Imported VM Cannot Boot - Read-Only Filesystem

[rdpratti]

I have a Win 8.1 Host and a Centos 6.6 Guest on my laptop.

I am having trouble booting an imported appliance from an export that I did from the same laptop.
Behavior implies that there is a problem with the vmdk file's hard disk image created in the export. I have been struggling with this for 3 solid days with no luck. Google and forum searches have come up with no answers. My logs are attached. All help is apprreciated.

Initial VM install was 4.3 upgraded to 5.0.10.

I have a converted VM that ran fine under 4.3 and runs fine under 5.0.

I exported this VM appliance (it created a vmdk).

I imported into VB 5.0 new machine on the same laptop, as well as another machines.

I get the same behavior from booting on both the laptop and the other computer.

a. Boot goes to black screen
b. booting in single mode shows the following error messages:

- I/O error messages on SDA1 and SDA2
- failed command WRITE DMA
- EXT4-fs detected aborted journal
- remountng file system as read-only

c. fdisk -l shows 'sda1 partition 1 does not start on cylander boundary

I noticed that on the initial Appliance, the storage was checked as hot pluggable, but not on the imported Appliance. So I tried to check it.

a. I received an error message: Failed to attached hard disk Snapshots\{e5c........}.vmdk. Details E_Fail (0x80004005). I checked the location mentioned and the file exists.

I am really stumped and appreciate all help.

rdpratti

[rdpratti]

I did some more tests and the hot pluggable error seems to be a key indicator of the problem.

I loaded the image on a central SAN drive and then downloaded it to 20 machines in a school lab made up of machines with the same hardware configuration:

HP machines, i5 processors, 16 GB memory, same hd size w/ Win 7

I then created a new appliance with that file as the HD file.

3 machines worked fine and boot to sign on, the other 17 do not.

All working machines set up the HD file as hot pluggable, the other 17 get the error in my original post when trying to make it hot pluggable.

Now to figure out why!

- rd

[rdpratti]

Something else I discovered:

even though it is the same file that was downloaded from the SAN to each workstation,

When highlighting the vmdx in VB, sometimes it is referenced as a dynamically allocated differencing storage (on the working machines)
and dynamically allocated compressed storage (on the nonworking machines).

I need to determine how this is determined. Any ideas?

- rd

[rdpratti]

I think I got to the bottom of this issue. Differencing images house the guest in multiple files - one being a base which is read only.

For some reason, when you do an export is does not include the actual file with the changeable data in it.

Reading through the manual, I read about Clonehd and have been using that to clone images. Images form that process seem to boot fine without the earlier problems.

[mpack]

For some reason, when you do an export is does not include the actual file with the changeable data in it.

When you do an export the chain of difference images is merged into a single VMDK file. Messing with clonehd is not correct either.

FAQ: How to move a VM.

[rdpratti]

mpack,

Thanks for the link. I will try that approach.

- rdpratti

[rdpratti]

mpack,

I am hoping you cna clarify something for me. Based on your last reply, it is probably due to a misconception on my part.

I have a appliance that works reasonably well that I need to shrink in size to make it easier to distribute t students for a class. So I followed these steps:

a. Cloned the appliance (so I wouldn't mess up the working one)
b. Registered and Brought it up and removed unnecessary files (mostly data files)
c. Deleted extra users
d. Zero filled instance using common Linux practice
e. Cloned disk (vmdk -> vdi) to have the compression occur.

The effect was dramatic 43 -> 25 GB.

However, eclipse runs very slow now both in starting up and reacting to click requests.

Based on your prior experience, did I follow the wrong process? where might I look for the problem?

Like in the earlier thread:

VB 5.0.12 + Guest additions
Host Win 8.1
Guest Centos 6.6
Eclipse Luna

- rdpratti

[mpack]

Nothing you did there ought to have made any guest software run slow. Check that you haven't run low on resources for some reason, and consider that the cause might be external, e.g. network congestion. You should also ask on an Eclipse forum. Check process lists on guest and host to see if somebody is hogging CPU or I/O time.

p.s. On Windows hosts CloneVDI can compact your VDI without all those intermediate steps (e.g. no need to zero out the filesystem). However it only works on supported filesystems: FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, EXT1-EXT4.

[rdpratti]

mpark,

Thanks for the tip. I had the Oracle dbms services and window defender running. I shut those down (not sure which was the culprit, but for now performance is much better.

Also I look forward to will try your CloneVDI tool later today - thanks for the support!

- rdpratti