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stevenfoo
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Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by stevenfoo »

We just backup a windows 2000 VM and restore it to a ESXi server.
The size is about 178GB and took 6hrs to restore. Very slow.

However after that we tried to startup the VM (without connecting to LAN) and we can go until the login screen.
Once we login, the screen shows only blue background and nothing is display after that for a long time.

Kindly advice.
stevenfoo
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by stevenfoo »

Oh by the way we also restore another VM with Windows 2003. This is fine.

Just wonder why the window 2000 is not working.
ssimakov
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by ssimakov »

Steven, Veeam Backup does not change anything in the guest VMs. What options did you use to back it up? Are you able to login if starting it in safe mode?
stevenfoo
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by stevenfoo »

Since the VM is a Win 2000 and contain SQL 7 server, we use all the default Veeam setting accept NO VSS option as Win 2000 do not have VSS to backup the VM.

I did not login to safe mode. But I am able to login as usual thru normal login into tw win 2000 server.

After that I have to wait for a long time, until tonite our time 10:24pm our local time.

After I login and open the console, the window appear after so long. However the issue now is that I can't shutdown or reboot the server.

I tried to shutdown or reboot from the normal way but it still not doing anything.

Please advice.
Gostev
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by Gostev »

Steven, I think you should try to disable the VMware Tools quiescence through the checkbox in Veeam Backup job settings (Advanced settings dialog on the step where you select backup destination), and backup/restore the VM again. VMware Tools quiescence is known to corrupt SQL installations.
stevenfoo
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by stevenfoo »

I have to reset the VM from Vmware itself.

Without VMWare Tools quiescene, will this effect my Win 2000 os consistency and other files (beside win 2000)?
In Veeam documentation it mention that it's need to make sure that the VM is backup correctly.

I have tried to bring up the VM into safe mode and i am able to login and shutdown properly.

I restart the VM again, after the normal login the issue still the same. I am currently still waiting for the entire window screen, with icon, the task bar, etc to come out.

Now it takes a while to load the personnel setting. And then the screen comes out.

The issue goes back after 1st restored I encounter this issue of long delay in having the task bar screen to appear and NOT able to shutdown after that. Only with VMware reset or shutdown, then boot into safe mode, shutdown and restart the VM again.

I tried now to start the SQL Enterprise Manager, it will take sometime again to start. Slower than normal.
The database is able to start up and does not give any error. here I am not sure if the SQL database is consistence.

I think without VSS and turning off VMware Tools quiescence, the SQL won't be consistence.

Restarting the VM this time was faster. Able to login as normal and task bar comes out

Do you think disable VMware tools quiescence will help as now things seems to be working ?
Gostev
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by Gostev »

It is risky either way, whether you use VMware Tools quiescence or not on SQL VM, there is a chance of corruption of either SQL, or some other files correspondingly. I highly recommend upgrading to Windows 2003 for image-level backups, and using VSS.
stevenfoo
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by stevenfoo »

Gostev,

Could you please verify and confirm your statement that Veeam could NOT provide proper consistency backup for Windows 2000 OS
whether there is SQL or not ?

We are given a presentation and get to know from your reseller the opposite statement.
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by Gostev »

This does not actually have to deal with Veeam, but rather VMware Tools quiescence (which is the only option for Windows 2000) - so this behavior will be similar among all solutions providing image-level backups.

Windows 2000 OS without SQL: backup will be consistent with VMware Tools quiescence enabled (default setting).

Windows 2000 OS with SQL: backup will be consistent with VMware Tools quiescence enabled, but SQL may potentially get corrupted. If you disable VMware Tools quiescence, SQL will be fine, but VM state in backup will be similar pushing reset button on running physical computer: in some cases, certain applications *may* brake or Windows *may* fail to reboot (though extremely rare, this can potentially happen).
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by elwappo »

Gostev wrote: Windows 2000 OS with SQL: backup will be consistent with VMware Tools quiescence enabled, but SQL may potentially get corrupted. If you disable VMware Tools quiescence, SQL will be fine, but VM state in backup will be similar pushing reset button on running physical computer: in some cases, certain applications *may* brake or Windows *may* fail to reboot (though extremely rare, this can potentially happen).
This won't hurt the running Windows 2000 server though right? You just mean the backup one. I'm cool with this as long as it doesn't impact my source.
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by Gostev »

No, I actually meant the source server. It will hurt your production, source VM.

What happens is when performing freeze, VMware SYNC driver halts all I/O requests, then flushes I/O buffers, then lets ESX host know to proceed with creating snapshot. But I/O halt on the system is performed without notifying applications of what is happening. The SQL kernel code is waiting for some low-level I/O operation to complete – and when operation does not complete in a timely manner, errors are logged to the event log and in some cases, SQL process may stop and database may eventually become corrupt. SQL seems to be particularly unhappy about SYNC driver, since I've seen quite a few complaints about SQL corruption on the internet.

Here's further reading direct from VMware (same can be applied to SQL):
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/5962168
tsightler
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by tsightler »

There have also been several people running domain controllers that report AD corruption when using the VMware sync driver. I don't know if this happens with newer VMware tools, but certainly they were common back a year ago or so. We use Veeam VSS and it works great for us.
stevenfoo
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Re: Restore VM only give blue screen

Post by stevenfoo »

After reading all and explore, the best is to have your windows OS on 2003 where VSS is available and use Veeam VSS option during backup.

That's the best option to reduce any impact or risk.
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