Unable to upgrade server OS in VMWare

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I'm running a project where I need to upgrade separate virtual machines running Windows NT 4.0 Server and Windows 2000 Server respectively to Windows Server 2003. I've created each of the servers and applied the most recent service packs. When I run a compatibility test on the virtual servers with the Windows Server 2003 disk, I get an error. The error message on the NT machine is:

"Option to upgrade will not be available at this time because setup was unable to load D:\i386\WINNTUPG\NETUPGRD.DLL . %1 is not a valid NT application".

The error on the Windows 2000 machine is almost identical except is says "%1 is not a valid Win32 application". I found a link that seems promising but wouldn't mind a little sage advice from you all.

The link is here. Thanks.

 

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C'mon, Microsoft gurus. Step up to the plate. ;)

 

Well, I tried going over the information and instructions provided by the Microsoft link but they didn’t seem to be incredibly obvious to me. I decided to try a 180 day evaluation disk of server 2003. Incredibly, it seemed to work. The compatibility check found some incompatible things but for the most part, they were relevant to the differences between NT and 2003. One disturbing note was that it detected a mass storage device that was incompatible to Windows. I didn’t get that at all but it said that at a later time, I might have to load third-party drivers. I proceeded with the upgrade and it seemed to start up well. Asked me for the product key and then proceeded….right up to a blue screen of death. Since it was the first blue screen, I restarted and proceeded hopefully again….to another blue screen. VMWare locked up on me and I had to use task manager to kill the process. Still, there is apparently a problem with the first disk I tried to use based on the explanation of the error message I got from Microsoft. I know it’s possible to do an upgrade and I thought I’d prepared for it. Any suggestions would be helpful. I’m going to try the evaluation disk on my virtual Server 2000 machine to see if there’s any difference.

 

Ok, here’s the deal. The upgrade evaluation sez IIS services and fax services will be disabled but that is all. Also said that there might be more recent set up files on the Internet but I decided to go with what I have and see what happens.



Oops: Got this message!



*** Virtual machine kernel stack fault (hardware reset) ***

The virtual machine just suffered a stack fault in kernel mode. On a real computer, this would amount to a reset of the processor. It can be caused by an incorrect configuration of the virtual machine, a bug in the operating system, or a problem in the VMware Workstation software. Press OK to reboot virtual machine or Cancel to shut it down.



I clicked OK and the machine restarted…the upgrade proceeded from there and the virtual Windows 2000 Server is now a virtual Windows Server 2003 machine. I still need to figure out why I can’t get the NT machine to upgrade, though.

 

as soon as i get my lab ill run some tests and such mate
at present i really cant use VMWare much on the laptop, just not upto par really

 

Thanks. Did you take a look at the link to the Microsoft support page I put in the first post of this thread? If so, can you make heads or tails of it?

 

The answer may be to upgrade from NT to 2000 then from 2000 to 2003. Seems awkward to me but there may not be a clean enough path to got directly from NT to 2003...unless anyone out there has had experience in this...

 

Forgive me for stepping in out of my depth, Guys, but that would sort of ring true, even if MS say it's possible.

What I mean is, look at some of the convoluted upgrade paths there have been in the past, eg NT3.51>4>W2k - not exactly plain sailing. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case here.

But then, what do I know ....

 

Yes but 2003 has been designed specifically to help manage upgrades from NT4, it even has a functional level that only allows NT4 and 2003 DCs!

 

No probs, Ryan - like I hinted towards, I'm out of my depth, just making a comment in case it might have helped anything

 

I looked at your link Trip and it looks to me like the issue they are talking about is related to a service not starting. I could be wrong but this does not seem to be applicable to your scenario and therefore I would suggest that you do not go down the road of editing the registry because you will likely get more problems than you already have.

My suspicions are that VNWare is introducing a glitch that would not happen if you were doing a real upgrade. So, bearing in mind how much you like forums why not post your question on the VMWare site?

Good luck,

Pete

 

Oh Gawd, not another forum! I can barely keep track of the ones I visit already!

Good idea actually. Guess I'll have to see if they can shed some light. Here goes.

 

Ok. Posted at VMWare's forum. Now we'll see what there take is on this.

 

Hi TripWire45

I've had the same problem inside my VMware 4.2.
My NT 4.0 server installation should be upgraded to W2k3 Server EE.

Check out this site http://www.vmware.com/support/reference/common/guest_win_scsidrv.html
All what you need for the successful upgrade is a new SCSI driver from VMware for your so called 'mass storage device'.

Add a floppy device and redirect (map) it to a 'FLP image file' on your HDD. This image file 'VMware-BusLogic-SCSIDriver-1.2.0.0.flp' you could download on the page above.

Hope it will help you
Anyway way me upgrade works now

Vic

 

A little late, but thanks for letting me know. I'm off to other projects but I might give it a whirl someday just to try it out. I imagine with VMware 5 on the threshold of being released, that the problem might just "go away", but we'll see.

BTW VicH, if you haven't done so already, you might want to pop up to the New Members Introduction forum and tell us a little bit about yourself and how you found CertForums. Cheers.