Windows 10 not able to join domain when disk are "independent non-persistent".

[Blaadtje]

ESXi-7.0U3a-18825058

Windows 10 not able to join domain when disk are "independent non-persistent".

When providing the correct user account and password the message appears that the system has joined the domain.

But after the reboot the system is returned to the previous state.

Using the same VM with the disk on "Dependent" or "independent persistent" and taken the same actions after the reboot I'm able to login with a domain account.

[scott28tt]

"non-persistent" means that writes to the disk are discarded when the power state of the VM changes.

[Blaadtje]

Hi Scott,

according to the Esxi Manual

• Dependent: Dependent disks are included in snapshots.
• Independent - Persistent: Disks in persistent mode behave like conventional disks on your physical computer. All data written to a disk in persistent mode are written permanently to disk.
• Independent - Nonpersistent: Changes to disks in nonpersistent mode are discarded when you turn off or reset the virtual machine. With nonpersistent mode, you can restart the virtual machine with a virtual disk in the same state every time. Changes to the disk are written to and read from a redo log file that is deleted when you turn off or reset the virtual machine.

So if i'm reading correctly it's says turn of the VM or Reset the VM. it's not talking about rebooting the VM.

[jburen]

But what is the difference between a reboot and a reset? In the end, the VM is restarted discarding the changes to the disk... So you could also read "Changes to disks in nonpersistent mode are discarded when you turn off, reboot, or reset the virtual machine".

[scott28tt]

Not sure if you're using ESXi, Workstation, or both...

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Windows-10-not-able-to-join-domain-when-dis...

[Blaadtje]

Hi scott,

I'm using both.

Vmware workstation for scripting and Esxi hypervisor for testing.

To be clear. This join domain issue doesn't occur on vmware workstation 15.x and 16.1.x that triggered me to test it on my Esxi host. 

Regard,

Steve

[Mikero]

The issue is related to differences in EFI vs. BIOS that were accommodated for in the shared code between ESXi 6.7 and WS 16.2.

Modern EFI VMs can (for various reasons) convert a guest-requested soft reset to a hard reset, and that will cause us to discard the redo logs for the independent-nonpersistent disks.

A workaround would be to disable the mode, do updates, changes and domain joins, then re-enable it.

[Blaadtje]

Thx finally an answer that makes sense.