Re: popular error ; An error occurred while opening a virtual disk. Verify that the converter server and the running source machines have a network access to the source and destination ESX/ESXi hosts.

i had to bad mouth myself but i'm such a dumba**.  DUH!   You were right, The local computer could not ping or trace to the physical ESXi even though it could connect through vCenter. Thanks so much for a second set of eyes.