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Extra Disk Created during Clone/Sysprep for Windows Server 2012

I am running vSphere 5.1 with all patches applied to everything.

When Windows Server 2012 was RTMed I started building a primary server to use for clones for all of our other ones.  This worked fine and we have slowly been deploying 2012 VMs for a while.

Recently my backup administrator came to me with a question about an extra disk it is seeing on the 2012 VMs that is not shown anywhere else.

It looks like this:

  extra disk.png

No label, 0MB, Healthy Primary Partition.  And NOT the system partition that I know should be there.

I went back and converted my template back to a VM to see if this disk was included in the original clone that has been used for all of the VMs showing it and it is not showing there.  Nor is it showing on any of the physical 2012 hosts which we installed Windows Server 2012 on.

So it seems like there is something during the clone and/or sysprep process that is adding this extra unnecessary disk for server 2012 VMs.  Server 2008 Template still works fine for everything - no  extra disks shown.

Anyone else seeing this?  We talked to Commvault, our backup platform, and they say they are seeing this in their labs as well.

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JagadeeshDev
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Do you see any disks in the Edit settings of the VM ?

Do you see anything interesting here C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\Panther

http://www.myitblog.in/
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silverline
Contributor
Contributor

Such as what?

vmware1.png        vmware2.png

vmware3.PNG

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silverline
Contributor
Contributor

As a followup to my post, here are the settings and disk from my original template:

ed1.PNG ed2.PNG

From here, I convert to template and deploy from template.  Select standard cluster settings, etc, and at the final step I click to apply customization.  I have a completely default sysprep for the setup with nothing that could be causing this from the configuration.

After the initial clone - no disk is showing still:  Logged in real to take screenshot.

ed3.PNG

Finish going through all of the vmware image customization etc, sign back in.  Still looks the same.  No point in posting the same image a third time.

So I guess it must be CommVault somehow doing this during backup process with snapshots or something. I will update when I find out more.

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Rubeck
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

An issue with VSS providers maybe...? Leaving disks behind with a size of 0MB is seen before... An example here: http://forum.commvault.com/forums/thread/22998.aspx

We use CommVault too, but I've not seen this happen myself though..

/Rubeck

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JimKnopf99
Commander
Commander

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".
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Jimmy15
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi, I am also facing the same issue but in ESXi5.5 build 3116895.

sometime disk get deleted from Disk management. but it is still there in most of the VMs. looks like no functional issue but need to identify if it is known behavior.

Pankaj


regards



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