vSphere 5.5 Instant Recovery = Bad MBR?

[r3zon8]

A SureBackup job began failing recently and while investigating I've noticed that when I 'Instant Recover' my, for example, Exchange 2010 VM the OS begins to boot into Windows System Recovery console every time. Even using 'last known good config'/safe mode/etc it wont boot normally. at this point i stay in the windows system recovery console, open up a cmd prompt and issue 'bootrec /scanos' and the shell comes back saying it detected 0 installations of windows on all disks.

host is on esx 5.5.0(build 1331820) managed through vcenter5.5, veeam is on latest patch/update.

anyone come across a similar issue?

[davow]

Hi,
I have a backup of a Windows 2008 VM using VM Hardware version 10. The backup works fine.
File mode restores work fine...ie I can browse the VM and individually grab files.

If I do a full VM restore or Instant Recovery, the process completes and the VM boots however Windows either does not boot or I get a BSOD.

To test, I turned the VM off. I created a new job and did a full backup. I did Instant Recovery and once again, BSOD. If I boot the VM in question, it boots fine. If I clone it, it works fine.
Is there an issue with VM Hardware 10, that I have missed? Also, I just checked, I am running the latest VM Tools on ESX 5.5 latest Update. (Have not installed March and April updates yet). I'm using latest version of Veeam 7 with lated hotfix/patch.

Thanks

[davow]

Hi,
I just came across an issue where a restored VM could not boot and on another attempt, it booted but BSOD. This was from a VM that was backed up when shutdown. The VM works fine.
The difference with it compared to other VMs I have is that its Virutal Hardware is on vmx-10. What version is your VM on?

[Gostev]

A SureBackup job began failing recently

This is great, thanks for using SureBackup and catching this. Our devs would like to perform some tests around failing VMs, so anyone experiencing this, please open a support case. Hopefully, this should be easy to troubleshoot if the issue can be confirmed on powered off VM.

What is suspicious for me is that all 3 reports come together, could this be some recent ESXi 5.5 patch or something? This is certainly not a known issue. We will investigate. Our ESXi 5.5 lab does have all the latest updates installed though (build 1623387), and we are not seeing this issue.

Post your support case ID here, so that we could immediately escalate them into R&D.

[veremin]

The QA team is interested in the following:

1) What backup mode you're using?
2) What kind of backup repository you're using? Local repository or share?

Thanks.

[r3zon8]

The QA team is interested in the following:

1) What backup mode you're using?
2) What kind of backup repository you're using? Local repository or share?

Thanks.

Backup mode= virtual appliance(hot add disk to proxy)
backup repository= windows server(2012 std)

proxy and repo roles are handled by the same machine

[davow]

I opened a ticket (#00563947) with my issue. I just updated it and added that I made a copy of the VM in question with VM Hardware 10 using VMWare Converter. I made the copy with VMWare Hardware 9.
Backup and Restore/Instant Recovery worked and booted fine.

[r3zon8]

I opened a ticket (#00563947) with my issue. I just updated it and added that I made a copy of the VM in question with VM Hardware 10 using VMWare Converter. I made the copy with VMWare Hardware 9.
Backup and Restore/Instant Recovery worked and booted fine.

can you explain a little better what you did?

i understoof that you copied the VM using vmwareConverter? and when you set vmwareConvert to conver it as a vmhardware9 machine....what do those steps have to do with veeam?

[veremin]

I believe the point was the davow cloned the given VM, changing VM hardware from 10 to 9,then, backed it up, and restored this VM without issues. Thanks.

[Dima V.]

I made a copy of the VM in question with VM Hardware 10 using VMWare Converter.

I don't think that changing the hardware version is really needed.

Davow can you clone you'r 'bad' hardware 10 vm using vcenter clone operation? Preserve current hardware level.

[davow]

Hi,
Yes, Cloning the VM was one of the first things I tried. It did not fix the the issue. Downgrading to VM hardware 9 fixed the problem. I have updated the Support ticket and it was being escalated.
I have attached the BSOD screenshot to see an error.

Actually, I cannot see that I can attach screenshot. Anyway, the BSOD error is: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME.

[davow]

Hi,
Just to follow up on this thread. With the help of Veeam support, we can conclude that the VM in question is the issue. (For reasons unknown atm).
I used Vmware converter to make a copy of the VM and kept the virtual hardware at version 10. This new copy was then backed up and restored and then booted fine.

[r3zon8]

VM i am having this error with is HardwareVersion 8; i dont believe the hardware version has to do with this issue.

i will try another instant restore and pass the bad/damaged instant restored VM through vmconverter and report back shortly.

[ckd5150]

Was this resolved? We're seeing a similar issue after updating to B&R 7 patch 4

[Deon]

Hello ckd5150, the users above tell that the issue was with the VM itself and it had nothing to do with hardware version. Did you try to go through the suggested step and perform a conversion?

[veremin]

Was this resolved? We're seeing a similar issue after updating to B&R 7 patch 4

We don't have a unified solution for this issue, as the cases described above differ from each other. So, please, open your own ticket with our support team and let them confirm your environment. Thanks.