Windows 2008 R2 + ESX4 + vCenter Client Console = FREEZE

[joergriether]

Hello,

i reproduced this several times now and also found a coressponding thread in the microsoft newsgroups, ( http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsserver2008r2general/thread/bc0f3c12-eda7-440... ) so here you go:

Install a fresh W2008 R2 to an ESX4 machine, do this all with vCenter Client Console, not with reomte RDP. Add the role

Remote-Desktop-Services to the newly created W2008 R2 machine, reboot, after reboot when the machine tries to finish

the changes (after logon) it totally freezes.

Now the interesting part on that:

If you log on via RDP after the reboot (oh yeah, you urgently need to turn rdp on before reboot!!!), then

the installer of the role WILL FINISH!!!

Now how strange is that?

Any ideas?

best,

Joerg

[cypherx]

Yeah we have had the same issue with 2008 R2. Uninstalling the VMWare tools video driver and changing back to the generic SVGA driver fixed the console freezes. Other than that I use RDP anyway to work on 2008 R2.

Does Windows 7 64-bit have this same issue? I have a Windows 7 64 bit VM that I notice takes a really LONG time to boot up.

Dell R710s here with 32GB Ram, VMWare ESX4 175625

[LucasAlbers]

They are the same codebase so they should have the same issue.

[bitsorbytes]

Vmware KB on the topic.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1011709&sl...

No fix yet!

[Gasaraki]

Same problem here. DELL R900 128GB Ram. ESX4 with Server2008R2

Removing display drivers seems to help but boot up is still ridiculously slow.

I am very disappointed that VMWare can't even get a simple thing like a SVGA driver working correctly and it's still not fixed. How long has Server 2008 been out? How long has ESX4 been out?

[ITCORESYS]

I agree.

Dell T710 here.

Vshphere has been released since 6/09

2008R2 and Windows 7 Has been Released in Volume Licensing/Technet since 8/09, both had a PUBLIC beta since 2/09 which meant big companies like VMWare has had closed beta since way before.

And as of 11/07/09, no fix. Millions are rolling Windows 7 and 2008R2 and the so called best virtualization software company has nothing to say about this severe bug which by the way caused data loss for me when the freeze occured.

[LucasAlbers]

This is enterprise software not a christmas screen saver, it takes oracle,redhat,microsoft 6 months to a year to certify applications and OS's with new versions.

I agree it is suboptimal, but it's the same complaint people have in the vmware server forum or vmware fusion.

omg vmware server x does not support the new kernel that was released last week.

omg vmware server doesn't support redhat 5.4 which was release 4 days ago.

Yes indeed it is a valid complaint, and you would think that vmware could fix this crashing issue a little earlier than they it appears they are doing. This bug has bitten me but i didn't lose any data.

You should be using the console just for critical administrative tasks per best practice. You shoudl user rdp or ssh for all your tasks that don't require direct console access.

Or uninstall the video driver.

My guess is they are fixing a whole number of regressions with update 1, and I would rather they take longer to fix known issues, then introduce regression errros.

I suppose I am just cautious with new deployments, I assume vsphere updates are unstable until they have been running without issue for 3 months.

I don't install new operating systems unless they are supported by vsphere.

With that said I made an exception to my rule and have been running production critical sql server 2008 on esxi without issue.

The same issue is true with vmxnet3, in hindsight I should have waited to deploy vmxnet3 and just used flexible, while I have not encountered any errors with vmxnet3 the lack of performance counters is annoying.

I think they could do a better job of keeping customers updated with the status of this update, and i also wonder how this bug slipped by QA.

I believe the technet release on 08/09 is strictly speaking just for testing and verification purposes and does not qualify as the official release date.

Yes I feel your pain, I do, but this is enterprise software and it moves slow, as per industry practice.

[ckness]

.

This has been fixed in all latest releases

.

[AlbertWT]

What latest build ? VMWare ESX / ESXi ?

Kind Regards,

AWT

[ckness]

.

Both 3.5 and 4 have been updated to fix video problem. That is what vmware support is saying after they closed my case. Have not had chance to test yet.

.

[ITCORESYS]

As of today, its still not fixed. At least not in automatic updates through vCenter update manager.

