Thursday, January 26, 2012

SCVMM 2008 R2, P2V conversion of Windows 2000 sp4 server fails, Error 3148

I created this post on microsoft.com as a question. Just noticed that someone actually found it helpful so I figured I would add it to the blog:


Details:
I'm attempting to convert a Windows 2000 sp4 server to a virtual machine. The machine is a Dell 2650 with a Perc3/DC raid card and Broadcom NIC.

Error:
Error (3148)
The volume \\?\Volume{4e9c7c6e-8941-11d8-be90-806d6172696f}\ selected for physical-to-virtual imaging is not accessible from Windows PE. This is usually caused by missing or incorrect storage drivers. server.domain.local may now need to be manually restarted into the original operating system using the boot menu. 
Recommended Action
Exclude this volume from conversion. Or, if you are performing offline physical-to-virtual conversions, create a new folder under C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2\Driver Import on the VMM computer and then copy all of the storage or networks drivers to the new folder.

Description of problem:
Going through SCVMM 2008 R2 console, I click 'Convert Physical Server' under 'Actions' and go through the wizard. I have googled around and figured out that this error is the result of the RAID storage drivers missing in the Windows PE environment, so the conversion agent is unable to read the hard disk and do the conversion. According to (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb963740.aspx) Technet article, I'm supposed to see a checkbox in the 'Convert Physical Server' wizard that gives me the option to "Use storage and network drivers from the following location." Unfortunately, the wizard appears to think that it doesn't need anything additional to do the conversion and never gives me that option. I also tried to copy the drivers to the "Driver Import" folder with no success

Questions:
- Why doesn't it ask me to "Use storage and network drivers from the following location"?

- Is there a way to force the conversion wizard to ask me to supply drivers?

- How does copying drivers to C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2\Driver Import on the SCVMM machine translate into them appearing in the WinPE environment on the conversion target machine? Does it take everything in that folder and copy it to the WinPE image it loads and is there any way to confirm this action is happening?

- Using the -DriverPath parameter in New-P2V: Is it possible to put in a network drive? Since the local drives are RAID based, without the storage drivers it won't be able to read the path if I just put it on the local drive of the conversion machine. (If I was onsite, I could probably use a USB stick)
I'm hoping there is an easy way to get the conversion wizard to just ask me for the drivers, but if worst comes to worst, I will try to go about it manually

Solution:
The error was misleading a bit: it wasn't having trouble reading my RAID hard disk volumes, and the drivers were loading correctly. I checked the scvmm_winpe_setupapi.log file on the target machines boot drive and it showed that SCVMM agent already located and copied my NIC/RAID drivers.


I solved the problem by unchecking the dell boot volume (that has the dell test/repair tools that you can execute through the bios boot) in the p2v conversion wizard when setting up the job. I updated my RAID drivers on the Target machine as the same time to the latest windows 2000 drivers, which are still old, but I don't think that did anything.  Probably no one was as dumb as me to leave the dell boot volume checked, but just incase, maybe this post will help someone.