Old Win 2003 Server to VMWare Woes

[Paperlantern]

The existing disk is all greyed out, it cant be modified, even when the VM is off. Cuz that would definitely have been my first thought as well. This is getting exhausting, every time i make progress theres a huge hurdle to get over. Heh.

Also, the controller type STAYED BugLogic Parallel, as that is the only way the VM would boot properly. THat stayed the same, but yet with the new disk attached, it still bluescreened. This is killin me.

 

[imagoon]

The existing disk is all greyed out, it cant be modified, even when the VM is off. Cuz that would definitely have been my first thought as well. This is getting exhausting, every time i make progress theres a huge hurdle to get over. Heh.

Also, the controller type STAYED BugLogic Parallel, as that is the only way the VM would boot properly. THat stayed the same, but yet with the new disk attached, it still bluescreened. This is killin me.

Honestly is sounds like something is really messed up on that install. I am running out of ideas. Something to try:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539

Follow those instructions, I have seen cases where old device drivers would screw up the vm until you cleaned it out. Some of my older P2V machines also saw 20% improvement in performance when I removed old drivers that were no longer needed.

 

[Emulex]

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/mi...KB_1_1&dialogID=31097134&stateId=0+0+31095900

of course you are not seeing these errors right?

 

[Paperlantern]

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/mi...KB_1_1&dialogID=31097134&stateId=0+0+31095900

of course you are not seeing these errors right?

No, none of those. Though it does say

Unable to set customizable status in vmx.

 

[Paperlantern]

Honestly is sounds like something is really messed up on that install. I am running out of ideas. Something to try:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539

Follow those instructions, I have seen cases where old device drivers would screw up the vm until you cleaned it out. Some of my older P2V machines also saw 20% improvement in performance when I removed old drivers that were no longer needed.

I did this as well. The machine is way out of date too in the state it was backed up, i realized its been a long time so I did updates... took a snappie before hand of course, then rebooted, it blue screened after the updates (zuh?), reverted, ran the updates again, then the machine rebooted fine. Oooookay. Several more updates came up on the second check, snapped it, installed, rebooted, blue screen, reverted... tried the above fix, rebooted again, blue screened. I am so confused. I'm fixin to just make a new box to do what this one did, god by now i could have rebuilt it from scratch 3 times. I think its simply a matter of principle now.

 

[imagoon]

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/mi...KB_1_1&dialogID=31097134&stateId=0+0+31095900

of course you are not seeing these errors right?

No, Again sysprep is not required unless the user explicitly asks the import function to run sysprep functions (ie Windows customizations.).

 

[imagoon]

I did this as well. The machine is way out of date too in the state it was backed up, i realized its been a long time so I did updates... took a snappie before hand of course, then rebooted, it blue screened after the updates (zuh?), reverted, ran the updates again, then the machine rebooted fine. Oooookay. Several more updates came up on the second check, snapped it, installed, rebooted, blue screen, reverted... tried the above fix, rebooted again, blue screened. I am so confused. I'm fixin to just make a new box to do what this one did, god by now i could have rebuilt it from scratch 3 times. I think its simply a matter of principle now.

Yeah at this point I would have likely rebuilt it and set this vm to the side to figure out what was really wrong with it afterward. It is one of those things were I feel if I had some hands on time I could figure it out. For example after a reboot and bluescreen I would grab the debug file (minidump) and run it though the debugger etc to see what it was.

 

[Paperlantern]

Yeah at this point I would have likely rebuilt it and set this vm to the side to figure out what was really wrong with it afterward. It is one of those things were I feel if I had some hands on time I could figure it out. For example after a reboot and bluescreen I would grab the debug file (minidump) and run it though the debugger etc to see what it was.

How do you typically get to the minidump file? I assume it would be on the volume that is bluescreening. I could look at the dump as well and see whats up. Like i said its mostly principal now.

 

[Paperlantern]

I think I'm done with this guys. I've already loaded another server VM up and i'm going to just try to get it up and running, going to try and even upgrade the software that the old server was running in the process, its just eating too much time. Thanks for all the posts guys, I think its just best to cut my losses and put a bullet in this one.

It will boot so I have it for reference, and whatever I may have saved to it, so it wasnt a total loss, I just cant seem to bring it into full production again.

 

[imagoon]

How do you typically get to the minidump file? I assume it would be on the volume that is bluescreening. I could look at the dump as well and see whats up. Like i said its mostly principal now.

Well since it is a VM I would boot another vm with the "c drive" attached and copy it that way. Or I would boot it with windows pe.

 

[Paperlantern]

Well since it is a VM I would boot another vm with the "c drive" attached and copy it that way. Or I would boot it with windows pe.

Ah, suppose that would be a possibility. If i get motivation i'll give that a shot.