V2V/P2V conversion fails with the error: The request refers to an object that no longer exists or has never existed

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cannot perform a Virtual to Virtual (V2V) conversion
• Cannot perform a Physical to Virtual (P2V) conversion
• V2V/P2V conversion fails
• The conversion reports this error just before submitting the task:
  
  The request refers to an object that no longer exists or has never existed Refer to uploaded Image for View.
  
  
• In the Converter Worker log, you see entries similar to:
  
  [#12] * The host certificate chain is not complete.
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z warning 'App'] [,0] SSLVerifyIsEnabled: failed to read registry value. Falling back to default behavior: verification off. LastError = 0
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z warning 'App'] [,0] SSLVerifyCertAgainstSystemStore: Certificate verification is disabled, so connection will proceed despite the error
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] [,0] Partition:Invalid sector magic number.
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] [,0] Disk number # has been skipped because of errors while reading partition table
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] [,0] Partition:Invalid sector magic number.
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] [,0] Disk number # has been skipped because of errors while reading dynamic disks header or LDM database is corrupted
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] [,0] Partition:Invalid sector magic number.
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z warning 'App'] [MoveActiveDiskIfNeeded] GetFirstBootDisk failed, mntapi error: 176
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] [,0] Partition:Invalid sector magic number.
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] [,0] Partition:Invalid sector magic number.
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] Reusing existing VIM connection to [object-name]
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z error 'App'] TargetVmManagerImpl::CreateVM: Failed to retrieve the storage mapping with error vmodl.fault.ManagedObjectNotFound
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] TargetVmManagerImpl::CreateVM: The target VM will be deleted now.
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] TargetVmManagerImpl::DeleteVM
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] Reusing existing VIM connection to [object-name]
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] Destroying vim.VirtualMachine:[ID] on [object-name]
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'App'] Scheduled timer canceled, StopKeepAlive succeeds
  [#12] [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'vmomi.soapStub[105]'] Resetting stub adapter for server TCP:[object-name]:443 : Closed
  
  Hostd will show:
  [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z verbose 'App'] Looking up object with name = "dvportgroup-ID" failed.
  [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'Vmomi'] Activation [N5Vmomi10ActivationE:0x5da11790] : Invoke done [GetName] on [vim.dvs.DistributedVirtualPortgroup:dvportgroup-ID]
  [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'Vmomi'] Throw vmodl.fault.ManagedObjectNotFound
  [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'Vmomi'] Result:
  (vmodl.fault.ManagedObjectNotFound) {
  dynamicType = <unset>,
  faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
  obj = 'vim.dvs.DistributedVirtualPortgroup:dvportgroup-ID',
  msg = "",
  }
  [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.Z info 'Libs'] [NFC DEBUG] Closing file
  
  
• Running the tail -f hostd.log command reports this issue

Environment

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.0.x
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.3.x

Resolution

This issue occurs due to Port Binding in DvS.

 

To resolve the issue, try one of these options:

• Convert the virtual machine without the NIC.
• Convert the virtual machine via vCenter Server.
• Convert the virtual machine with a standard vSwitch and then change it to the proper switch.
• Change the Port Binding on DvS from Static to Ephemeral binding. For more information, see Static (non-ephemeral) or ephemeral port binding on a vSphere Distributed Switch