Common P2V Conversion Errors

I recently completed a project converting a clients production network of 70+ servers to virtual machines for a lab environment.  SCVMM 2008 R2 SP1 was used to perform a physical to virtual conversion of all the physical servers.  While the large majority converted without any issues at all there were a few errors encountered along the way that were easy to fix.

VSS Writer did not respond within the expected time interval – Error 13243

This was an interesting error that came up twice and both times the fix was the same.  While the error looks like an issue with VSS it is actually a profile issue.  When I attempted to log on to the server to investigate the VSS issue the logon would fail with a User Profile Could Not Load error.  I’ve seen this before on desktop PCs when the user profile gets corrupted.  The fix is a simple one and once completed the P2V conversion was finished successfully.  To resolve this problem follow these steps to fix the corrupted profile:

1. Log on to the server with a different account
2. Delete the users profile folder from %systemdrive%\Users\%username%
3. Launch Regedit and drill down to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
4. Locate the SID with a .BAK extension
5. Delete this Registry key
6. Exit Regedit
7. Log off
8. Log on as the affected user and let a new profile be created
9. Start the P2V process again

VMM Does not have the appropriate permissions to the resource – Error 2910

This is a pretty easy problem to solve.  The account used to perform the P2V conversion needs to have permissions to install the P2V agent on the source machine.  The account being used needs to have Local Administrator permissions on the source machine.  Once you have added your accout to the Local Administrators group on the source machine, restart the P2V process.

If that doesn’t work there could be an issue with WMI or DCOM and Microsoft has published a knowledge base article to walk you through repairing this.

VMM Discovered that a restart is pending – Error 3240

This is another easy to solve problem that occurs when an update or application that requires a reboot has been installed but the source server has not been restarted yet.  Due to the existing restart request no additional installations can take place and the P2V will fail when the P2V Agent installation is attempted.  Simply restart the source server and restart the P2V job.

Agent installation timed out while waiting on service VMMAgentInstaller – Error 416

This error also occured on two different servers and the fix for both was the same.  In this case the P2V Agent install failed due to an issue with the Windows Installer service on the source server.  I wrote an article on repairing the MSI Installer a while ago and the old tip came in handy resolving this issue.  You can read Repair The MSI Installer here to solve this issue.  Once you have completed these steps you can restart the P2V job.

Online P2V of a Domain Controller is not recommended – Error 13249

While not exactly an error not following this best practice will lead to errors and potentially disaterous effects down the road.  The Directory Services team at Microsoft states the following…

“If the P2V conversion goes as expected and there are no problems after the conversion, there is no service outage other than the duration where the P2V tool is performing the backup/restore. A USN rollback will occur if for some reason you decide to move back to the physical DC after you have already performed the P2V process, and the new virtualized DC has replicated with other DCs. So don’t ever do it.”

If the DS team at MS says not to do it, it is probably a good idea to follow their advice.  There are two options to get around this, build a new VM and DCPromo it or perform an offline P2V of the DC.

VMM is unable to complete the request – Error 3157

This one is dead simple but can be caused by three different issues.  Either the server is turned off, does not exist, has the firewall blocking WMI and/or HTTP traffic.  In my situation it was usually caused by fat fingering the source server name or the source server being shut down.

Unable to uninstall the SCVMM P2V Agent – Warning 13235

This error happens occasionally and usually in conjunction with other post P2V MSI Installer issues.  The resolution is to simply log into the VM and uninstall the SCVMM P2V agent from Programs and Features.  It normally appeared in conjunction with the following error.

Timeout occured while waiting for the VM integration services to be installed – Warning 13210

This error appears when the Integration Services installation times out.  In a few instances there was no actual problem as the ICs were installed fine.  In the other instances you can log into the Vm via the Hyper-V Manager and install the Integration Services manually.  One common cause is HP servers as it seems there is some issue between the IC installer and certain HP agents.  Disabling and stopping the service(s) on the VM and then installing the ICs manually solved this issue.

VMM is unable to complete the requested file transfer – Error 2940

This error can occur for a variety of reasons but is normally a network related issue.  Anything from a temporary loss of network connectivity to HTTP\HTTPS being blocked on the destination Hyper-V host server.  The P2V Agent transfers the VSS snapshot from the source server to the destination Hyper-V host over HTTP or HTTPS.  If the firewall on the Hyper-V host is blocking these connections or the source server and\or the destination host loses network connectivity the P2V will not start or will fail during the process.