VMware
 

Knowledge Base

Search the Knowledge Base:
Products:
Search In:
 

Switching on Disk Pre-Allocation for Flat Target Virtual Disks

Details

While converting source machines such that their destination is a local or network share drive that resides on Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, if you select the Pre-allocated target disk option, the disk cloning operation might fail, and Converter Standalone displays an NfcConnectionFault error.

The following error is logged in the vCenter Converter Standalone agent log:

[NFC ERROR] File error -- Failed to write to the target file: An error was detected.

This might be due to a known file system issue on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.


Solution

One possible workaround is to enable the preallocateTargetDisks flag in the converter-agent.xml file:

  1. Browse for the converter-agent.xml file in the following locations:
    • If Converter Standalone runs on a Windows system, go to %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\.
    • If Converter Standalone is running on a Linux system, go to /etc/vmware-converter/.
  1. Open the converter-agent.xml file in a text editor and change the preallocateTargetDisks flag from false to true.
  2. Restart Converter Standalone agent.
    • If Converter Standalone agent runs on a Windows system, open the Services section in the Microsoft Management Console, find the VMware Converter Agent service and restart it.
    • If Converter Standalone agent runs on a Linux system, find the Converter Agent process by running ps -axu|grep "converter-agent.xml" and terminate it. The Converter Standalone agent starts automatically the next time you initiate a conversion task.

Alternatively, instead of restarting Converter Standalone agent, you can reboot the system to make the changes to converter-agent.xml take effect.

Keywords

preallocate, pre-allocated disks

Feedback

Rating: 1 - Lowest 2 3 4 5 - Highest (1 Ratings)   

Did this article help you?
This article resolved my issue.
This article did not resolve my issue.
This article helped but additional information was required to resolve my issue.
What can we do to improve this information? (2000 or fewer characters)
Submit
Rating: 1 - Lowest 2 3 4 5 - Highest (1 Ratings)   
Actions
  • KB Article: 1008300
  • Updated: Sep 7, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware vCenter Converter Standalone
  • Product Versions:
    VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.0.x