Error when converting VmWare virtual disk to HyperV

Question

I received VmWare image from my client for some testing purposes. I need to convert it to Hyper-V. I followed steps in http://www.askme4tech.com/how-convert-vmware-virtual-machine-hyper-v. I installed Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter and started to convert virtual disks in PowerShell. However I'm getting eror:

C:\Windows\system32> ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk -SourceLiteralPath "c:\temp\disk2.vmdk" -DestinationLiteralPath "c:\data\HyperV\PH\" -VhdType DynamicHardDisk -VhdFormat Vhdx

ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk : The entry 1 is not a supported disk database entry for the descriptor.
At line:1 char:1
+ ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk -SourceLiteralPath "c:\temp\disk2.vmdk"
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : WriteError: (Microsoft.Accel...nversionService:DriveConversionService) [ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk], VmdkDescriptorParseException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DiskConversion,Microsoft.Accelerators.Mvmc.Cmdlet.Commands.ConvertToMvmcVirtualHardDiskCommand

ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk : One or more errors occurred.
At line:1 char:1
+ ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk -SourceLiteralPath "c:\temp\disk2.vmdk"
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : WriteError: (Microsoft.Accel...nversionService:DriveConversionService) [ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk], AggregateException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DiskConversion,Microsoft.Accelerators.Mvmc.Cmdlet.Commands.ConvertToMvmcVirtualHardDiskCommand

Answer 1

I found some adhoc solution - a bit hack perhaps but it works at least.

Digging into similar issues found on google I came to a tool to extract disk descriptor out of the VMDK file. The content of the descriptor for my VMDK was something like this:

# Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
encoding="windows-1252"
CID=5379bf0f
parentCID=ffffffff
isNativeSnapshot="no"
createType="monolithicSparse"

# Extent description
RW 209715200 SPARSE "00054_C8PHS1096_151216-disk2.vmdk"

# The Disk Data Base 
#DDB

ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"
ddb.geometry.biosCylinders = "13054"
ddb.geometry.biosHeads = "255"
ddb.geometry.biosSectors = "63"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "13054"
ddb.geometry.heads = "255"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.longContentID = "64d4e008b7227bcce8aa54995379bf0f"
ddb.toolsInstallType = "1"
ddb.toolsVersion = "10241"
ddb.uuid = "60 00 C2 96 f7 70 f2 fd-b5 02 9e 46 6c df 00 2e"
ddb.virtualHWVersion = "10"

The error message together with the content of the extracted descriptor came to my attention, specifically the line:

ddb.toolsInstallType = "1"

as it contains the strange value of 1 from my error message. I edited the descriptor - just comment out that single line with # (hash mark), injected it back into VMDK and voila - the conversion works now.

Credits to this link https://communities.vmware.com/thread/343214?start=0&tstart=0 and of course to tools by Dariusz Stanislawek.

Just for reference, the steps I have done:

• download and extract dsfok tools
• use dsfo.exe "c:\temp\disk2.vmdk" 512 1024 descriptor1.txt to extract the descriptor
• edit the descriptor file in Notepad++: comment the above mentioned line (as I added the extra single character (#) I also deleted one NULL character from the end to keep the file size of 1024 bytes (not sure if this is needed).
• use dsfi.exe "c:\temp\disk2.vmdk" 512 1024 descriptor1.txt to inject the descriptor back into the VMDK
• repeat these steps for the other disk (my VM has two .vmdk files)
• reissue the ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk command

REMARK

After creating VM in Hyper-V, the machine didn't boot, it remained in black screen with fast blinking cursor (so called black screen of death). I don't know if it was caused by the conversion or by the fact that original disks in VMWare had been SCSI while I attached them as IDE. To fix it, I attached DVD with image of Windows and booted from DVD. I ran the Rapair system, started the command line and ran

bootrec.exe /fixBoot

Finally, the VM boots and runs.. end of story.