VSphere Server 5.5: Issues with a Windows 8.1 VM

BlizzardX · 19 Apr 2015 at 21:33

Hello,

I've got a reoccurring issue with some of my windows 8.1 installs in ESXi 5.5. Sometimes, for what appears to be a completely random reason, if I try to get back in to the VM using the console it remains blank and refuses to enter. If I look at the VM status, it states that the VMware tools are not running (but installed). The only way to access the VM when it has entered this state is to hard reset the VM.

Is this a power management issue within Windows, i.e. setting it to sleep/suspend and not being able to recover, or could it be something else?

Any pointers is appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

Eliot · 19 Apr 2015 at 21:38

I had this problem when I initialy made a windows 7 image in work. It was power management, Basically things like the settings to shut of disk. You want all of that off when its VDI though.

Get a GPO set up and ypu wont have to think about again.

As you say, the only way to get it back is a hard reset, as the OS doesnt respond to the Guest shutdowns and resets as you cant wake it up.

BlizzardX · 19 Apr 2015 at 21:56

Cool thanks Eliot, I did wonder. I normally use Xenserver which doesn't seem to have any guest issues with power management enabled but I'm looking at migrating to VSphere if I can get it to work correctly.

I've disabled all of these things so hopefully that will sort it!

Terrier_Jimlad · 20 Apr 2015 at 15:47

Ensure that if you're using 5.5 that the VM Hardware version for the VM is on at least v9, should be on v10 for a newly built VM on 5.5 unless you migrated it over/cloned a template etc

BlizzardX · 20 Apr 2015 at 20:48

Rightio, so the power issues solved it. Another problem now and more of an issue. Using the web client to create a new VM10 8.1 machine with two pci devices passed through I get the following error: pci passthrough device id (xxxx) is invalid. The same machine with cards works fine in xenserver with passthrough, but no matter what I do (I've reserved the memory) I cannot get VSphere to create the VM, the only way is to remove the pci devices.

Any pointers to what I can do to solve this?