Windows Server 2008 R2 VM hangs

[TransennaTCF]

Hi vPros;

I've got a problem running af Windows Server 2008 R2 on a vSphere4 host. The installation completes, but certain simple opperations will cause the OS to hang (at a Windows level). One such operation that consequently causes this error, is to navigate through a REGEDIT session with the arrow keys: navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services and press the "d" key (ex. to FF to the DISK reg.key) - the OS will hang.

The test has been done both with W2K8_R2 RTM and RC, with various vSCSI Controllers and vNICs and with both the "Windows Server 2008 64bit" and "Windows Server 2008 R2 64bit (experimental)" - all with the same result?

The vSphere host is a HP DL380G5 Intel Xeon X5460, patched to the most recent level.

Has anyone seen the same and/or found a solution?

Pre Thanks

Thomas

[Rubeck · Accepted solution]

Are you using Remote Console when this happens? If you do, any chance that the bug is the same as in this thread?

/Rubeck

[dennes]

I suppose there will be an update for vSphere to fully support 2008 R2 soon, but in the meantime it seems to work better if you choose Windows 7 (Experimental) as OS type..

[TransennaTCF]

Thanks - we hope...:0

[TransennaTCF]

Thanks Rubeck - you hit the nail right on. In my previous searches in the Community, I used the "Windows Server 2008" tag, witch obviously was too fine...

For those of you catching this tread later on, you (currently) have 2 options:

1. Uninstall the VMWare tools SVGA driver, or

2. Use the VMware tools driver, but disable Hardware Acceleration (set to "none").

[fpmorrison]

When you say "disable hardware acceleration", where do I find that in Windows Server 2008 R2 to disable it? I know where it is in Windows Server 2003 R2, but Microsoft seems to have hidden it pretty well in Windows Server 2008 R2.

At the moment, I have to do everything via the keyboard because all mouse clicks are ignored in the guest operating system (64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise). I've tried using Device Manager to delete all mouse-related items and letting Server 2008 R2 rediscover them upon reboot, but that does not fix the problem. I've had this issue of "no mouse clicks" before and turning off hardware acceleration has fix the problem in the past, so all I need is to figure out where in Server 2008 R2 to find it so I can adjust the slider control to "none".

[TransennaTCF]

Under the "Screen resolution" (Display Settings), click "Advanced", "Troubleshoot" and then the "Change Settings" (why there is a button here is a mystery...there is nothing else to do there). This will take yuo to a "slider", where the setting all the way to the left is the equivalent of diabling acceleration. Did this help?

[fpmorrison]

Maybe I'm dense, but when I'm in keyboard-only mode trying to find what you described above, I don't see what you describe. I can get to "change the appearance of your display", but on my screen, I see two drop down list boxes, one for Display and another for Resolution. There is a hyperlink for "Advanced settings', but when pressed via the keyhboard, doesn't go where you describe. Other hyperlinks appearing on the the same page as "Advanced settings" are "Connect to a projector", "Make text and other items larger or smaller", and "What display setting should I choose".

Are you using Server 2008 R1 or Server 2008 R2? I have Server 2008 R2 as released on August 31, 2009, if that matters.

[TransennaTCF]

I'm also using the RTM version of Windows Server 2008 R2.

You're in the right Window and when you click the "Advanced Setting" hyperlink, a window with the property settings for the default monitor opens, with 4 tabs "Adapter, Monitor, troubleshoot, and Color Management" - here you choose the "troubleshoot" tab. Do you see something else when you click the "Advanced Settings", if so, do you have VMWare tools installed?

[symsv]

I am facing the hanging issue with Windows 2008 R2. Does the issue got resolved by any of the methods for anyone here? I've tried all the methods (even uninstalled vmwaretools completely), did not address my issue. I am able to reproduce hanging issue by disabling and enabling ipv6 component manually. it surely hangs when i enable ipv6 component. Is there anyone from Vmware team to address this ASAP?

