P2V migration fails at 2% - "A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to convert a powered-on Linux machine using VMware Converter, the process fails at 2% with the following error message:

"A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time"

vmware-converter-worker.log:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.MMM+TZ:TZ warning vmware-converter-worker[PID] [Originator@#### sub=IO.Connection] Failed to connect; <io_obj p:0x#######, h:####, <TCP '#.#.#.# : PORT'>, <TCP '#.#.#.# : 443'>>, e: 10060(A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond), duration: ####msec

Environment

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone

Cause

The issue occurred because the IP address bound with the new MAC address was not in the whitelist at the Firewall level as the VM Helper was using a different MAC every time.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, the strict IP-to-MAC binding on the firewall must be updated to accommodate the Helper VM's dynamically generated MAC address.

Follow these steps to proceed with the migration:

1. Initiate the Migration: Start the P2V conversion process in vCenter Converter.

2. Identify the New MAC Address: Once the target Helper VM is dynamically created in vCenter, navigate to the VM's settings and check its network adapter configuration to identify the newly generated MAC address.

3. Update Firewall Rules: Work with Local IT or Firewall team to whitelist this new MAC address and bind it to the designated destination IP address (#.#.#.#) in the firewall settings.

4. Once the firewall rule is applied, restart the P2V migration process in vCenter Converter.