vmware : IDE to SCSI

I’ve found that vmware converter (this may be fixed in newer verions) creates vmware guests with an IDE controller. There can be performance issues if you choose to remain with this particular controller… Best bet is to change it to one of the various vmware SCSI controllers…

Depending on which windows operating system you are running depends on which controller you use….  http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006621

http://sanbarrow.com/vmdk/vmx-ide2scsi.html

You can easily change the type of the virtual controller for a given disk.
Lets have a look at an example.

# Disk DescriptorFile

version=1
CID=fffffffe
parentCID=ffffffff
createType=”twoGbMaxExtentFlat”
# Extent description
RW 4193792 FLAT “diskname-f001.vmdk” 0
RW 2097664 FLAT “diskname-f002.vmdk” 0
# The Disk Data Base
#DDB
ddb.adapterType = “ide”
ddb.virtualHWVersion = “3”
ddb.geometry.cylinders = “6241”
ddb.geometry.heads = “16”
ddb.geometry.sectors = “63”

The disk above uses a virtual ide-controller.

ddb.adapterType = “buslogic” This entry converts the disk into a SCSI-disk with BusLogic Controller

ddb.adapterType = “lsilogic”   This entry converts the disk into a SCSI-disk with LSILogic Controller
ddb.adapterType = “ide”   This entry converts the disk into a IDE-disk with Intel-IDE Controller

This changes the harddisk – but doesn’t change the controller itself.

ide0.present = “TRUE”
ide1.present = “TRUE”
scsi0.virtualDev = “lsilogic”
scsi0.virtualDev = “buslogic”
scsi1.virtualDev = “lsilogic”
scsi1.virtualDev = “buslogic”

Use entries like this in your *.vmx file. By the way, you can have LSI-logic and BUS-logic controllers in one VM.

Think twice before you make changes like this with a boot-disk.

Bluescreen 07b – mass-storage driver:
Activate the apropriate driver in the registry: intelide.sys or vmscsi.sys or symmpi.sys – you may have to add files as well.

If you get the above issue on a w2k8 box you might be able to enable the LSI_SAS driver before you convert the machine to SCSI controller.

1. Boot machine with IDE controller
2. Take a snapshot (for failback)
3. Regedit and find the following key \\HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\LSI_SAS
4. Change the “Start” dword from 4 to 0
5. Shutdown the machine
6. Remove all the virtual disks (do not delete the disks, just remove them)
7. Create copies of each .vmdk file (cp) (for failback)
8. Edit the .vmdk file for each disk (vi)
9. Change the “adaptertype” to “lsilogic” (if w2k8)
10. Re-add existing disks (this should also bring in a LSI SAS controller)
11. Boot the machine

Black screen with cursor blinking in the topleft of the screen:
Write a new partition boot-sector.