Boot failed: not a bootable disk - after Converting and importing image

[janhw]

Hi everybody,

I have a problem with one of my VMs:

bootdisk: sata0
cores: 2
memory: 4096
name: Firewall
net0: e1000=B2:6F:E4:75:CB:5D,bridge=vmbr1
net1: e1000=02:00:00:ca:f2:6d,bridge=vmbr0
net2: e1000=DA:3F:3A:29:07:2F,bridge=vmbr2
net3: e1000=EE:18:EB:D9:93:C3,bridge=vmbr3
numa: 0
ostype: l26
sata0: VMSpeicher:vm-100-disk-0,cache=writeback,size=50G
scsihw: virtio-scsi-pci
smbios1: uuid=141a9394-4327-4c5c-82ca-45324a8b374c
sockets: 1
vga: vmware

I needed to use Sata as SCSI isn't supported by the virtual FW.

The only thing I did was download a 60G QCOW2-Image to my HDD (I use ZFS by the way) ,
then converted it to raw and then I imported it via:

qm importdisk 102 test-vm.raw local-zfs

While importing (guess at 80%) some of the VMs behaved strangely.
I did a reboot and all VMs booted up normally except the Firewall VM with Sata.
When booting it I get "Boot failed: not a bootable disk"

Is there anybody who can help me on how to proceed and how it can be avoided next time?

Regards,

Jan

 

[dietmar]

Maybe the VM image requires EFI BIOS for booting?

 

[janhw]

Hi Dietmar,

thanks for your reply but why would the VM have been working before then? I think it has to do with the high I/O during importing the image.
How could I test if it's about the bios, how could I set it to EFI?

Regards,

Jan

 

[janhw]

Changing to UEFI didn't help :/

 

[janhw]

Couldn't recover the old VM, now I created a new VM with IDE instead of Sata, hope this works better.

 

[LnxBil]

Couldn't recover the old VM, now I created a new VM with IDE instead of Sata, hope this works better.

You can change that without destroying the VM. It's cold-pluggable.

Have you already read this:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Migration_of_servers_to_Proxmox_VE

 

[janhw]

Hi,
thanks for your info, I know about that but the problem is that the HDD of the VM couldn't be booted, so I created a new VM and reinstalled it. This time I used IDE. I hope in future it does work better.

Regards,

Jan

 

[LnxBil]

I hope in future it does work better.

IDE never works better. It's dead slow.

Yet, if you get your VM working, switch to VirtIO SCSI, as described (only with scsi) here:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Migrat...xmox_VE#Convert_Windows_to_use_SCSI_.28KVM.29

 

[janhw]

I just noticed I choose VirtIO, is that better. SCSI sadly isn't supported by the virtual FW.
It's based on unix, not on windows. The config for the VM is:

bootdisk: virtio0
cores: 2
memory: 4096
name: FW-Neu
net0: e1000=8E:91:AA:78:AE:3B,bridge=vmbr1
net1: e1000=02:00:00:ca:f2:6d,bridge=vmbr0
net2: e1000=56:DE:44:BF:51:3E,bridge=vmbr2
net3: e1000=02:90:6D:75:22:1F,bridge=vmbr3
numa: 0
ostype: l26
scsihw: virtio-scsi-pci
smbios1: uuid=e66bc498-6c47-44d5-94af-5cf59e6a0fbf
sockets: 1
vga: vmware
virtio0: VMSpeicher:vm-106-disk-0,cache=writeback,size=45G
vmgenid: 257d168b-3197-4d36-a67d-118278b43373

Is that okay so far?

I'm just afraid that when I import another disk image that some VM might get corrupted again as with the former Firewall VM

Regards,

Jan

 

[LnxBil]

It's based on unix, not on windows.

unix or linux? What is this for a Firewall.

I'm just afraid that when I import another disk image that some VM might get corrupted again as with the former Firewall VM

I never heard or experienced a corruption of a VM after import - a not bootable VM is not corruption, it's just misconfiguration.

 

[janhw]

Hi Bill, thanks for your reply!

unix or linux? What is this for a Firewall.

It's a Sophos UTM, it's Linux-Based as far as I can see (Distrowatch.com)

I never heard or experienced a corruption of a VM after import - a not bootable VM is not corruption, it's just misconfiguration.

I had a look at it yesterday via GPARTED and it didn't recognize any format on the disk, it seems broken. I didn't configure anything wrong.
I read about similar issues in:
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/after-backup-boot-failed-not-a-bootable-disk.25419/
The users there see problems with VM after heavy IO as well - just like with me. As said, I downloaded, converted and imported a HDD-Image.
Do you know what might have caused this?

Regards,

Jan

 

[LnxBil]

Do you know what might have caused this?

Unfortunately, no. I've never experienced a disk with destroyed data.

 

[Simofila]

I had the same diagnostic message "Boot failed: not a bootable disk" after the VM has been created and disk imported to the virtual machine. I used the command "importovf 1xx .........................ovf local-lvm --format qcow2 to change the format becasue vmdk is not supported by the storage device.
the VM is running or shows that´s running but I think something is wring with configuration (please see attached screenshots)

 

[LnxBil]

importovf 1xx .........................ovf local-lvm --format qcow2 to change the format becasue vmdk is not supported by the storage device.

If vmdk is not supported, qcow2 is also not supported. Both are file-based containers wherea local-lvm is a block-based system.

 

[Simofila]

thanks LnxBil for the quick response!
Ok. I deleted the VM on Proxmox Server and I cleaned up all storage devices. Then I started everything from the beginning and transfer the ova. file (64GB) to a local storage device (4TB). The export of *.ova to *.ovf, *disk001.vmdk, *disk002.vmdk and *.mf was successfull. Then after give the command to import the ovf File: qm importovf *.ovf local-lvm --format raw (because local-lvm is supporting the raw format) I got this message:
warning: unable to parse the VM name OVF manifest, generating a default value
invalid host ressource /disk/vmdisk1, skipping
invalid host ressource /disk/vmdisk2, skipping

 

[Simofila]

Add: the VM has been created but the data were not imported and I got the "Boot failed: not a bootable disk" when I tried to start the VM on Proxmox.

 

[Simofila]

Add: I don´t know why the disk import failed! but I used the command qm disk import 1XX *disk001.vdmk- local-lvm --format raw and the import to proxmox server was succefull. I did it also for *disk002.vdmk.
both disk show up as unused disk in the VM hardware panel. I attached the disks image to a bus.
now which disk is the boot disk? to enable it and choose the correct boot order in the boot order panel of the VM. Any method to identify the boot disk? which one disk001 or disk002?

 

[sw-omit]

Usually first to import is first to show up, so since you imported disk 001 first, the first disk is probably your boot-disk.
That said though, just select both and it will try both, or select one, try, and if it fails switch to the other one, should be able to be done in seconds without any risks (as without a boot disk, nothing starts, and as such no data will be changed either.

EDIT: Also, most likely the naming scheme of the files/folders was wrong in the config, which is why it didn't auto-import. Your config seems to be talking about "vmdisk1" while you are talking about "disk00X" in your conversion/export.

 

[Simofila]

Hi sw-omit: thanks!
I tried all possible conbinations for the boot disk selection. unfortunately, I got the windows diagnostic message "Inaccessible Boot device" followed by choose your keyboard layout" than choose an option, trouble shoot or turn off your PC!

 

[Simofila]

Add: Here System Konfiguration