Hi,

I'm trying to import a VM from VMware into Proxmox VE and the import consistently fails at the exact same offset.

Environment​

VMware​

vCenter Server 6.7.0 (build 20504362)
ESXi 6.7.0 Update 3 (build 16713306)

Proxmox​

proxmox-ve: 9.2.0
pve-manager: 9.2.3
qemu-server: 9.1.16
pve-esxi-import-tools: 1.0.1
pve-qemu-kvm: 11.0.0-4
kernel: 7.0.6-2-pve

Import details​

Using the built-in ESXi import functionality from the Proxmox GUI.

Source VM: srvtestfe
Source datastore: Sviluppo/datastore1
Disk size: 150 GB
Destination storage: ZFS zvol

Error​

The import proceeds normally until about 83% and then fails every time:

transferred 94.6 GiB of 150.0 GiB (63.08%)
transferred 96.1 GiB of 150.0 GiB (64.08%)
transferred 97.6 GiB of 150.0 GiB (65.08%)
transferred 99.1 GiB of 150.0 GiB (66.09%)
transferred 100.6 GiB of 150.0 GiB (67.09%)
transferred 102.1 GiB of 150.0 GiB (68.09%)
transferred 103.6 GiB of 150.0 GiB (69.09%)
transferred 105.1 GiB of 150.0 GiB (70.09%)
transferred 106.6 GiB of 150.0 GiB (71.09%)
transferred 108.1 GiB of 150.0 GiB (72.09%)
transferred 109.6 GiB of 150.0 GiB (73.10%)
transferred 111.1 GiB of 150.0 GiB (74.10%)
transferred 112.6 GiB of 150.0 GiB (75.10%)
transferred 114.1 GiB of 150.0 GiB (76.10%)
transferred 115.6 GiB of 150.0 GiB (77.10%)
transferred 117.1 GiB of 150.0 GiB (78.10%)
transferred 118.6 GiB of 150.0 GiB (79.10%)
transferred 120.1 GiB of 150.0 GiB (80.10%)
transferred 121.7 GiB of 150.0 GiB (81.11%)
transferred 123.2 GiB of 150.0 GiB (82.11%)
transferred 124.7 GiB of 150.0 GiB (83.11%)
qemu-img: error while reading at byte 135190774784: Input/output error
TASK ERROR: unable to create VM 1007 - cannot import from 'vsphere-dev:Sviluppo/datastore1/srvtestfe/srvtestfe.vmdk' - copy failed: command '/usr/bin/qemu-img convert -p -n -t none -f vmdk -O raw /run/pve/import/esxi/vsphere-dev/mnt/Sviluppo/datastore1/srvtestfe/srvtestfe.vmdk zeroinit:/dev/zvol/rapido/vm-1007-disk-0' failed: exit code 1

transferred 124.7 GiB of 150.0 GiB (83.11%)
qemu-img: error while reading at byte 135190774784: Input/output error

TASK ERROR: unable to create VM 1007 - cannot import from
'vsphere-dev:Sviluppo/datastore1/srvtestfe/srvtestfe.vmdk' - copy failed:
/usr/bin/qemu-img convert -p -n -t none -f vmdk -O raw \
/run/pve/import/esxi/vsphere-dev/mnt/Sviluppo/datastore1/srvtestfe/srvtestfe.vmdk \
zeroinit:/dev/zvol/rapido/vm-1007-disk-0
failed: exit code 1

VMDK layout​

The descriptor file looks normal:
RW 314572800 VMFS "srvtestfe-flat.vmdk"
Files visible through the ESXi mount:
srvtestfe.vmdk
srvtestfe-flat.vmdk (150G)
srvtestfe_1.vmdk
srvtestfe.vmx

Troubleshooting performed​

I tested direct reads against the mounted VMDK from the Proxmox host.

Reading around 125 GiB succeeds:

dd if=/run/pve/import/esxi/vsphere-dev/mnt/Sviluppo/datastore1/srvtestfe/srvtestfe-flat.vmdk \
of=/dev/null bs=1M skip=128000 count=100

Result:

100+0 records in
100+0 records out
104857600 bytes copied

Reading slightly later consistently fails:

dd if=/run/pve/import/esxi/vsphere-dev/mnt/Sviluppo/datastore1/srvtestfe/srvtestfe-flat.vmdk \
of=/dev/null bs=1M skip=128928 count=100

Result:

dd: error reading '...srvtestfe-flat.vmdk': Input/output error
0+0 records in
0+0 records out

Another test:

dd if=/run/pve/import/esxi/vsphere-dev/mnt/Sviluppo/datastore1/srvtestfe/srvtestfe-flat.vmdk \
of=/dev/null bs=1M skip=128927 count=2

Result:

dd: error reading '...srvtestfe-flat.vmdk': Input/output error
1+0 records in

1+0 records out
1048576 bytes copied

The failure is reproducible and always occurs at approximately the same offset.

Additional information​

The VM was fully operational on VMware before the migration attempt. It booted normally and had been actively used until I shut it down specifically to perform the migration to Proxmox. No filesystem errors, guest OS issues, or application-level problems had been observed while the VM was running on ESXi, and the VM has not shown any symptoms suggesting disk corruption during normal operation.

This is also not the only VM affected. I have successfully imported some VMs from the same VMware environment, but multiple VMs have failed during import with read errors. The failing VMs do not necessarily fail at the same percentage or offset, but the issue is reproducible for each affected VM.

Because more than one VM is involved, I'm wondering whether this could be related to the ESXi import mechanism itself, the ESXi datastore access layer, or a compatibility issue with this VMware 6.7 environment, rather than corruption of a single VMDK.

Questions​

At this point I'm trying to understand whether:

1. The VMDK itself contains unreadable blocks.
2. There is an issue with the underlying VMFS datastore.
3. The problem is related to the ESXi import/FUSE layer used by Proxmox.

Since the read error is reproducible through: /run/pve/import/esxi/... is there a way to determine whether the error originates from the ESXi datastore itself or from the Proxmox ESXi import layer?

Has anyone seen a similar issue with the ESXi import tool?

Are there any additional diagnostics I should run from the Proxmox side before attempting VMware-side actions such as snapshot consolidation or cloning the VM?

Thanks!