Windows 2008 Going to blank desktop .. 20 VM's affected

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tylerdurden81

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Jan 8, 2011
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I have around 15 proxmox nodes running. Across all of them my widnows 2008 installs are coming up to a blank desktop with no icons just a light blue screen. This has been happening the past few days across all the nodes... so far about 20 VM's are affected. Is there a update (maybe sp1) that is not compliant with proxmox?


I also wanted to add that the login screen is there but when you log in its just a blank desktop.
 
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Hi Tyler,

I have several (~15) VMs running Windows 2008 and 2008 R2. I just tested, and no problem to acces them through VNC console or Remote Desktop. I am using Proxmox 1.8 with kernel 2.6.35, and KVM of course, on four nodes.

It should be a problem with your configuration. Can you give more details on your configuration. Which version of Proxmox-ve are you using ?

Alain
 
Thanks guys. These machines have been running fine for months. Then the past few days this has been happening.

proxmox15:~# pveversion -v
pve-manager: 1.8-15 (pve-manager/1.8/5754)
running kernel: 2.6.32-4-pve
proxmox-ve-2.6.32: 1.8-32
pve-kernel-2.6.32-4-pve: 2.6.32-32
qemu-server: 1.1-30
pve-firmware: 1.0-11
libpve-storage-perl: 1.0-16
vncterm: 0.9-2
vzctl: 3.0.24-1pve4
vzdump: 1.2-11
vzprocps: 2.0.11-1dso2
vzquota: 3.0.11-1
pve-qemu-kvm: 0.14.0-2
ksm-control-daemon: 1.0-5


Sample Config:


name: ************
ide2: Backups:iso/windows_server_2008.iso,media=cdrom
vlan0: rtl8139=DA:FB:63:A9:80:13
bootdisk: ide0
ostype: other
ide0: San5:vm-373-disk-1
memory: 512
sockets: 1
 
tylerdurden81 said:
proxmox15:~# pveversion -v
pve-manager: 1.8-15 (pve-manager/1.8/5754)
running kernel: 2.6.32-4-pve
proxmox-ve-2.6.32: 1.8-32
pve-kernel-2.6.32-4-pve: 2.6.32-32
qemu-server: 1.1-30
pve-firmware: 1.0-11
libpve-storage-perl: 1.0-16
vncterm: 0.9-2
vzctl: 3.0.24-1pve4
vzdump: 1.2-11
vzprocps: 2.0.11-1dso2
vzquota: 3.0.11-1
pve-qemu-kvm: 0.14.0-2
ksm-control-daemon: 1.0-5
Click to expand...

One thing I notice is that your configuration is not up to date, for example, my pve-manager is 1.8-18. But I don't think it is the cause of the problem.
I am running 2.6.35 kernel. It can make a difference...

Sample Config:


name: ************
ide2: Backups:iso/windows_server_2008.iso,media=cdrom
vlan0: rtl8139=DA:FB:63:A9:80:13
bootdisk: ide0
ostype: other
ide0: San5:vm-373-disk-1
memory: 512
sockets: 1
Click to expand...

Here some remarks :
With windows 2008, it is best to use e1000 (or virtio) for NIC, not rtl8139. You can try to change. You will have to reconfigure network settings for this new NIC, and certainly it will complain that the old interface has he same IP settings. You can try to delete this one.

Another remark, memory is much too low. It should be at least 2 GB for win 2008 (win 2003 works with 512 MB). It could be the main cause of your problem. Perhaps your VM is swapping. Mine use at least 800 MB, even idle ones. My first try would be to increase memory up to 2048 MB...

Then, I don't know which difference it makes, but you should set ostype as w2k8. It is at least more natural.

Least, it seems that you use a SAN ? (should be OK...).

Here is one of my configs (win 2008 R2 SP1):
name: ********
ide2: local:iso/virtio-win-0.1-mm34.iso,media=cdrom
vlan0: virtio=E2:20:E8:48:07:A1
bootdisk: ide0
ostype: w2k8
ide0: local:130/vm-130-disk-1.raw
memory: 2048
onboot: 1
sockets: 1
cores: 1
virtio0: local:130/vm-130-disk-2.raw

Hope that helps...

Alain
 
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Thank you for the advice, all of which i am aware:) We have no network problems with the rtl8139 NIC. These are not high network use VM's. These are client VM's and they only purchased 512mb ram against our suggestions. Our VM's don't seem to use as much ram as yours.

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It is very surprising to see such a low memory usage for windows 2008 R2 machines. I installed my VMs from the vanilla microsoft 2008 R2 DVD iso. Do you have a special installation setup, which strips a lot of things from standard installation ?

For every 2008 machine that I installed, the memory usage as displayed by web interface is about 1.86 GB, even if it is not the memory usage I see inside the machine...

Alain
 
I didn't do it my self, but yes i know that a lot of things were striped away. I am not sure that it would effect the memory usage. Things were removed that would not be used in our VM's enviroment. If you want I can find out more information for you.
 
Hi Tyler,

Yes, if you can, I'd like to have some details on what has been removed. It is certainly components that are normally running, not some that could be installed optionnally. The gain in memory usage is rather impressive, but I wonder if useful components have not been removed (it depends on what you use...).

Thanks !

Alain
 
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