IBM Support

Converted VM console is black with white cursor in upper left hand corner.

Troubleshooting


Problem

When you use VMware Converter Standalone® to convert a physical server to a Virtual Machine in the ESX vSphere environment verify the disk adapter type before conversion starts. If the conversion process is successful but when the VM is powered on the console only shows a black screen with a white cursor in the upper left hand corner the disk type may be the problem.

Diagnosing The Problem

If the VM is currently in this state the way to verify the disk type of the VM is to select Edit Settings from the vSphere client while the VM is highlighted. In the hardware tab select the Hard Disk 1 then review the Virtual Device Node. If it shows IDE then follow the steps below.

Resolving The Problem

cause: If the disk type of the first virtual disk is ide instead of scsi then that will prevent the vmdk from being bootable. Follow the steps below to resolve.

VMware® recently released a KB documenting the steps to convert an ide disk to a scsi disk:


Converting a virtual IDE disk to a virtual SCSI disk

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016192

If this does not work or if it is easier to just do the conversion again here are the steps:

If the boot vmdk is IDE type then delete the VM that was converted from disk and do the conversion again. Make sure to verify the Disk Controller Type is scsi not ide before the conversion starts, see the admin guide below. I have only seen this with Converter Standalone not vCenter Converter.


See pages 51-53: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/converter_standalone_guide401.pdf


Change Device Settings on the New Virtual Machine
You can change the number of processors, the amount of memory, and the disk controller type to run on the
destination virtual machine.
Procedure
1 On the View/Edit Options page, click Devices in the left pane.
The device settings options appear to the right.
2 From the drop-down menu, select Number of processors to select the number of processors to run on the
target virtual machine.
The number of processors in the drop-down menu varies depending on the selected destination type.
3 From the drop-down menu, select Disk controller type.
The list of available controllers that appears varies depending on the selected source and destination.
4 Use the slider to adjust the amount of memory allocated to the target virtual machine.
For better accuracy, use the spin-box to the right.
5 Select another option to set or click Next to view a summary of the conversion task.
Converter Standalone creates a destination virtual machine based on your device settings

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If not, if the disk type is SCSI already, or if the above steps still do not work then review this troubleshooting article or contact support for assistance: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006296

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Document Information

Modified date:
27 February 2020

UID

isg3T1012011

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