Jump to content United States-English
HP.com Home Products and Services Support and Drivers Solutions How to Buy
» Contact HP
More options
HP.com home
HP Integrity Virtual Machines Version 4.0 Release Notes > Chapter 4 Installing Guests

Windows Guests

» 

Technical documentation

Complete book in PDF
» Feedback
Content starts here

 » Table of Contents

 » Index

The following sections contain the release notes specific to installing Windows guests.

Removing Media During Installation Hangs Guest

If you begin the installation of the Windows operating system and then eject the media from the virtual console, the guest hangs. To recover from the problem, restart the guest from the virtual console.

Network Driver for Some Windows Guests Not Behaving Correctly

The network driver for some Windows guests is not behaving correctly if the network device is configured at PCI bus 0, device 3, function 1, because of an interaction with the console device at PCI bus 0, device 3, function 0. To avoid this issue, do not specify PCI bus 0, device 3 as an address when adding network devices to a Windows virtual machine.

There is no issue if hpvmcreate or hpvmmodify automatically assign PCI addresses. This problem can be corrected by removing any network devices at PCI bus 0, device 3 and adding them at any other free PCI address.

Virtual DVD Misconfiguration can Lead to Windows Slow Down

Windows 2003 Server constantly polls the status of a DVD. If you configure the virtual DVD incorrectly, such as inserting a blank DVD as a backing store, the virtual DVD disappears from the Guest. However, the Windows 2003 Server Guest continues to scan for the DVD to come back. This scanning activity can cause a slow down in Windows performance. Bad DVD configurations are reported in the /var/opt/hpvm/common/hpvm_mon_log, like the following:

9 ScsiDiskOpen: block open failed dev=1f000000 cdev=bc000000 errno=16 9 DVD dev 0xbc000000 may be empty

You can correct this error by first placing the virtual DVD into ejection state (vMP> ej) and then replacing the media in the VM Host CD or DVD drive with a readable disc.

HP Insight Manager Automatic Server Recovery Does Not Work

On Windows guests, the HP Insight Manager product supports Automatic Server Recovery: if a system does not send out a heartbeat within a specified interval, a user-specified action takes place (for example, automatic reboot). Integrity VM takes no action if a heartbeat is not detected; instead, a message is logged on the console and the VM Host System Event Log. You should monitor these log files and manually perform the reboot if the guest does not respond.

Running Windows Guests on a Dual Core Intel Itanium Processor (Montecito) System

If you use a version of the OPK Smart Setup Media released prior to Version 5.0, and wish to run a Windows guest on an Intel Itanium 9000 server, you must disable the PalHaltLightRegEdit patch. To do this, go to Add/Remove Programs and remove the PalHaltLightRegEdit component.

Installing Windows with Virtual NullDVD is Not Recommended

To use a Virtual NullDVD as installation media, define the device as a file or as the physical drive. For example, use one of the following commands:

# hpvmmodify -P guest-name -a dvd:scsi::file:/InstallMedia/Windows.iso # hpvmmodify -P guest-name -a dvd:scsi::disk:/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0

Insert and remove media (for software installation using multiple CDs) using the hpvmmodify command (effectively ejecting and inserting files) or, in the case of a physical drive, actually eject and insert the media in the drive. For example, to change the media in an existing virtual DVD defined in the above example, enter the following command:

# hpvmmodify -m dvd:scsi:0,0,1:file:/InstallMedia/SmartSetup.iso

Where the path name /InstallMedia/SmartSetup.iso indicates the new media to use.

Defining the virtual DVD as a null type (for example: hpvmmodify -a dvd:scsi:null:/path/to/media/) is not recommended for software installation.

Software installation from virtual DVDs defined with the null storage type (also referred to as removable media functionality) often results in installation failures because the removable media is automatically ejected when the virtual machine is stopped and started during software installation.

To complete Windows installation from removable media, follow these steps:

  • After the automatic reboot, Windows controls the console. When you see the SAC> prompt, use Esc-Tab to change the channel to the product key prompt.

  • Stop and start the virtual machine and interrupt the automatic boot sequence.

  • Before the system is allowed to continue, from the virtual console, execute the necessary insert (IN) command to reload the media.

