VMware Converter 4.01: “Unable to obtain hardware information” or “Unable to determine Guest Operating System”
Posted by jpluimers on 2010/06/10
Sometimes you get an error message “Unable to obtain hardware information” or “Unable to determine Guest Operating System” when using VMware Converter 4.01.
This happens at least with VMware Converter 4.01 and converting x64 VM’s like “Windows 7″ and “Windows Server 2008 R2″ from ESXi 4 U1.
Others found out it also happens with some Linux VMs, I have not tried those yet.
Similar problem here – Windows 7 VM, converter gives the “Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine”
Log shows (I’m assuming this is the important part)
error ‘ManagedMachineDataConnectionLogger’] Cannot query source HW info: vmodl.fault.SystemError
Export Wizard through VI Client gives ‘Unable to determine Guest Operating System’
Changing the VM’s settings and making the Operating System something other than Win 7 seems to work. Export to OVF works too. Guess those are your work arounds until the next verion of converter.
So the trick is these steps:
- Write down the Guest Operating System type
(You can perform step 1, 2 and 4 by pressing “Edit Settings” in the VM, in the dialog then go to the “Options” tab. )
- Change your VM configuration Guest Operating System type to a similar processor type (keep 64-bit or 32-bit) for a lower release of the OS (Windows 7 -> Vista -> XP, etc)
- Convert your VM; if it fails, go back to step 2
- Restore the VM configuration Guest Operating System type to the original saved in step 1
Piece of cake when you know it :-)