Physical to virtual machine conversion fails with error "permission to perform this operation was denied"

Products

• VMware
• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Physical to virtual machine (P2V) conversion using VMware vCenter Converter fails error "permission to perform this operation was denied".
• In the "C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\logs", file you see error: UAC is enabled! using non elevated administrator

Environment

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 6.6
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.X

Cause

UAC is a Windows security feature that prevents unauthorized changes to the operating system and the user’s files and folders. This prevented from initiating the conversion task and is noted in the prerequisites for converting a windows powered on machine. 

 

Resolution

To resolve this issue, Turn off User Account Control (UAC) on physical Windows server and the jump server .

1. Click on Start > Run and type regedit > Enter.
    
2. Navigate registry path "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system"
    
3. Change the DWORD "EnableLUA" value from 1 to 0.
    
4. Reboot the Windows machine.