The problem only seems to occur during the "Add Role" wizard when on the console.

So:

1) Install 2008R2 from DVD/ISO

2) Install tools, choose "custom" and select "SVGA not available"

Not too bad a workaround for now.

[ITCORESYS]

FYI 8/09 wasnt just Technet release for 2008R2 and Windows 7.

It was a release for Software Assurance Subscribers, and Select VLP customers too.

2 Weeks ago was OEM and Retail release for pre-installed machines and retail boxes in stores like Bestbuy. (ie Consumers)

Point was, that VMWare didnt plan for 2008R2, nor Windows 7, nor have they announced it by updating that KB article with any kind of release window fo the patch.

Vsphere client still doesnt work in Windows 7 or 2008R2 without .NET workaround either. That problem was figured in Windows 7 RC back in June when vSphere 4 was released.

Its ok though, the workaround is doable.

Probably more Microsoft's fault for the major changes in such a minor OS refresh killing 2008 server backward compatability.

[joergriether]

it takes vmware very long time, i agree. and yes, w2008r2 and win7 are long out NOT only for technet but for ALL select customers!!!! That is a huge group of professional it people.Therfor it´s even harder to understand why vmware takes their time this long.

my guess is, this all will be fixed with esx4u1 which should arrive somewhere at the end of november, again, my guess is 19th of november.

best regards,

Jörg

[cjf91jf1l]

I really hope they patch this soon because the OS just feels really unstable under. I often get long blank black screens during boot up that seem to occur randomly. The BIOS will post and then it's just an empty black screen for a couple minutes until the windows boot screen appears. Performance after that is fine and it doesn't occur every time. I've seen this happen with both 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

I was trying to deploy a NLB cluster on R2 with no VMware tools installed and my second host would just lock up completely each time I try to add it to the cluster. The console in the vSphere client becomes completely unresponsive.

I'm really curious to see what could have changed in the OS that makes it unstable under ESX without the tools installed. I've decided to move forward on the original 2008 release for the time being.

[JonasF]

Also had similary problems. it seems to be related to the vmware VGA driver bug. See vmware KB101170.

For me it worked if the console screen resolution is 800x600 or below.

[tbullock]

I believe I have the same issue. Dell 2950 ESX4 boxes with 4 Win 7 VMs.

Works fine via RDP. Works fine via the VI Client. if you use the remote console, will freeze up.

i have to reboot the machine via the VI Client for the VM to be accessed again.

Sometimes I can not reset/reboot the VM for extended periods, then all of a sudden it will let me reboot/reset.

Oddly,the last time this happened, even though the VM is completely frozen, i could manage the services remotely, rebooting the VMWare tools unfroze the VM.

[NHessonSD21]

haha lets be clear here. I have ESX 4 on some HP DL380 G5's, and I too am also having this issue. I have remove the video driver from the vm's and have not see the problem sense.

VMware does have a driver problem with Windows 2008 R2.

Nick

[rjtd]

The problem remains on ESX 4.0 U1 (Final).

I already had my TS hanging the console.

[AlbertWT]

hm.. have you updated the VMWare tools ?

Kind Regards,

AWT

[tWiZzLeR]

I upgraded to 4.0.0 U1 yesterday and upgraded the tools in both Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 on my ESXi server. I have NOT had the freezing issue since upgrading the tools. However, I did notice that they are using two different drivers:

- Server 2008 R2 is still using "Standard VGS Graphics Adapter" and

- Windows 7 is now using "VMware SVGA 3D (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)"

but so far neither one has frozen. I'm wondering what VMware fixed on Server 2008 R2 since it appears to still be using the same video driver? Has anyone else upgraded to verify this?

[rjtd]

Sure, I upgraded the tools after installing U1 doing the automatic tools upgrade.

I noticed that the SVGA driver was installed on upgrade (I didn't run it before U1 on the VM, but it was there after the tools upgrade) and I know the driver date was from 2008.

It hanged after like 3-4 minutes using the MMC.

I now removed the VMware SVGA driver. Btw, on a clean install VMware will not install/use VMware SVGA driver even if it is selected on the tools installation.

It seems to me that the VMware fix was to remove VMware SVGA driver instead of fixing it, but they missed that removal code when you update the tools automatically.