Veeam Agent - Restore to Hyper-V - VM won't boot

[sixarm]

Hi there,

We're protecting a physical Windows Server via Veeam Agent for Windows managed by VBR. I'm attempted to restore this to Hyper-V using Instant Recovery, however when I power on the VM it won't boot, it just hangs.

I have to perform a few configuration steps to the VM to allow it to boot after the Instant Recovery completes, so I don't tick the "power on VM after restore" option. I jump into Hyper-V Manager and reduce the amount of memory from 16GB to 4GB, likewise the number of CPUs assigned to the VM I drop to 1 vCPU. In addition, I have to disable Secure Boot otherwise I get an error about the image hash not being allowed.

The above allows the VM to be powered on and I get the Windows OS screen about it not shutting down correctly and whether I'd like to boot into Safe Mode or continue with a normal boot. I choose normal and it just hangs with a black screen. If I choose Safe Mode it does exactly the same.

I don't know what else to do at this point.

Physical Server protected via Veeam Agent: Server 2008 R2 Standard
Hyper-V Host, also VBR Server & Repo: Server 2016 Standard

Does anyone have any suggestions?

If further information is required I will happily supply.

Thanks in advance.

[MichaelCade]

If you run through the exporting disks and export to VHD and then create a new VM from them disks what is the outcome there?

[sixarm]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the reply. I've kicked off the export and I'll give it a go.

Many thanks.

[sixarm]

Hi Michael,

So I went through the process of exporting the virtual disks out and then importing into Hyper-V running on the VBR server. Unfortunately it exhibits the exact same behaviour and will not boot into the OS.

Any further ideas?

Cheers!

[MichaelCade]

Have you opened a support case? They will be able to troubleshoot what is happening here.

[sixarm]

I haven't, but will as the next point of action.

[MichaelCade]

Keep us posted. I will also have a look to what this could be.

[ChuckS42]

I'm going to guess there's a conflict between the hardware (and drivers) from the original physical server, and the virtual hardware being presented by the Hyper-V host.

[amahdy]

Hi there,
Have you got a solution for this?

[wishr]

Hi Ahmed,

Since the underlying circumstances, and thus the root cause may vary for each case, I would recommend you to reach out to our support team for a comprehensive investigation. Please do not forget to post your support case ID here once you get it for reference purposes.

Thanks

[amahdy]

Hello,
I have tried restoring the backup taken by veeam agent for windows for a physical server with WIN 7 in two ways:
1- Instant Recovery as Hyper V VM
2- Restoring using Recovery Media
a- Recovery Media created on Physical workstation itself
b- Recovery Media created on a Win 7 VM created on Hyper V with Integration Service installed (This advised by support)
I have updated to VBR 9.5 U4 and Agnet 3.0 as advised by support that the issue is fixed.
But i am seeing the same behavior, after restore with ISO finish or Instant Recovery is mounted, VM boot in Black screen with blinking cursor.
Support case ID: 03378259

[wishr]

Hi Ahmed,

Thanks for posting the details. Please keep working with our support team - we do keep an eye on the request.

Regards,
Fedor

[amahdy]

I have tried the following MS article to repair the VM with black screen, which was successful try .
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/jon ... -disk2vhd/
I don't know why those steps is mandatory and also why Instant Recovery of Disk export to vhdx is not performing such steps to have the VM bootable.
One notable info here, is I have verified that the backup file is correct and used it to perform P2P and Guest Item restore.

[Dima P.]

Hello amahdy,

Looks like the proposed workaround was correct (as the boot issue was cased by the VM generation). We will discuss the potential improvements with RnD team. Thanks for sharing!

[computer_says_no]

as per amahdy response this worked a treat thank you

I have tried the following MS article to repair the VM with black screen, which was successful try .
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/jon ... -disk2vhd/
I don't know why those steps is mandatory and also why Instant Recovery of Disk export to vhdx is not performing such steps to have the VM bootable.
One notable info here, is I have verified that the backup file is correct and used it to perform P2P and Guest Item restore.