[SOLVED] Veeam Backup from VMware restore to Proxmox "io thread" is grey out.

[AlexRac]

I took a backup with Veeam of a Windows Server 2022 VM from VMware and restore it to Proxmox.

Usually when I create a new Proxmox VM, I choose right away "VirtIO SCSI single" for the controller, and the Disks have the Bus/device at SCSI with "io thread" checked, and then at the installation of Windows I connect the drives drivers ISO and load the drivers. Performances are fast!

But when restoring to Proxmox, we can't change the Bus/device to SCSI.
And consequently, "io thread" is grey out.

Is there a way to do it?

I have included the steps I take after restoring the VM and FAIL



*********************************************************** Start
---- STEPS/ procedure below ----

• In Proxmox : Add the ISO CD/DVD file for the drivers.
• Start the VM.
• First boot. “Getting devices ready.” screen since it must be adjusting a lot of drivers and the network is not present.
• Remove VMware tools. If asked at the start of the uninstall, choose to reboot instead of the other option to close apps or your uninstall could be very long. After the uninstall, reboot the VM.
• We need to install the disk drivers, if we want to switch to a VirtIO more performing SCSI driver. You will need to browse for the disk drivers, go to the ISO in the vioscsi\(YOUROS)\amd64 folder, right clic the .INF file and choose install. Let’s test that right away, shutdown the VM, and in Proxmox change the Hardware for:
  • SCSI Controller : VirtIO SCSI single.
  • Machine : q35, version 9 (or latest), vIOMMU : Default.
• And start the VM again. “Applying computer settings” should be there for … a little time.
• Install Proxmox other features like VirtIO other drivers, networking, controller, Proxmox Agent, etc by following the “Windows common after the initial setup” section.

Windows common after the initial setup:

• After booting in Windows, go to your VirtIO drivers ISO, and run virtio-win-gt-x64. Reboot.
• You should now have your network adapter visible has “Red Hat VirtIO Ethernet Adapter”.
• If you need the network, now is the time to configure your network card/IP/etc.
• After that go to your VirtIO drivers ISO, folder \guest-agent\ and run qemu-ga-x86_64. Reboot.
• You should now have the QEMU Guest Agent running.

*********************************************************** -FIN

 

[AlexRac]

With the help of this crosspost, I have the solution here. See below the the speed differences.

See here for the crosspost discussion https://old.reddit.com/r/Proxmox/comments/1g00e6j/restore_to_proxmox_io_thread_is_grey_out/


Here is the curated version:

• LAST STEPS :
• We now have a great and fast VM, but .... it could go faster, so let’s make it faster for the drives.
• Imported drives are currently with a sata BUS (sata0, sata1, etc) and are limited in SATA speeds. We need to change them in SCSI to use all the bandwidth of SCSI and NVMe speeds.
• Backup the VM!
• TEST FIRST : You can test first before going forward just in case some drivers did not installed properly.
  • Shutdown the VM.
  • Hardware - Add – Hard Disk, add a small Hard Disk with the Bus/Device : SCSI. You should also see the SCSI Controller at : VirtIO SCSI single at this point. Check Discard, IO thread, and SSD emulation.
  • Start the VM, go in the Computer Management.
    • In Device Manager – Storage controllers, you should have Red Hat VirtIO SCSI controller.
    • In the Disk Management you should have a new Disk that is Offline.
• If it worked, now it is time to change the drives.
  • Shutdown the VM.
  • In Hardware, click on the Hard Disk that is sataX, and then Detach.
  • The drive will now become “Unused Disk X”, you can now click on it and Edit.
  • Choose the Bus/Device to SCSI, check ; Discard and IO thread and SSD emulation, and Add.
  • This will now put back the drive attached to the VM, with the SCSI Bus/Device instead of the slow SATA.
  • Repeat for the other drives of the VM.
  • In Options – Boot Order , validate that the boot drive is actually bootable. Detaching a drive will remove it from the boot options.
  • Start the VM to validate.
  • Inside Windows, if you have multiple drives, validate that they are all present, and Online in the Disk Management. If one is Offline, just change it to Online and it should be working.

CrystalDiskMark 8.0.5-Win2022-4 Logical vcores-hostProxmox-Dell R7615 aka new server-RAID5 NVMe-Drive Bus SATA-IO thread disabled aka "before":



CrystalDiskMark 8.0.5-Win2022-4 Logical vcores-hostProxmox-Dell R7615 aka new server-RAID5 NVMe-Drive Bus SCSI-IO thread Enabled aka "after":