T'hangs'

[SteveSparks]

The IPv6 check and uncheck only hangs the system for a short period of time. In my ESX Enviornemnt it takes about 10-14 minutes for the system to recover. Until that happend it seems everything is working and the CPU is at 100%.

The "other" hangs I've had where before I removed the VMWARE VGA Driver. I've been testing for the past hour to see if It will hang again.

Steve

[symsv]

You are right Steve, IPv6 enable and disable took unexpectedly long time to come up. Anyways, such issues are not there in ESX 4 and Vsphere. I have installed a Vsphere Server and upgraded one of ESX 3.5 to ESX 4.0 and created new W2k8 R2 VM and got it working without any issue. Solution is upgrade to Vsphere and ESX 4

[needmorstuff007]

same issues here also... win 2008 r2 - RM build. Not just enable disable ip6 though.. on boot it takes ages to present server namager.. if i dont wait and try to launch server manager (right click my computer - manage) it hangs for a few minutes then launches.

I have tried:-

windows 2008 64 bit hardware and r2 hardware

uninstalling svga driver

various resource allocations - 2 cpu 1 cpu 2gb ram 4 gb ram..

vmxnet3 nics, e1000 nics,,

even rebuilt loads of servers numerous times before stumbling on this...

hardware - 2 new (april this year) dl 580 g5's - 2x qud core and 16gb ram each... multiple gb uplinks

So - I raised a support ticket and was told by Mr Support that r2 is experimental and that a new kernel release is due in Novemver esx4 u1. I have asked to be on the beta list

"

Hello Gary,

Until such time as Windows 2008 R2 is fully supported the only option would be "Best Effort"

Apparently Beta programmes only apply to minor packages for example (Converter standalone).

Vsphere Update 1 being a major release does not have a beta program as a result. (Everyone will be exposed to it at the same time)

I hope this answers your question and as always if you need further information please get back to me.

Regards

Mr Support"

Great!

[needmorstuff007]

ok more info..

if i log on from the vic to the console then behavious is the same.

If i log on either rdp or form the vic then log on locally - not domain the performance is fine and there is no lockup enableing or disabling 1pv6 - so you would think it is some kind of domain dependancy or maybe dns... but i am not convinced,

[pmooter]

We have the exact same problem. Is there any news as to when VMWare will have a fix up to support R2?

Thanks.

[TransennaTCF]

The last I heard/read was that there is a kernel update (vSphere 4.0 U1) bound for release here in late November that should address the issue.

[rjtd]

The problem remains on ESX 4.0 U1 (Final).

I already had my TS hanging the console.

[john_gallucci]

Interesting...I just finished upgrading my datacenter to Update 1 and my Windows 7 and 2008 R2 guests seem to be working fine. I upgraded the VMware tools and even TRIED to install the SVGA driver, but it looks like VMware took it out of the install. I'm guessing they didn't write a driver in time and are using the default Microsoft driver from 2006.

Now I didn't go through any of the tweaks, nor did I ever install the SVGA driver on my previous templates. I'm wondering if along the way of fixing the system, you made a change that now needs to be reversed since Update 1.

You will want to do the following to make sure the guest is up-to-date:

- Check the operating system type correctly says "Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)" or "Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)" without the "Experimental" part.

-Update VMware tools (If that fails either "repair" or uninstall/install VMware tools)

-Verify the VMware tools version is 4.0.0, build-208167

-Uninstall the Standard VGA Graphics Adapter and reboot (from Device Manager)

Please post if you are still having problems, you might also want to try and reinstall a fresh copy of Windows Server 2008, load the "Typical" Vmware tools, and see if you are still having issues.

[john_gallucci]

I retract my previous statement about VMware not having an updated SVGA II driver. Please see this post with instructions on how to properly update the driver.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1425288#1425288

[RickEveleigh]

I updated my hosts to U1. If I log into the host using vSphere then the OS is listed without the experimental tag. However if I use vCenter the experimental tag is still listed!