VBR 9.5 selects wrong Hyper-V Generation - Instant restores

[itrabbit]

When you have a Windows 2008 R2 physical backup that contains GPT partions (these were created using the IBN server guide installer for system x servers). Veeam decides these are generation 2 machines and will recover them in a generation 2 Hyper-V vm.

Microsoft explicitly states that Gen 2 will not work with anything less than Windows 8 or 2012. This is not a soft restriction but a physical and can not be changed or tweaked..

I am not asking for much, but an advance option or tick box or override button for veeam to allow us to specify the generation of the virtual machine that veeam Agent Instant recovery creates.

I am positive there are many users world wide that have this issue, but veeam support reply was veeam doesn't have this option and "We Restore VM how we backed it up."

Case # 01982563


There are several additional steps I need to do to get the physical conversion to virtual to boot (convert to MBR from GPT and repair windows boot using windows 7 disc), but at least if the generation is set to 1 it makes it a bit easier.

[Gostev]

I am positive there are many users world wide that have this issue

I seriously doubt that considering 9.5 was only released less than a week ago

Case # 019825

Sorry, but this does not look like a Veeam support case ID (too few digits) - can you please correct? This could be simply a bug with system drive detection, we will investigate.

[itrabbit]

This is an Australian case number

That is the case number

I seriously doubt that considering 9.5 was only released less than a week ago

I wasn't talking directly about users having issues with live restores, I am talking about the issue of the combination of having a GPT style partion with windows 2008 R2 due to the automatic installation with IBM server guide. Which in turn would have troubles if they tried live migration..

Most will just go oh well it can't be restored and move on.


Basically Veeam support told me to post here because this is the way it is and I really felt the impression was go away we don't care, I was not really happy with their response even after I said to escalate it.

[Gostev]

Well, you did the right thing also posting this on the forum!
Thanks for the full case ID, we will look into this now.

[itrabbit]

The problem is that this is only part of the fix to actually to get it to boot. The remaining part requires several steps.

Technically you shouldn't have a Windows 2008 R2 server installed on a GPT partion, but The IBM server guide uses linux to create the partions and then installs Windows on it.

Once I have the Image in hyper-v (Gen 1 machine). I then need to perform the following:

1) Created a Hyper-V virtual machine with Gen 1 setting and attach all disks to VM.
2) Mount ISO “MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable 9.1”
3) Start VM and boot to CD (ISO)
4) Delete all partitions on Disk 1 except for the OS partition. (The OS partition will be the bigger partition i.e 136GB – Do not delete this). Hit Apply
5) Convert Disk 1 from GPT to MBR partition. Apply. Exit
4) Boot the VM using Windows 7 disc, go to "Repair your computer".
5) At the opened up Command Prompt enter the following commands:
- DISKPART
- LIST DISK
- SELECT DISK (Followed by the number of your boot disk)
- LIST PARTITION
- SELECT PARTITION (Followed by the number of your boot disk)
- ACTIVE
- EXIT
5) Now, run these commands:
- bootrec /fixmbr
- bootrec /fixboot
- bootrec /rebuildbcd
6) Reboot it with a Windows 7 CD. Go to repair, it will say that the boot configuration needs to be fixed, let it repair.
7) Reboot it with a Windows 7 CD. Go to repair, and you will see that you can see Windows 2008 R2 on C drive, click start-up repair and let it repair.
8) Reboot your VM and now Windows 2008 R2 will boot correctly.

[Gostev]

Based on the debug log review, the real cause of this issue is very untypical partitions layout, possibly one of a kind. So I actually don't expect many/any other users having this issue. Nevertheless, we will add support for such layout too. Thanks for reporting the issue!

[itrabbit]

Sweet, thank you so much! I guess the next question is when do they release updates ? or when would this look to be implemented?

[Gostev]

They will probably run a private hot fix by you soon in any case. Inclusion of that fix in the update will depend on the results, and also on how much code does the fix touch. If the fix is risky but you're the only one with the issue, they will just keep it private until the next major release. And in any other case, they will roll it into the immediate update.