| Cause | Explanation | |-------|-------------| | | SSH user lacks root or sudo privileges with NOPASSWD. | | Missing required packages | perl , tar , gzip , or which not installed. | | Shell restrictions | User has a restricted shell (e.g., /bin/rbash ) or no shell access. | | Firewall or network issues | High latency, MTU mismatch, or SSH port blocked. | | Unsupported Linux distribution or kernel | Very old or too new kernels may not be supported. | | Agent installation path issues | No write access to /tmp or /root ; or no space left. | | SELinux or AppArmor blocking | Security policies blocking agent execution. |
You can either temporarily remount /tmp with execution rights using mount -o remount,rw,exec /tmp or change the target path by editing the converter-worker.xml file on the Windows machine hosting the Converter software to point to another writable directory. 🛠 Quick Troubleshooting Checklist
: The converter may fail if a single disk device is mounted at multiple locations. Ensure each device has only one mountpoint in the file system. | Cause | Explanation | |-------|-------------| | |
VMware Converter struggles with non-standard partition configurations—specifically, block devices or logical volumes assigned to multiple mount points at the exact same time. The worker service flags this conflict as a data anomaly and fails out with an internal SysinfoQueryFault .
When VMware Standalone Converter reports “Unable to query the live Linux source machine,” it means the Converter cannot successfully connect to or retrieve system information from the Linux source. Causes include authentication/permission problems, SSH configuration or connectivity issues, missing required services/utilities on the source, incompatible OS or kernel, or Converter bugs. The steps below diagnose and resolve the problem and offer workarounds. | | Firewall or network issues | High
The Converter agent extracts its scripts to a hidden folder in the /tmp directory and needs to execute them. If /tmp is mounted with the noexec option, the script will fail to run.
The “Unable to query the live Linux source machine” error is vague but almost always environment-related. Start with the shell fix and SSH root access—that resolves 80% of cases. If not, methodically check dependencies and SELinux. | | SELinux or AppArmor blocking | Security
: Open the VMware Converter worker logs on the Windows machine running the application. Look for vmware-converter-worker-#.log in %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\logs . Search for the keyword failed to connect or error code right before the query fails to pinpoint the exact failure vector. Alternative Workaround: Cold Cloning