Create linked clone from Simulator VM

[#1]

Recently I've downloaded the 7m-821 Simulator for ESX.

Now I would like to make it available for our storage department to play around in and make it available through linked clones.

However, when I try to create a linked clone it gives an error saying "The device of operation specified at index '16' is not supported for the existing virtual machine platform.".

Running the simulator works fine (on ESXi 5.5).

Any ideas and/or help (solutions ) would be greatly appreciated

[#2]

Picking through the vmx could identify device 16. 

Sometimes the serial ports cause cloning problems.  Try removing them.

I posted instruction some time ago for creating a new clean vmx file.  Its a pretty basic freebsd plus a handful of advanced configuration parameters in the vmx.

Its not a good vm from a linked clone perspective.  The longer its on the bigger the delta disks will get until it fills the -sim.vmdk on each clone. 

Here are the instructions for building a new vmx:

1. Create a new VM, of type FreeBSD (x64), 2vCPUs, 1600MB RAM, 6 NICs, and NO Hard drives

2. Add the DataONTAP.vmdk on IDE 0:0

3. Add the DataONTAP-var.vmdk on IDE0:1

4. Add the DataONTAP-vnvram.vmdk on IDE1:0

5. Add the DataONTAP-sim.vmdk on IDE1:1

6. Add the following options to the .vmx file by hand, or as configuration parameters in ESX (vm-editsettings->options->Advanced/general->Configuration Parameters->Add row:

monitor_control.pseudo_perfctr = "TRUE"

pciHole.start = "3072"

timeTracker.forceMonotonicTTAT = "TRUE"

monitor_control.disable_tsc_offsetting = "TRUE"

monitor_control.disable_rdtscopt_bt = "TRUE"

[#3]

Hi

I got the same erors while using cluster-821 simulator and i have followed your instructions by adding parameters to vmx file and vmdk files , however i get this error all time..

File /vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-sim.vmdk was not found when looking at the logs. i see this logs

----------

014-07-29T01:17:10.598Z| Worker#0| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-s126.vmdk" : closed.

2014-07-29T01:17:10.598Z| Worker#0| I120: DISKLIB-LIB   : Failed to open '/vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-sim.vmdk' with flags 0xa The system cannot find the file specified (25).

2014-07-29T01:17:17.834Z| Worker#3| I120: DISKLIB-PLUGIN : DiskLibNasPluginFindAndStartSession : NasPluginAddMapping failed

2014-07-29T01:17:17.835Z| Worker#3| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-var-flat.vmdk" : open successful (10) size = 1616904192, hd = 2295360. Type 3

2014-07-29T01:17:17.835Z| Worker#3| I120: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "DataONTAP-var-flat.vmdk" 0 (0xa)

2014-07-29T01:17:17.835Z| Worker#3| I120: DISKLIB-LINK  : Opened '/vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-var.vmdk' (0xa): monolithicFlat, 3158016 sectors / 1.5 GB.

2014-07-29T01:17:17.836Z| Worker#3| I120: DISKLIB-LIB   : Opened "/vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-var.vmdk" (flags 0xa, type monolithicFlat).

2014-07-29T01:17:17.836Z| Worker#3| I120: DISK: Disk '/vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-var.vmdk' has UUID '60 00 c2 9c d5 ce 5b 03-87 1c 74 f2 e4 eb 00 5b'

2014-07-29T01:17:17.836Z| Worker#3| I120: DISK: OPEN '/vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-var.vmdk' Geo (3132/16/63) BIOS Geo (0/0/0)

2014-07-29T01:17:17.839Z| Worker#3| I120: UTIL: Change file descriptor limit from soft 4326,hard 4326 to soft 4441,hard 4441.

2014-07-29T01:17:17.854Z| vmx| I120: DISK: Opening disks took 10783 ms.

2014-07-29T01:17:17.854Z| vmx| I120: Module Disk power on failed.

2014-07-29T01:17:17.854Z| vmx| I120: VMX_PowerOn: ModuleTable_PowerOn = 0

2014-07-29T01:17:17.855Z| vmx| I120: SVMotion_PowerOff: Not running Storage vMotion. Nothing to do

2014-07-29T01:17:17.856Z| vmx| I120: ide1:0: numIOs = 0 numMergedIOs = 0 numSplitIOs = 0 ( 0.0%)

2014-07-29T01:17:17.856Z| vmx| I120: Closing disk ide1:0

2014-07-29T01:17:17.857Z| vmx| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-nvram-flat.vmdk" : closed.

2014-07-29T01:17:17.861Z| vmx| I120: ide0:1: numIOs = 0 numMergedIOs = 0 numSplitIOs = 0 ( 0.0%)

2014-07-29T01:17:17.862Z| vmx| I120: Closing disk ide0:1

2014-07-29T01:17:17.862Z| vmx| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-var-flat.vmdk" : closed.

2014-07-29T01:17:17.867Z| vmx| I120: ide0:0: numIOs = 0 numMergedIOs = 0 numSplitIOs = 0 ( 0.0%)

2014-07-29T01:17:17.867Z| vmx| I120: Closing disk ide0:0

2014-07-29T01:17:17.867Z| vmx| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS  : "/vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-flat.vmdk" : closed.

2014-07-29T01:17:17.902Z| vmx| A115: ConfigDB: Setting replay.filename = ""

2014-07-29T01:17:17.918Z| vmx| I120: Vix: [1000194356 mainDispatch.c:1188]: VMAutomationPowerOff: Powering off.

-------------

Any idea how to resolve this ? or i need to download again ...

BR,

Rushi.

[#4]

Does this file (/vmfs/volumes/c2bf8ff3-819b2e3a/netappsim/DataONTAP-sim.vmdk) exist on disk?

How big is that file?

If it is a few KB, is there a reference to DataONTAP-sim-flat.vmdk and does that file exist?

[#5]

Looks like your vmdk is still in 2gb sparse format.   Support for that format was dropped many ESX versions ago, but NetApp still ships the sim in the old format. 

SSH to your esx host and run this command, then try again:

vmkload_mod multiextent

See this KB:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2036572

[#6]

this works and power on is good ?

SSH to your esx host and run this command, then try again:

vmkload_mod multiextent

thank you for your help.

BR,

Rushi.