VMware – Linux: OS cannot mount /dev/sd* after a virtual machine is converted – Waiting for device /dev/sd* to appear… not found – fall back

This happened when I created a SLES 11 VM with VMware Workstation and then moved to to ESX for production. Problem was that VMware Workstation used LSILogic SCSI drives to emulate my disks, but for some reason it wasn’t made clear to ESX by VMware Converter during conversion.

To fix this browse to your datastore and download your guest’s configuration file <vmname>.vmx to your desktop (or use your root access and open it in vi through ssh). Open it with a text editor and add the following line above your SCSI devices:

scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"

So the whole SCSI device section should look like this:

scsi0.present = "true"
scsi0.sharedBus = "none"
scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
scsi0:0.present = "true"
scsi0:0.fileName = "disk1.vmdk"
scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
scsi0:1.present = "true"
scsi0:1.fileName = "disk2.vmdk"
scsi0:1.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"

Copy the config back to your datastore and start guest OS. You will be asked to confirm changes during post – answer yes to changes.

Disclaimer: Make sure you have a backup before making any change.