P2V Migration Error: Unable to complete converter agent installation error code 1603

VMware vCenter Converter Tool Error List Troubleshooting

If you are using VMware vCenter converter standalone tool version 6.2.x for P2V / V2V to migrate the obsolete windows Server 2000 to 2008 SP1 / SP2, 2008 R2 or later then may face very common errors : Unable to complete converter agent installation error code 1603 or similar errors as shown below:

vCenter Converter Standalone Tool common error list and solution is here.

vCenter Tool – Common Issues

1. The VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Agent service failed to start due to the following error: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion. Unable to complete converter agent installation error code 1603.

2. Error 1053: “The service did not respond in a timely fashion” when attempting to start, stop or pause a service

3. A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Agent service to connect.

4. A service does not start, and events 7000 and 7011 are logged in the Windows event log.

5. Event ID 7009 can be get in Windows event viewer with content “A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Worker service to connect”.

6. Error 7000: The failed to start due to the following error: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

7. This issue occurs because Service Control Manager generates an event if a service does not respond within the defined timeout period (the default timeout period is 30000 milliseconds).

8. A VMware product fails to install with the error 1603 (1009167)

9. vCenter Converter 6.2 failed to install on Windows Server 2008 R2 or later (64993)

10. VMware vcenter converter standalone server service not starting 1053

11. Error 1603: A fatal error occurred during installation

12. When install vCenter Converter standalone 6.x, the installation finished with pop window “Could not start service“.

13. vCenter Converter Agent, vCenter Converter Server or vCenter Converter Worker service cannot turn to “Running” in Windows Service Manager.

14. VMware vcenter converter standalone agent service failed to start

15. The VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Agent service failed to start due to the following error.

I know you have frustrated from above VMware vCenter converter tool 6.2.x errors but don’t worry i have the Best Solution here for all above vCenter converter tool errors list.

Best Solution of Above Error List

The Service Control Manager will generate an event if a service does not respond within the defined timeout period (the default timeout period is 30000 milliseconds). To resolve the error: Unable to complete converter agent installation error code 1603, just use the Registry Editor to change the default timeout value for all services to follow the following steps:

Increase the service timeout period

To perform this procedure, you must have membership in Administrators, or user must be member of Administrator group.

Warning: Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data.

To change the service timeout period:

Step 1: Click the Start button, then click Run, type regedit, and click OK.

Step 2: In the Registry Editor, click the registry subkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

Step 3: Select Control Folder, look at right-hand the ServicesPipeTimeout entry, right-click that entry and then select Modify.

Note: If the ServicesPipeTimeout entry does not exist, you must create it by selecting New on the Edit menu, followed by the DWORD Value 32 bit, then typing ServicesPipeTimeout, and clicking Enter.

Step 4: Modify the ServicePipeTimeout value,
Click Decimal, enter the new timeout value = 180000 OR 300000 ( In Milliseconds ) and then click OK.

Note : If 180,000 milliseconds is not sufficient then you can increase it as per your requirement.

Windows Registry - ServicePipeTimeout
Windows Registry – ServicePipeTimeout

Step 5: Restart the computer to save the registry changes.

This above method 100% works in most of the cases but if doesn’t work then follow the below Alternative solutions.

Read Also: Cross Hypervisor Migration To-from Nutanix AHV

Alternative Solutions

If above BEST SOLUTION doesn’t work for you then you need to cross-check following things:

Check Compatibility Matrix

VMware Converter Standalone 6.2.x supported Guest OS Compatibility list:

  • Windows Vista SP2 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2008 SP2 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)
  • Windows 8 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2012 (64-bit)
  • Windows 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)
  • Windows 10 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2016 (64-bit)
  • CentOS 6.x (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • CentOS 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 (64-bit)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.x (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 (64-bit)
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.x (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.x (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (32-bit and 64-bit)

Read also: Change VMware ESXi Hypervisor Hostname in Nutanix Hyper HCI Cluster

Check VMware vCenter Tool Platform

you can install VMware Converter Standalone tool version 6.2.x on the following Windows OS platforms:

  • Windows Vista SP2 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2008 SP2 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)
  • Windows 8 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2012 (64-bit)
  • Windows 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)
  • Windows 10 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2016 (64-bit)

Read also: Nutanix In-Place Hypervisor Conversion | ESXi – AHV

Check vCenter Tool Firewall Port List

Required network ports must be open on external firewall between source machine and vCenter Converter standalone tool during the conversion of powered on source machines running Windows / Linux.

