Bluescreen 7b after restore

[goppi]

Hi.

In the past (ESXi 4.1) we successcully backed up and restored our VMs by cloning the vmdks via vmkfstools to a NFS-Datastore in 2gbsparse format.

Now we have two VSphere 5.1 installations where we are doing the same and found that when restoring those VMs we always get a Bluscreen with 7b error coode.

As we are getting into serious problem now it would be fine if someone has a good idea why this no longer works with 5.1 and how to solve the problem (if possible at all).

Thanks.

Cheers

[memaad]

Hi ,

After cloning have you tested it immediately whether this VM is working fine or not. While cloning does this VM had snapshot ?

Regards

MOhammed

[a_p_]

Please take a look at http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2012/09/2gbsparse-disk-format-no-longer-working.html to see whether this helps.

André

[goppi]

Hi Andre,

thanks for the reply, but enabling 2gbspase was what we already did otherwise we weren't able to ak a backup in the first place.

Cheers.

[goppi]

No we did not test immeadiatly but that's what we are checking currently.

Yes it has a snapshot, cause the machines were running when backing up. Otherwise we were not able to make a backup.

Thanks for your reply.

[a_p_]

Please provide some more details about how and what you backup and how you restore the VM. Can you ensure the disk controller setting in the VM's .vmx file is the same after restoring?

André

[goppi]

Hi Andre,

to rule out NFS I currently do some tests only on local disks.

I did a backup and restore of a plain vanilla win2008R2 which worked so far.

Then I installed VMware Tools and did the same where restore failed again with stop 7b.

Will make some more tests to understand how it is related and post the results.

Thank's again for you help.

Cheers.

[goppi]

Ok I repeated the tests multiple times with similar results.

Backuing up and restoring a vanilla Win2008 R2 SP1 works.

After installing VMware tools restore fails with a bluescreen.

Restore also seems to work if omitting the Quiesce option when taking the snapshot.

Maybe anything wrong with the VSS provider of VMware tools?

As stated previously I tried to restore 3 different machines which all fail with the same result.

I have a somewhat bad feeling about reliability of backups now.

We are running some VSphere 4.1 sites and never saw anything similar there.

Any suggestions what to try next?

Maybe downgrading VMware tools?

Omitting VSS alltogehter in no option as we need application consistent backups.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers.

[Rumple]

have youi thought of just using veeamzip to backup the VM's to the nfs so youi can restore then that way?

Still free...and will work...

[goppi]

Here is what we did in detail:

1. Taking a Snapshot via VSphere client (Quiesce option) checked.
2. vmkfstools -i testserver.vmdk -d 2gbsparse backup.vmdk
3. Shutdown VM via VSphere client
4. Deleting snapshot via VSphere client
5. delete testserver.vmdk via datastore browser
6. vmkfstools -i backup.vmdk -d thin testserver.vmdk
7. Start machine via VSphere client
8. Bluescreen.

[goppi]

Mark Hodges schrieb:

have youi thought of just using veeamzip to backup the VM's to the nfs so youi can restore then that way?

Still free...and will work...

No maybe worth a try however as it seems the problem we are seeing are related to VMware tools VSS so I guess it would also be affected by the problem.

[memaad]

Hi,

Even you can try vDR  or VDP, it  usually included with most of  vSPhere License.

Regards

Mohammed

[goppi]

Mohammed Emaad schrieb:

Hi,

Even you can try vDR  or VDP, it  usually included with most of  vSPhere License.

Regards

Mohammed

Both customers have only Essentials, so not possible.

Beside that I'm also interrested why the whole thing is failing.

Regards

Frank

[memaad]

Hi,

Do you take snapshot with memory and quiescing .

Regards

Mohammed

[goppi]

Mohammed Emaad schrieb:

Hi,

Do you take snapshot with memory and quiescing .

Regards

Mohammed

No only with quiescing.

What I found out meanwhile is that if you create a snapshot without additional options only one "snapshot vmdk" is created.

When you enable quiescing then two "snapshot vmdk" are created.

Interrestingly the first one (000001) is locked but the second one (000002) can be accessed exclusively.

Jst ou of interrest I will try what happens when using the second one for cloning the disk.

Cheers.

[goppi]

Things are getting strange now.

When using the second snapshot vmdk for cloning operation, after restore I get

the Windows message that the machine was not shutdown proplery however

the machine starts and chkdsk does not show andy problems.

Anyone out there who can explain what's going on?

Thanks again for your help.

Cheers.

[a_p_]

If it's only the .vmdk file you backup and restore, the unexpected shutdown as well as the subsequent chkdsk is certainly something that can happen. Since you don't backup the other files associated with the snapshot (e.g. .vmss) and resume from this state, it's like a hard reset when you power on the restored VM.

André

[goppi]

André Pett schrieb:

If it's only the .vmdk file you backup and restore, the unexpected shutdown as well as the subsequent chkdsk is certainly something that can happen. Since you don't backup the other files associated with the snapshot (e.g. .vmss) and resume from this state, it's like a hard reset when you power on the restored VM.

André

Ok maybe I have a missunderstanding on how things work.

My assumtion was that when you take a snapshot and clone the original vmdk that you get a consistent state of the disk cause before the vmdk is switched to the "snapshot vmdk" VSS ensures that everything is consistent.

What is wrong here?

Regards.

[a_p_]

... VSS ensures that everything is consistent.

That's my understanding too. However Windows was still in a running state. Having all the allocations flush their data to disk certainly ensures the data integrity for these applications. That's probably why chkdsk does not find any issues.

With that said, this is just my opinion on this.

André

[goppi]

André Pett schrieb:

... VSS ensures that everything is consistent.

That's my understanding too. However Windows was still in a running state. Having all the allocations flush their data to disk certainly ensures the data integrity for these applications. That's probably why chkdsk does not find any issues.

With that said, this is just my opinion on this.

André

Just checked with Windows 2003 R2 on VSpere 4.1. There only one snapshot vmdk is created on Quiesce snapshots whereas with Windows 2008 R2 on 5.1 there are two.

When using the second snapshot on 5.1 for cloning it seems to work, whereas the first one seems to be corrupt when used alone.

However I don't trust it any longer.

Cheers.