Hi,

I'm using VMware Converter 3.0.3 build-89816 (current)

When I go to "convert machine" and browse to the backup .spf file, I get an error message saying "Unable to load the source virtual machine or image. The file might be corrupt, or of an unsupported format." This happens with every file that I try to convert.

A few things that I should mention.

Both machines are Windows Server 2003.

The Storagecraft documentation was not made for this latest version of VMware converter since the instructions can't be followed (there is no edit preferences in this version).

None of the instructions really line up with the documentation supplied by Storagecraft versus the real world VMware Converter.

Thanks for any help,

Casey

There are some limitations to Converter when restoring ShadowProtect Images.  The VMWare Converter User Guide lists the following:

 Converter can convert ShadowProtect and Backup Exec System Recovery images, with the following
limitations:

• Dynamic disks are not supported.

• All images for the backup of a machine must be in a single folder with no other images placed there.

• For volume‐based cloning, all volumes in the disk up to the active and system volumes must be backed up. For example, if a disk has four partitions, 1–4, with partition 2 as the active volume and partition 3 as the system volume, the backup must include 1 through 3.

• For incremental images, up to 16 incremental backups are supported.

• Images of systems with logical drives are not supported if the logical drive is also a system or active volume.

If any of these requirements are not met, you might receive an error like the one you describe.  If all else fails, there is always the "tried-and-true" method of restoring into a virtual machine using the ShadowProtect Recovery CD.  In my own tests, Converter has worked nicely (providing the above criteria were met), but I still do most of my VM restores using the recovery environment (I'm a creature of habit, I guess).

Kevin

Thanks Kevin, that helped out a lot.

 I was able to get a new virtual machine created from the C: drive backup, but it would only work if I only have the C: drive in the folder by itself. Now that I have the virtual machine created, it is missing a drive. Is there a good link that has documentation on how to restore the remaining drive(s)? I did read through the posts related to this, but didn't find anything that exactly relates to this specific issue.

It's probably easiest to restore any other partitions or disks to the VM using ShadowProtect.  You can add a second virtual disk to your VM by going to the the VM menu, selecting Settings, and clicking the Add button underneath the hardware list.  Then you can either install ShadowProtect in Windows (in your VM) and use the restore wizard to restore the other image to the new disk, or boot to the recovery CD and run the Restore wizard from there.

Kevin

 we did this this morning.

if you have multiple diskS on your source server, image both the disks (lets say you have 2 disks), then before running converter, put

both the images onto the server you are running vm converter from, into its own directory.

then when using vm converter, when it asks you for your source image, select only the C: drive image, by the time you get the option to resize the disks, you will see both disks available.

When you have got the vm running, check the disks to make sure they have the same mappings to the source server ,we have had issues where source config is

c: drive

d: cd-rom

e: data

after vm convert - ended up with

c: drive

d: data

e: cd-rom

 Kev, I had the issue that my physical server used Dynamic Disks, so VMWare Converter only shows the drive up as and active drive not a system/active drive.

When you say "there is always the "tried-and-true" method of restoring into a virtual machine using the ShadowProtect Recovery CD", do you mean just booting the VM with the ShadowProtect Recovery CD, the same as if it were a real server? How does this affect hardware and drivers? Does it follow a HIR methodology? 

Yes, just boot to the CD inside the VM and do an HIR restore as though you were restoring to new hardware, and it should work.  This is the method I personally use most often, and it works well.

Kevin