No operating system

[YMtech]

Hello,

I have an HP ML150 G6 server running ESXi with SBS2008 on RAID.

I have ESXi 4.1 running an SBS2008 as virtual machine.

Everything was OK so far, I did few updates, mostly security patches and now after a reboot I receive a message saying "No operating system found".

When I see the BIOS from the virtual machine it looks like it can't detect HD. The ESXi though starts without a problem.

Where could be the problem? Which steps should I take?

Urgent help needed.

Thank you,

[DSTAVERT]

You can change the boot delay to 5000 ms or similar in the Edit settings for the VM. Use the Options Tab and under Advanced select Boot options. 5000 ms will give you a five second window to press the ESC key

[DSTAVERT]

I would create a BartPE disk or better yet MOA created by one of the forum members. http://sanbarrow.com/moa.html

[DSTAVERT]

MOA is a Windows Llive CD that should get you access to the disk. It could be as simple as mark the active boot partition.

[YMtech]

I see it's server 2003 and XP. Does it have Server2008?

[DSTAVERT]

I would use the 2003 server. The 2003 live CD will work just fine with 2008.

[YMtech]

OK. Thanks

[DSTAVERT]

MOA is a great support tool. Doesn't take much time to create and you can add your own tools.

Good luck.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

I don't want to recommend against MOA, however to repair the partitions and set one active, you can just boot from the Windows 2008 DVD into the repair mode, open a command line and use diskpart.

Before doing this, I'd recommend to create a snapshot. This way all changes to the virtual disk are written into to delta file and there will be an option to go back in case anything goes wrong.

André

[DSTAVERT]

I do agree with André when it comes to repair that I would us the Windows 2008 DVD. Personaly I would like to mount the disk and have a look before I did any repairs.

[YMtech]

In order to repair partitions and stuff I need to see the HD, and that's my biggest issue, the system doesn't see Hard disk

[DSTAVERT]

Except for the fact that the disk is so large I would make a copy of the vmdk and create a new VM and point to an existing vmdk -- the copy. You could do this with the existing VM. Remove the virtual disk and then re add pointing to the existing vmdk. I would still feel safer making a copy.

[ItsmeHere201110]

That's not particlarly true.

According to the vmware.logs, the vmdk disk file get's opened and closed properly. But then later on, the virtual BIOS's boot process does not find an operating system to start from it. To eliminate this issue, the hints provided so far (use a live CD to set things straight, or at least check what actually can still be found on the virtual disk) will definitely be useful once you try them...

[YMtech]

Hello Everybody,

First of all thank you all for the help and the info I received.

I have managed to recover. Took me only 23 hours

I don't have the exact solution because there are many reasons for this kind of behaviour but I have few tips

1. Never copy datastore files - just export the machine (OVF). Crossover cable worked the best for me

2. Don't assume that the BIOS suppose to show detected HD, because if the storage is raid based it won't be found by the VM machine (SBS2008).

3. Master boot record - try that first (fixmbr) by running SBS2008 CD, repair, CMD and then many different commands to recover failed boot partitions, MBR

4. Always maintain snapshots before major and even not major updates.

5. Recreate VMX file

6. Backup software - always notice that if the backup fails (shadow service), check it and restart the service. I may be wrong but I found a few times that this failed service damaging the boot process (would love to get further ideas and opinions about that).

Again, thank you all. Few ideas from here led me to the solution.

Regards,

[YMtech]

Forgot to ask one question, can someone recommend me a good backup software which can back up in the ESXi level? I mean to create a backup which the whole restore operation will simply be Deploying the the machine in ESXi, I need fast solution recovery.

Thanks

[a_p_]

Great to hear the VM running again and thanks for the feedback which might help others with a similar issue.

Regarding backup. For the free ESXi edition you may take a look at ghettoVCB (http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8760). If you prefer a commercial backup solution (e.g. vRanger, Veeam, ...) you need at least an Essentials license.

Since this is a domain controller, I'd recommend you run an additional system state backup inside the VM to make sure you can recover to AD in case you need to.

André

[YMtech]

Thanks for your reply.

I'm running ESXi, SBS2008. Within the SBS I have shadow protect but I'm looking for a free solution to recover the whole machine. The thing is that my client can't allow downtime at all so I'm looking for very fast, simple and reliable restore. The backup is the easy part, and our nature is to trust it and assume it will save us but that's far from reality. The moment you need recovery it blows in your face and then you start to give it a better thought.

From what I understand, VM image backed up as a whole unit will recover all including AD and configurations. Am I right?

I also would love to get some real backup plan from real world which covers you for most cases.

[DSTAVERT]

ghettoVCB is a free solution that will clone the machine to an instantly viable VM. No restore necessary. Add it to inventory and turn it on. The ghetto script relies on having access to a secondary datastore to write to. NFS is a very simple way to add a network accessable datastore. You can use an unused PC and a standard linux install or something like Freenas to provide a network share. Add the NFS share as a datastore.

Since the ghettoVCB backup is a viable runnable machine it can be easily tested by simply turning it on.

I would also do regular system state backups and mailbox backups using the native tools.