Physical to Virtual (P2V) conversion using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone fails with the error: Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine
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Physical to Virtual (P2V) conversion using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone fails with the error: Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine

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Article ID: 342747

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
  • Physical to Virtual (P2V) conversion using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone fails.
  • You see the error:

    Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine


Environment

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 6.0.x

Cause

This issue occurs when VMware vCenter Converter Standalone is installed on a source physical machine.

Resolution

To resolve this issue:
  1. Restart the physical machine if possible.
  2. Disable Simple File Sharing on the physical machine. For information on disabling Simple File Sharing, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 307874.

    Note: The preceding link was correct as of September 9, 2015. If you find the link is broken, provide a feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
     
  3. Turn off the Firewall and Anti-Virus on the physical machine.
  4. Ensure the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) service is started on the physical machine.
  5. Ensure you log in to vCenter Converter Standalone with Administrator privileges or select Run as Administrator when you start vCenter Converter Standalone.
  6. In the vCenter Converter Standalone Conversion wizard, select A remote machine instead of This Local machine and provide the IP address of the physical machine or use the loopback IP address, 127.0.0.1.
NOTE: VMware converter has reached End of Life and VMware will not support, however if customer has converter package they can use and reach VMware communities for help.  
 

Additional Information