use vcenter converter standalone to p2v failed

[wangxl7087]

Dear everyone

     my physical computer is install windows server 20003 sp2 standard edition,now i want to conver it to VM on vmware vsphere .when started conver ,it has a issue below

    

my vcenter converter standalone version is 6.1.1

physical computer's agent is manual installed (can not push install from vcenter converter standalone server)

i also restart the source computer after install agent

now i have no ideal for this issue

so can anyone help me to resolve this issue,?thanks a lot.

[continuum]

Have you tried to start the vstor driver manually ?

[wangxl7087]

Dear continuum

          how can i start the vstor driver manually?

[continuum]

Look up the name of the service in registry. It may look similar to this
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\vstor2-mntapi20-shared
Then open a cmd and run
net start vstor2-mntapi20-shared

[DaveDicken]

Did this ever get resolved?  I have the same issue.  I'm trying to P2V a MS DPM server but am also getting the "Missing Vstor2 driver or not started" error.

[DaveDicken]

I did not see the vstor2-mntapi20-shared service under ControlSet001.  However, I searched the registry and found it under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Services\vstor2-mntapi20-shared.  But when I ran "net start vstor2-mntapi20-shared" it says "The service name is invalid"

Advice please???

[DaveDicken]

Update....

Sorry, I forgot that I uninstalled the agent yesterday.

So I reinstalled the agent and the service is still in ControlSet002 (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Services\vstor2-mntapi20-shared).  I ran "net start vstor2-mntapi20-shared" (from an elevated CMD prompt) but the service is already running.  I ran the conversion and it still fails with the "Missing Vstor2 driver or not started" error.

I need some ideas please!!  :-)

[DaveDicken]

Update 2....

I uninstalled the agent and reinstalled locally (vs. from the converter) by copying the VMware-Converter-Agent.exe from C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone on the system where the converter is running and running with elevated priviledge/as admin.  This placed the service in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vstor2-mntapi20-shared & HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\vstor2-mntapi20-shared paths.   Unfortuantely, I'm still getting the same error message.

[patanassov]

Hello

Please upload the agent log file for examination.It is not obvious where this error comes from.

[DaveDicken]

I'm hoping you're looking for the log export from the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone job.  If so, see attached.

[DaveDicken]

@patanassov

Have you have a chance to look at that log?  I'm dying here :-)

Thanks, in advance,

Dave

[patanassov]

Hi Dave,

Sorry to have forgotten this.

I think you can try reinstalling converter server (not the agent on the source). First uninstall it, ensure vstor driver has been uninstalled (perhaps reboot the machine), and then install anew.

Crossing fingers this helps.

Regards,

Plamen

[DaveDicken]

Oooooo......  I uninstalled/reinstalled & it's running now !!  1%!!

I'll follow up with results :-)

[DaveDicken]

P2V completed as expected!  Thank you Plamen

[patanassov]

Great. Glad to have helped.

You may mark the answer as correct answer, btw.

[DaveDicken]

Sorry, but not seeing that option.  Plus I'm not the originator or the question.  Maybe that's why I can't mark it as the correct answer??  Either way, hoping this help them as well.

-Dave

[patanassov]

Ah, yes. I forgot it's not your question originally.

Marking as helpful is good. too. That's not so important anyway.

[jaspreet1003]

FIXED.

1. Uninstall VMWare vCenter converter.

2. Reboot the computer.

3. Reinstall VMWare vCenter converter in standaloone mode (may work in client-server mode but I haven't tested)

4. Try again.

[gparker]

Hi,

I just came upon the same issue! I've installed Converter Standalone on several servers (I'm not doing the client-server method) and they've all been syncing fine up until last weekend when all of them failed with this vstor2 driver missing or not running error. 

I did allot of digging today and noticed one thing in common on all the servers that failed with the “missing vstor2 driver….” message and that is that all of them had received a new/updated version of the "Backup Manager" software last Friday that the customer uses for their server backups. In doing some further digging, I discovered that both VMware Converter and Backup Manager use this vstor2 driver and I’m thinking that the Backup Manager upgrade replaced the vstor2 driver, making VMware Converter unable to use it?

I hate having to uninstall & reinstall Converter because it means I have to run fresh full syncs on them again and some of them are very large.

[continuum]

vstor2 driver is probably flagged as malware in some security tools.
Either you disable your security-tools or use a different way to transport the diskimage.
I prefer ddrescue - its not the fastest transport tool but the most reliable.

Ulli

 

[gparker]

Hi Ulli, thanks for your prompt response I installed VMware Converter on 12 servers a month ago and have been performing synchronizations on each of them at least once a week and they've been working fine up until last weekend when all of them failed with the "missing vstor2 driver or not started" message. So do you you think the security/anti-malware tool on all 12 machines decided to flag vstor2 as malware last weekend and not when I had initially installed Converter on all of them a month ago and been running successful syncs? My feeling at this stage is that the "Backup Manager" utility that was updated on all 12 machines the day before the "missing vstor2 driver or not started" message occurred is more likely to be the culprit, but not too sure.

The reason I'm using VMware Converter is because of its delta sync ability - I can run "catchup" syncs as often as I want up until we schedule the final sync/cutover. This is especially useful for large servers where it takes for example 4 days to complete the initial full sync and I can follow this up with regular shorter delta syncs. Does ddrescue have a similar ability or does it just do a one-time copy?

Regards, George.

[continuum]

In your case ddrescue would be no help - but you could look into rsync or robocopy

Ulli

[gparker]

Thanks Ulli. I've discovered that if I run the VMware Converter installer on one of the affected servers and I select the "Repair" option, it re-instates the vstor2 driver - I do an "sc query vstor2....." and it tells me it's running ok. I can then launch Converter and perform P2V's again! The only problem is that the repair option wipes out all job history, so I have to start the initial full sync from scratch.

Regards, George.

[continuum]

Why dont you extract a vstor2 driver from sources and inject it - apparently you dont mind if it is bad any way ?

Ulli

[gparker]

Hi Ulli,

I'm not sure what you mean by "extract a vstor2 driver from sources" ?

Regards, George.

[Mike Gerolami]

Wouldn't this all be easier to do with Veeam or other backup software? It seems like your doing alot of manual work for something you can automate. I hope it is working for you going forward.

[gparker]

Hi BigMike,

The problem with Veeam or other backup software is their inabilities to perform delta syncs. VMware Converter performs an initial full sync of a VM, then I can schedule regular incremental/delta/catch-up syncs until I'm ready to cutover the VM.

I got the root cause of my issue...The customer installed a cloud-based backup agent onto the VMs and everytime the agent was patched, it killed the vstor driver that Converter needs. My only solution was to do a repair or re-install Converter.

Regards, George.

[Mike Gerolami]

That is great that you were able to find the root cause. Also good to know that you can use convertor for that function

[jmontgomery2]

Have you looked at starwindconvertor?  We have used this recently as VMware did away with the Convertor Tool  and has yet to replace it.