  • After the media is reloaded into the virtual DVD, select the Windows Media install (the first boot option) and allow the system to boot.

  • When prompted, enter the product key. The installation process proceeds normally from this point.

For more information about using removable media, see the HP Integrity Virtual Machines Installation, Configuration, and Administration manual.

Enabling MP Services on Windows Guest Logs telnetd Errors

If you enable MP Services on a guest, the following telnetd errors might be written to the VM Host's log file (/var/adm/syslog/syslog.log). You can safely ignore these messages:

Jun 13 11:41:41 AGTVM telnetd[21551]: getmsg error:no data Jun 14 20:38:00 AGTVM telnetd[29216]: getmsg error:no data Jun 14 21:52:07 AGTVM telnetd[29504]: getmsg error:no data

To prevent this problem, disable MP Services.

Using Windows Firewall Requires ICMP to Allow Echo

When the Microsoft firewall is on, ICMP must be enabled so that you can ping the guest (echo). This setting can be found in the network properties applet, as follows: Control Panel => Network Connections => Local Area Connection/Properties Advanced => Windows Firewall => Settings ICMP. Check the Allow Incoming Echo Requests box.

Poor Console Screen Formatting

The Windows guest console might not format the virtual console display properly. Manage the guest using the Remote Desktop or make a network connection to the Windows guest.

The hpvmstop Command Does Not Shut Down Windows Guests Gracefully

Do not use the following commands to shut down Windows guests:

# hpvmstop -P winguest # hpvmconsole -P winguest -c "pc -off"

These commands do not stop the Windows operating system gracefully. To shut down a Windows guest, use the standard Windows operating system commands.

Do Not Delete EFI Shell Boot Option

Do not delete the EFI Shell [Built-in] EFI Boot Manager option. Deleting this option might interfere with the subsequent installation of the guest operating system. To recover if there are no options present on the EFI Boot Manager menu screen:

  1. Enter the Boot option maintenance menu.

  2. Select Add a Boot Option.

  3. Select Load File [EFI Shell [Built-in]].

  4. Save the setting to NVRAM.

Bug Check 0xA: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL — 1

If the footprint on the guest console looks like the following text, then this is a known problem with the Microsoft Windows 2003 Server SPx code base.

*** STOP: 0x0000000A (0x00000000000003E8, 0x000000000000000C, 0x0000000000000000, 0xXXXXXXXXXXXXX)

We are investigating possible workarounds for this problem. If this bug check continues to occur, try reducing or adding virtual CPUs or changing another configuration parameter temporarily.

Bug Check 0xA: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL — 12

If the footprint on the guest console looks like the following text, then this is a known problem with the Microsoft Windows 2003 Server SPx code base.

*** STOP: 0x0000000A (0x0000000000000010, 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000, 0xXXXXXXXXXXXXX)

There is a patch available from Microsoft (4.6 QFE) to resolve this issue.

Restoring the NVRAM for Windows Guests

When a guest has been terminated unexpectedly due to a panic or another critical condition, the guest's boot settings (which are stored in a per-guest NVRAM file on the VM Host) can become corrupted. This can cause problems with subsequent reboots of that guest. To correct the problem, copy the file /opt/hpvm/guest-images/common/nvram to /var/opt/hpvm/guests/vm_name/nvram on the VM Host system. This procedure restores the copy of the NVRAM that was used when the guest was created. Then you can used the EFI Boot Manager to recreate the guest's boot path and other data. (The installed guest's operating system should be intact and unaffected by the corruption.)

To build the EFI Boot Menu Entry for Windows Enterprise:

  1. From the Boot Maintenance options, select the boot device and enter the following command:

    fs0> ls \EFI\Microsoft\WINNT50

    Look for the Bootxxxx filename.

  2. Change to the MSUtil directory. For example:

    fs0> cd \MSUtil
  3. Enter the following command:

    fs0:> nvrboot

  4. Enter the I command to import the Windows boot entry. Then enter the correct location of the boot entry. For example:

    \EFI\Microsoft\WINNT50\Bootxxxx
Printable version
Privacy statement Using this site means you accept its terms Feedback to webmaster
© 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.