virtio for disks (viostor) hangs with Windows 2003

Balanca

New Member
Oct 27, 2015
9
0
1
I have an up-to-date proxmox server.
Several Windows 2012 R2 guests are working perfectly. They were installed directly on Proxmox.

I did a P2V migration for 2 Windows 2003 servers, but the virtio storage drivers don't work. So I currently use IDE virtual drives, which is clearly too slow.
- Windows 2003 R2 SP2 Standard
- Windows 2003 SP2 Enterprise

The balloon and network drivers are installed without problem (latest stable version: 0.1.102 also tested with 0.1.110 without problem).

When I install the virtio storage driver (viostor), the process stay forever on the stage to copy the viostor.sys file. I have to kill the device manager to exit.
The driver then seems to be installed correctly.

If I hot-add a virtio drive, device manager correctly show "Red Hat VirtIO SCSI controller", but display an exclamation mark on the drive.
If I boot Windows 2003 with a virtio drive attached (system drive or secondary drive), I got a 100% grey screen forever (which is not the case if the driver is not installed).
Same problem on both Windows 2003.

I tested with an old viostor version: 1.0.30 -> same problem
I uninstalled/reinstalled/rebooted/etc.
I asked Google.
So now I'm posting here :)


Code:
$ pveversion -v
proxmox-ve: 4.0-16 (running kernel: 3.16.0-4-amd64)
pve-manager: 4.0-48 (running version: 4.0-48/0d8559d0)
pve-kernel-4.2.2-1-pve: 4.2.2-16
lvm2: 2.02.116-pve1
corosync-pve: 2.3.5-1
libqb0: 0.17.2-1
pve-cluster: 4.0-22
qemu-server: 4.0-30
pve-firmware: 1.1-7
libpve-common-perl: 4.0-29
libpve-access-control: 4.0-9
libpve-storage-perl: 4.0-25
pve-libspice-server1: 0.12.5-1
vncterm: 1.2-1
pve-qemu-kvm: 2.4-9
pve-container: 1.0-6
pve-firewall: 2.0-12
pve-ha-manager: 1.0-9
ksm-control-daemon: 1.2-1
glusterfs-client: 3.5.2-2+deb8u1
lxc-pve: 1.1.3-1
lxcfs: 0.9-pve2
cgmanager: 0.37-pve2
criu: 1.6.0-1
 
I had the same problem in the past. But win2003 never worked for me with virtiodisk. I to this with IDE and RAW Device. Performance is pretty good... for an 2003er Server No problem. Better is to setup new 2012r2 and migrate data's from 2003. We do this so this time.

Sorry that i can't help you with your virtio problem. Maybe you can use an really old virto driver.
 
Thanks, you made my day. I can confirm that 102 is NOT working! Hangs while installing VIRTIO SCSI drivers.
 
version 0.1.113
has worked for me also,

other versions like 0.1.102 stalls or gets the VM into BSOD...

regards,
francesco
 
yes, If i will have a look into the past an will see an BSOD
I Install a new version of the virtIO drivers ;-)
(never mind W7, W2k8) three from four virtIO Updates I get a BSOD
and it is not easy to get rid of the Blue-Screen
For me the post here help to solve the problem
mainly the post from the: 14 Apr 2013
But I only boot the Windows with a live linux ISO an rename the viostor.sys like described,
remove the drives in the Proxmox Webinterface and add it again as IDE drives...
The last virtIO Version that works for me is virtio-win-0.1.96.iso
And my advice: if it works, never install newer virtIO versions as an update ;-)
 
Last edited:

About

The Proxmox community has been around for many years and offers help and support for Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server, and Proxmox Mail Gateway.
We think our community is one of the best thanks to people like you!

Get your subscription!

The Proxmox team works very hard to make sure you are running the best software and getting stable updates and security enhancements, as well as quick enterprise support. Tens of thousands of happy customers have a Proxmox subscription. Get yours easily in our online shop.

Buy now!