Network Ports required during Windows P2V

Communication PathsCommunication PortsNotes
Converter Standalone server to powered on source machineTCP – 445, 139, 9089UDP – 137, 138If the source computer uses NetBIOS, port 445 is not required. If NetBIOS is not being used, ports 137, 138, and 139 are not required. When in doubt, make sure that none of the ports are blocked.Note:Unless you have installed Converter Standalone server or agent on the source computer, the account used for authentication to the source computer must have a password, the source computer must have network file sharing enabled, and it cannot be using Simple File Sharing.
Converter Standalone server to vCenter ServerTCP – 443Required only if the conversion destination is vCenter Server.
Converter Standalone client to vCenter ServerTCP – 443Required only if the Converter Standalone server and client components are on different machines.
Converter Standalone server to the destination ESXiTCP – 902Converter server always requires access to ESXi at port 902.
Powered on source machine to ESXiTCP – 443, 902If the conversion destination is vCenter Server, only port 902 is required.If the proxy mode feature is on, port 902 is not required.

Read also: Nutanix Infra Default Credentials


Network Ports Required During Linux P2V

Communication PathsTCP PortsNotes
Converter Standalone server to powered on source machine22Used to establish an SSH connection between the Converter Standalone server and the source machine.
Converter Standalone client to Converter Standalone server443Required only if the Converter Standalone server and client components are on different machines.
Converter Standalone server to vCenter Server443Required only if the conversion destination is a vCenter Server.
Converter Standalone server to ESXi443, 902If the conversion destination is a vCenter Server, only port 902 is required.
Converter Standalone server to helper virtual machine443
Helper virtual machine to powered on source machine22Used to establish an SSH connection between the helper virtual machine and the source machine. By default, the IP address of the helper virtual machine is assigned by DHCP. If no DHCP server is available on the destination network, you must manually assign the helper virtual machine an IP address.

Read also: Nutanix Move Migration Guide ?


Network Ports Required During V2V

Communication PathsCommunication PortsNotes
Converter Standalone server to Fileshare pathTCP – 445, 139UPD – 137, 138Required only for standalone virtual machine sources or destinations. If the computer hosting the source or destination path uses NetBIOS, port 445 is not required. If NetBIOS is not being used, ports 137, 138, and 139 are not required. When in doubt, make sure that none of the ports are blocked.
Converter Standalone client to Converter Standalone serverTCP – 443Required only if the Converter Standalone server and client components are on different machines.
Converter Standalone server to vCenter ServerTCP – 443Required only if the conversion destination is a vCenter Server.
Converter Standalone server to ESXiTCP – 443, 902If the conversion destination is a vCenter Server, only port 902 is required.

Read also: VMware Esxi 6.5 U1 High CPU Consumption issue

VMware Prerequisites for Converting a Powered On Windows Machine

VMware Prerequisites for P2V / V2V migration for Windows OS, Before you continue with the conversion, you must prepare the source Windows machine.

1. Make sure that the Converter Standalone server machine has network access to the Windows source machine.

2. Turn off firewall applications and Defender Antivirus running on the source machine.

3. Disable simple file sharing on the source Windows machine.

4. Stop or disable anti-virus software running on the source machine.

5. Turn off User Account Control (UAC) or use local administrator account on the source machine.

6. If you are logged in as a member of the local Administrators group, you must disable the User Account Control: You must reboot for the changes to take effect.

7. Remove any Pen drive or removal disk from Physical machine.

8. You must have the Windows / Linux – local administrator / root account credential.

9. Check Windows update should not pending to install in Windows OS

10 ( Optional ). Check HDD / SSD Disk bad sector before migration if you have any doubt on disk performance or data corruption event.


Note: The Security Options folder is located in Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies.

Ensure that Windows Firewall Does Not Block File and Printer Sharing

If Converter Standalone fails to connect to a remote Windows machine and issues a bad username/ password error message, ensure that file and printer sharing is not blocked by Windows Firewall.

Procedure

1 Select Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy.

2 In the Security Settings list on the left, select Local Policies > Security Options.

3 In the policies list on the right, select Network access: Sharing and Security model for local accounts.

4 Verify that Classic – local users authenticate as themselves is selected.

More info visit VMware vCenter converter tool 6.2.x document.

Conclusion

Hopefully you have got the solution of Unable to complete converter agent installation error code 1603, Error 1053: “The service did not respond in a timely fashion” when attempting to start, stop or pause a service, The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion, installation finished with pop window “Could not start service”, vmware vcenter converter standalone agent service failed to start, vmware vcenter converter standalone server service not starting 1053 etc. issues.

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