Conversion fails with the error: Converter unable to create a VSS snapshot of the source volume

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• You cannot convert a virtual machine using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone.
• Conversion of a virtual machine fails immediately.
• In the Event Viewer tab, you see the error:
  
  VSS Event ID 4001: "Volume Shadow Copy service error: Cannot find diff areas for creating shadow copies. Please add at least one NTFS drive drive to the system with enough free"
   
• Conversion fails with the error:
  
  Converter unable to create a VSS snapshot of the source volume
  Error code 2147754776 (0x80042318)
   
• On a Windows machine running vCenter Converter Standalone, under Administration Tools > Event Viewer > Application you see the error:
  
  Event Type: Error
  Event Source: VSS
  Event Category: None
  Event ID: 5013
  Date: 8/19/2005
  Time: 10:38:14 PM
  User: N/A
  Computer: ComputerName
  Description: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Shadow Copy writer ContentIndexingService called routine RegQueryValueExW which failed with status 0x80070002 (converted to 0x800423f4). For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://support.microsoft.com.
  Data: 0000: 57 53 48 43 4f 4d 4e 43 WSHCOMNC 0008: 32 32 39 32 00 00 00 00 2292.... 0010: 57 53 48 43 49 43 00 00 WSHCIC.. 0018: 32 38 37 00 00 00 00 00 287.....
   
• VMware Converter cannot take a snapshot on Microsoft 64bit Vista, Windows 2008, or Windows 7 physical sources if the source has a volume formatted in FAT (File Allocation Table)
   
  • Attempting to hot clone these devices fails.
  • You see the error:
    
    Failed to take snapshot of a source volume
    FAILED: Unable to create a VSS snapshot of the source volume(s). Error code:2147754766 (0x8004230E)
     
   

• In the Converter logs, you see the errors:

  • A general system error occurred. Found dangling SSL error

  • [21:32:14.025 02760 info 'App'] Connecting to host example.example.com on port 443
    [21:32:14.057 02760 info 'App'] Authenticating user root
    [21:32:14.072 02760 info 'App'] ComputeResource for vim.HostSystem:ha-host is vim.ComputeResource:ha-compute-res
    [21:32:14.088 02760 info 'App'] ResourcePool for vim.ComputeResource:ha-compute-res is vim.ResourcePool:ha-root-pool
    [21:32:14.088 02760 info 'App'] ComputeResource for vim.ResourcePool:ha-root-pool is vim.ComputeResource:ha-compute-res
    [21:32:14.103 02760 info 'App'] Datacenter for vim.ComputeResource:ha-compute-res is vim.Datacenter:ha-datacenter
    [21:32:14.103 02760 info 'App'] Root VM folder for vim.Datacenter:ha-datacenter is vim.Folder:ha-folder-vm
    [21:32:14.103 02760 info 'App'] Reusing existing VIM connection to example.example.com
    [21:32:14.135 02760 info 'App'] Scheduled timer canceled, StopKeepAlive succeeds
    [21:32:14.135 02760 info 'vmomi.soapStub[8]'] Resetting stub adapter for server TCP:h6pvx01.fras.frb.org:443 : Closed
    [#4] [21:32:14.150 06420 info 'App'] ConverterConnection: KeepAlive timer canceled, StopKeepAlive succeeded
    [#4] [21:32:14.150 06420 info 'vmomi.soapStub[5]'] Resetting stub adapter for server PIPE:\\.\pipe\vmware-converter-worker-soap : Closed
    [21:32:14.291 02760 info 'App'] Started task "task-5" for job="job-17", item ="2" -- void __thiscall Converter::Server::Job::JobProcessorImpl::StartProcessingJobs(void) ("d:/build/ob/bora-292238/bora/sysimage/lib/converter/server/job/jobProcessorImpl.cpp:351"G)
    [21:32:14.307 05324 info 'App'] [task,332] [task-5] -- BEGIN -- Convert
    [21:32:14.400 05324 error 'App'] Found dangling SSL error: [0] error:00000001:lib(0):func(0):reason(1)
    [21:32:14.447 05324 info 'App'] [taskSpec,464] [task-5] [TaskMap] task-5:task-3
    [22:04:34.422 05324 error 'App'] [task,344] [LRO] Unexpected Exception: converter.fault.CloneFault
    [22:04:34.422 05324 info 'App'] [task,373] [task-5] -- ERROR -- Convert: converter.fault.CloneFault
    
    
    

Environment

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3.x
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 6.0.x
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.0.x

Resolution

Although you receive this error message from the vCenter Converter Standalone, this is actually an issue with the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) on the Windows Operating System. You can verify this from the Windows Event Viewer, where you can see the related Volume Shadow Copy Service error.

 

VMware vCenter Converter uses the Windows VSS components on Windows XP, 2003, 2008 and Windows 7 systems in order to take a snapshot of the source volume.

 

This issue can also occur if there are any FAT volumes enabled for conversion. The Volume Shadow Copy Service does not support FAT filesystem and supports only NTFS filesystem. Uncheck the FAT volumes or convert them to NTFS to proceed with the conversion progress.

 

• For more information about troubleshooting VSS issues on Windows 2003, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 940032.
• For more information about troubleshooting various VSS issues that may occur on Windows 2003, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 940032.
• You may also encounter this issue if your COM+ is corrupted. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 315296.

Note: The preceding links were correct as of December 11, 2017. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

Additional Information

This issue may appear when rights are restricted to only a resource pool and you attempt to import a virtual machine. Ensure that when you are importing a virtual machine, that the account you used to login to vCenter Server has full rights.

Ensure you are logging into the source machine with a local administrator account to avoid a permissions issue with the VSS service.