Windows 2008 64-bit VM Hangs Unexpectedly at Random Times

[Sven_Burger]

We have an ESX 3.5i host running on a Dell PowerEdge 2950 -

Currently it hosts 4 VMs - 2 of which are running Windows 2008 64-bit edition. One is a Windows Domain Controller and the other is a Member Server running Exchange 2007.

Earlier this week, the DC became unresponsive, and the only solution was a reboot. The console was frozen.

The Windows Application and System logs record that the server was restarted - but that is all. VMware Event Logs just show that the VM was powered down and then back up (which works).

This has happened a couple times in the past 6 months, does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? The Virtual Hardware is set correctly with the right OS type.

[AStolt]

I had an issue with a 08 Standard Server 64bit that it would appear to be slow to respond or not at all, it would even do random disconnects when connecting via RDP.

Sometimes it would even look as if it has hung I could still connect to the shares on the server and it would still talk on the network. What fixed that issue for me was disabling IPv4 Large Send Offload.

The option was located under the Advanced Tab of Local Area Connection Properties.

I am not sure if this is even close to helping you with your issue, I just put it up for something to try.

Are all 4 VMs running at the same time, Or normally just 2 or 3.

Cheers

Aaron

Message was edited by: AStolt

[Sven_Burger]

Hi Aaron –

Thanks for the reply.

This sounds like something that I’d be willing to try – can you give me some more information on the solution however? Was this from a MS KB Article, or another source out on the web?

[dtracey]

Hi Sven,

Do you notice particularly high memory usage with this 2008 guest when it becomes unresponsive?

There is a new feature in 2008 called Microsoft Windows Dynamic Cache Service - which may or may not be the culprit:

http://blogs.technet.com/mikelag/archive/2009/02/09/new-windows-dynamic-cache-service-for-64-bit-win...

Probably worth a look...

Dan

[Sven_Burger]

When it happens - it is reported to me that the VM Console is unresponsive, and RDP is unavailable. There's probably a way that I could have the customer use RPC to attach; i.e. MMC from another Windows Host and see if Task Manager is available that way... what do you think

[Sven_Burger]

When the VM becomes unresponsive. the Virtual Machine Console is unavailable, and RDP doesn't seem to listen either. I'll bet I could have the customer try and make a RPC connection however, via MMC from another Windows Server on the Domain.

[Sven_Burger]

When the VM becomes unresponsive. the Virtual Machine Console is

unavailable, and RDP doesn't seem to listen either. I'll bet I could

have the customer try and make a RPC connection however, via MMC from

another Windows Server on the Domain.

[Sven_Burger]

When the VM becomes unresponsive, the Virtual Machine Console is unavailable, and RDP doesn't seem to listen either. I'll bet I could have the customer try and make a RPC connection however, via MMC from another Windows Server on the Domain. Maybe he could get at Task Manager that way.

Sven

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[dtracey]

I'd have a look at the VM through virtual center when it hangs and see exactly what VMware thinks it's doing 'hardware' wise. If it's not doing anything weird (normal CPU and memory usage) then it's probably an OS thing rather than a VM thing!

Let us know though... You could also post the event logs...

Dan

[AStolt]

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[AStolt]

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[AStolt]

I was looking for a while for the information than came across the following site, I'll admit it was someone else's fix not my own.

As I said in the post, Not sure if this is even close to the issue you are having, Though it kind of sounds the same problem I had with a Guest 08 Server.

[AStolt]

Apologies, For some reason, My post hit 4 times.

[Sven_Burger]

This is still happenning - and to more than one customer with Windows 2008 on ESX 3.5i. We are going to try upgrading to ESX4i.

[ximbiot]

I'm experiencing this on VMWare Server 2.0.2.

[Sven_Burger]

This has been solved - it was caused by the Anti-Virus client.

[Sven_Burger]

This has been solved - it was caused by the Anti-Virus client - Sunbelt Vipre.

[ximbiot]

My workaround was to move to 2008 64 bit (as in, not R2). I didn't have anti-virus software installed, so unless you are talking about something that came with the OS, that wasn't my problem.

Even though the hang was inevitable and didn't always happen at the same time, I could reproduce it consistently by opening MS Studio and copy & pasting the contents of a large HTML file into an empty document, which made me think it was memory or disk-IO related (triggered by virtual memory swapping). One of my coworkers mentioned that he thought there was a disk-IO incompatibility between R2 and VMWare, but I never verified that. I ran out of time and rolling back to Server 2008 (R1) resolved the issue for me.

Derek

[Sven_Burger]

Thanks for the update Derek.

Since we upgraded the Sunbelt AV on the problematic host(s), we have not had a repeat occurance of this. We have also been virtualizing Windows 2008 R2 without any issue.

[PerryWhittle]

I know this thread is a little old, but I too had issues recently with Windows 2008 R2 VM's on ESX4i.

The VM's would lock up and freeze when doing anything! Checked VCenter and it was CPU pressure causing the issue. Adjusted the VM CPU count from 1 to 2 and no more issues encountered

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