Server 2012R2 VMWare to Hyper-V Issues

[bschroeder]

I'm in the process of migrating VMs from VMWare 7.1 to Hyper-V, and I've successfully used V2V for the linux machines. However, I'm trying to get a couple of Windows Server 2012R2 machines to migrate to Hyper-V and it just isn't working.

When the migration is complete, I try starting the Hyper-V virtual machine, and I get a blue screen with the Inaccessible Boot Device error.

I've uninstalled the VMWare tools prior to doing the migration, and I've tried a V2V as well as P2V from the VM Guest to the Hyper-V. All with the same error.

The Windows Server 2012 R2 on VMWare is EFI, so I've used Gen 2 on the Hyper-V side to match the EFI.

I've also created a testing Gen 1 VM and attached the boot drive to the IDE and Hyper-V just starts the guest with a black screen and blinking cursor.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

[yaroslav (staff)]

That's drivers. Try converting with Repair Mode on.
May be helpful
1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troub ... 0xc000000e
2. https://www.erniecosta.com/2020/02/26/h ... t-drivers/
Try booting the VM in the safe mode.

[bschroeder]

OK that's what I thought. I just keep running into brick walls to get the correct drivers going. I've removed all the VMWare tools prior to doing the migration...

When I enable recovery mode, and boot into recovery mode, do I need to do the other links to reset the VM back to using IDE? Or are there other ways to get the correct drivers into the image?

[yaroslav (staff)]

I think IDE is addressing the issue from a different side. You can try it independently.
Drivers is one of the possible solutions: I am just curious if it boots in the recovery mode.
The issue relates to the OS drive, so if you can reinstall the OS and take the files, that makes it.

P.s. You can try disk2VHD in that VM. Might not help as well.
What should do it is any solution that features instant recovery feature (e.g., Veeam, Nakivo, etc.).

[bschroeder]

It never gets into windows. Just the recovery console. From there there isn't much I can do.

[yaroslav (staff)]

Did you try booting from the IDE device?

[bschroeder]

I've created a gen 1 VM from scratch and added the VHDX that I created earlier to the IDE and it doesn't boot either. I just get a boot failure message in Hyper-V. Most likely because the Gen 2 is GPT and not MBR.

I've only tried to convert the VMWare into a Gen 2, never Gen 1. So now I'm attempting to re-run the conversion as a Gen 1 and a VHD rather than a VHDX.

What I've tried and didn't work:
V2V as Gen 2
P2V as Gen 2

[yaroslav (staff)]

Is there any chance to use something like Nakivo or Veeam Instant Recovery?

[bschroeder]

That's going to be the next option.

I just ran a V2V as a Gen 1, and no go. The disk is a GPT in VMWare so it is created as a GPT and that isn't compatible with Gen 1.

[yaroslav (staff)]

Did you try P2V the OS as a VHD disk?
Try Disk2VHD.

[bschroeder]

I did a P2V as a Gen 2.

I'll retry as Gen 1, then Disk2VHD

I did an instant recovery from Veeam, and no dice. Exact same issue.

[yaroslav (staff)]

From what I can see the issue does not relate to StarWind V2V Converter, but it is the VM itself.
Is reinstalling the OS an option?

[bschroeder]

Probably, but I'm stubborn. I'd like to figure out what the issue is exactly so that I can deal with it more easily later in case it happens to a critical system that can't be rebuilt.

[yaroslav (staff)]

Something similar is here https://forums.veeam.com/servers-workst ... 53842.html and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archi ... r-disk2vhd.