So awhile back I was using VMware converter on my Win XP vm with zero problems. I loved how easy it was to convert physical servers to virtual servers. Then I created a new VM running Win 7 since I figured it was time to move on. I proceeded to install all the tools I use, Converter being one of them, and let it sit. At some point I needed to convert a server and fired up my shiny new Win 7 image and launched converter. I set up the conversion process and fired away. After waiting a while I received the following error.
A general system error occurred: Crypto Exception …blah blah blah.
I spent a fair amount of time researching and then came across a blog post from Forbes Guthrie that had the answer. “Run As Administrator”. FAIL! Nothing worse than spending 3 days searching about Crypto Exceptions in VMware converter.
Also, as a note to myself, make sure if the VM your going to convert has more than one NIC or you have different networks in your vSphere environment you choose a network that can reach the vSphere server on NIC 1 of your soon to be converted VM. This is one of the last steps in the converter setup process. For whatever reason I forget this and then I proceed to sit and stare at the progress bar that won’t move beyond 1%.