VMware : Converter return general system error occurred: Network error. key can’t be retrieved.

By | November 3, 2016

Having the following error trying to convert a live CentOS/RHEL Linux system with VMware Converter?

FAILED: A general system error occurred:
Network error. Host x.x.x.x key can’t be retrieved. (return code 2)

In my case, this happened while converting a RHEL 5.11 server with VMware Converter 6.1.1.

If you went through the following :

– SSH configuration is allowing root to access the system remotely from port 22
– IPtables allow connection on port 22
– You are running Converter version 5.5.1 or greater (there is a known issue with older version that aren’t supporting DSA keys)

Then it might be caused by the “hosts.allow” parameter. Edit the following file :

/etc/hosts.allow

And make sure you have the following entered (usually this file is blank on vanilla systems) :

ALL:ALL

Alternatively, you can restrict the subnet from where the connection come from by entering the following (this example will allow subnet “10.10.5.0/24) :

ALL:LOCAL,10.10.5.

Restart the network service :

service network restart