REG_SZ

  Data:            \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Windows\System32\config\SECURITY

Value 5

  Name:            \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SAM

  Type:            REG_SZ

  Data:            \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Windows\System32\config\SAM

Value 6

  Name:            \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-20

  Type:            REG_SZ

  Data:            \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\NTUSER.DAT

Value 7

  Name:            \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-19

  Type:            REG_SZ

  Data:            \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\NTUSER.DAT

Value 8

  Name:            \Registry\User\S-1-5-21-1313529273-2361077816-915657859-500

  Type:            REG_SZ

  Data:            \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Users\Administrator\NTUSER.DAT

Value 9

  Name:            \Registry\User\S-1-5-21-1313529273-2361077816-915657859-500_Classes

  Type:            REG_SZ

  Data:            \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat

Value 10

  Name:            \REGISTRY\MACHINE\BCD00000000

  Type:            REG_SZ

  Data:            \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Boot\BCD

You are also correct.  The logs I attached are from just a reconfig attempt sitting at my desktop instead of being run on the system.  The system is presently in the lab being used by another employee.

I assume then with this hivelist, that changes will need to be made to it before attempting another conversion?

Thank you

[Rosen Tomov]

Seems that you registry hives are at expected place, you can look for these filenames in %windir%system32\config.

So the second option (i.e. combination of convert and reconfig) should be used.

However before do whole conversion again - run Converter GUI 'As administrator' and try to reconfig again - sometimes access to registries is restricted to Administrators.

HTH

[JHier]

Thanks for your help.  I've been stuck on this for a few days now.

One other piece of information, not sure if it would matter or not is that we use megasas2.sys drivers for our raid drives drives on this server.

[Rosen Tomov]

Yes, there is no support for RAID controllers due to many different issues, but once the volumes are read, then only driver should be removed (depends on driver - some of them fails, others not, when hardware is not present) on destination VM...

[JHier]

Sorry for the delay in my reply here.  I got pulled off this problem to work on a different problem.

I took your advice and ran Converter as administrator on the physical system.

I removed all options including to reconfigure the VM after the conversion and I got a completed message.

However, when I try to reconfigure the system after the completed conversion, I get a failure once more but this time with a different message.

"Unable to find the system volume.  Reconfiguration not possible"

I also noticed something on the tasks screen of Vmware converter...

During the conversion the source shows as "this local machine, Windows 2008 R2 64-bit"

During the reconfig of this same VM the source shows as "192.168.71.190/VM_Name, Windows 7 64-bit"

Shouldn't the reconfig also state its Windows 2008 R2 64-bit?

I have attached the logs for both the conversion and the reconfig ( task 1 is conversion and task 2 is reconfig )

I should also mention that the host I am sending the converted VM to is on an HA cluster supported by a physical vCenter Server machine.

There is a 50 GB system recovery partition on the same drive as the operating system.

I have tried this conversion/reconfig both including and excluding the recovery partition and the results were the same.

I have booted into system repair on this VM to verify that the OS was in fact there and using BCDEDIT I made sure the OS was the first and only boot partition.

I still get the 7B blue screen when booting.

If you could still offer some help I would appreciate it.

Thank you

[JHier]

I actually got it to work!

I ended up running VMware converter once more but this time I only selected the Windows partition.

I did not convert the recovery partition

I still got the same error "Unable to find the system volume.  Reconfiguration not possible"

This time I went to work on the BOOTMGR by booting back up into the repair option from a 2008 R2 install disk

Running BCDEDIT I saw that it detected no windows installations which is odd.

I fired up diskpart and made sure that  the C: drive/partition was set to active

running BCDEDIT again I now have 1 active Windows install.

I was then able to fix the boot manager and MBR along with rebuilding BCD

I shut down the VM and ran reconfig again and this time I got a Complete message

I've never been so happy to see that message in my life

Booting the VM once more I got the familiar error of...

BOOTMGR is missing

Ctrl + Alt + Del to reboot

I know how to fix this.

I booted back into the repair option from a 2008 R2 install disk and ran the following from a command prompt

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

bootrec /rebuildbcd

x:\sources\recovery\StartRep.exe

My VM now boots into Windows without issues.  I'm quickly cloning it into a template before I do anything else.  I still need to create another HD for the second drive and add a few NICs.  I still need to install VMware tools as well but I am much better off than I was last week

Thank you so much for your help though this issue @POCEH