Converting a virtual machine using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone fails with the error: Failed to read GRUB configuration

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Performing a conversion using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4 fails at 97%
• If the conversion is successful and you try to boot the virtual machine, you may see messages similar to:
  
  Creating root device
  mkrootdev: label / not found
  Mounting root filesystem
  mount: error 2 mounting ext3
  mount: error 2 mounting none
  Switching to new root
  switchroot: mount failed: 22
  umount /initrd/dev failed: 2
  Kernel panic - not sysncing: Attempted to kill init!
  
• The vmware-converter-server.log contains a message similar to:
  
  [37996 verbose 'Ufa.HTTPService'] HTTP Response: Complete (processed 1829 bytes)
  [30700 info 'App'] [task,374] [task-11] -- ERROR -- Convert: converter.fault.CloneFault
  (converter.fault.CloneFault) {
  dynamicType = <unset>,
  faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
  description = "GrubInstaller::InstallGrub: Failed to read GRUB configuration from /mnt/p2v-src-root/boot/grub/menu.lst",
  
  msg = "",
  }

Environment

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.0.x

Resolution

This issue occurs because menu.lst does not exist on some versions of RedHat (such as RHEL 4).

To reconfigure the virtual machine, Converter looks for the menu.lst file.

To resolve this issue:

1. Log in as root to the physical machine you are trying to convert.
2. Copy the file used by GRUB to menu.lst:
   
   cp /boot/grub/grub.conf /boot/grub/menu.lst
   
   
3. Retry the conversion.

Notes:

• You may also experience these symptoms on a Debian system (including Debian 5) that has a separate /boot partition and was previously switched from LILO to GRUB using Debian's instructions. In this case, the correct menu.lst may be located at /boot/boot/grub/menu.lst.
• You can also resolve this issue by editing menu.lst and /etc/fstab to point to the correct location of the root filesystem. That is, by switching references from hda to sda.
  
  

Additional Information

For related information, see Virtual machine does not boot after being converted from a physical RedHat machine (1002402).