ESX 4.0 / 2008 R2

[oxide54]

Anyone using 2008 R2 on ESX 4.0, seems the SVGA hangs. Does anyone know if this was fixed in the 208167 build? The os type in settings has changed from 2008 R2 (Experimental) to 2008 R2.

 

I've seen the thing about disabling hardware accelaration, but the VM is sooo jerky if i do that.

 

Any ideas?

 

Conrad

[Theblacksheep]

Not had any problems with esx4u1.... it also fixes the w7 vSphere client issue.

 

In old versions, hardware acceleration is ok, just dont install the vmware svga part of tools (custom install). If you think it jerky, connect to a box with vsphere client via vnc and trying viewing the console... it'll make your normal experience feel super quick!

Edited November 24, 2009 by Theblacksheep

[oxide54]

I updated to U1 last night, and it hung again today. But having just read ur post. Me thinks I may have forgotten to upgrade the vm tools.

[andyrite]

Isn't 2008 r2 only just supported in u1? The latest vmtools should help.

[Theblacksheep]

Isn't 2008 r2 only just supported in u1? The latest vmtools should help.

 

Yeah, but official support doesn't stop people using it (myself included).... shame it wasnt patched a little earlier than a u1 update, but there you go.

[bio]

We run windows 2008 R2 VM's on ESX 4 (without u1) and have no problems at all.. All hardware v7 and latest VMware tools.

 

bio..

[oxide54]

deleted the VM and re-installed today, much better the mouse actually responds even without vm tools installed!!!!!!!!

[oxide54]

i've just installed R2 on the laptop (on the metal) and noticed how responsive it is in comparison to runing under ESX4.0.

 

Laptop is AMD Turion x64 4GB.

ESX4.0 Box is Dual Quad Core Zeon 16gb.

 

Okay its running other workloads but i shut them down, and it is a world of difference running it on the metal and under ESX4.0.

 

the laptops faster than it was with windows 7!

[smjb90]

VMWARE has given out details about this issue;

 

This issue is caused because the drivers are different for server 2008 R2 as apposed to Server 2008.

 

A quick fix for this is to remove vmware tools.

[oxide54]

have you got a link

[TheCrust]

Not had any problems with esx4u1.... it also fixes the w7 vSphere client issue.

 

It does?

 

I updated our ESXi hosts to the U1 release today, and the vCentre server I put in yesterday came with the U1 release - vSphere client on my laptop updated itself the moment I connected to the vCentre server, but still refuses to run properly without that .NET2 workaround in place.

 

Could be the vSphere client install on the laptop has been polluted meaning the U1 update doesn't have the desired effects - it doesn't bother me for the moment though so I'll leave it running with the workaround.

[Theblacksheep]

It does?

 

I updated our ESXi hosts to the U1 release today, and the vCentre server I put in yesterday came with the U1 release - vSphere client on my laptop updated itself the moment I connected to the vCentre server, but still refuses to run properly without that .NET2 workaround in place.

 

Could be the vSphere client install on the laptop has been polluted meaning the U1 update doesn't have the desired effects - it doesn't bother me for the moment though so I'll leave it running with the workaround.

 

 

I uninstalled it and got rid of the entire workaround files, reinstalled the latest client from vcenter and its ok... using rtm7.

[smjb90]

No Sorry haven't got a link as i contacted their support by phone.

[AndyB4rks]

Here is a link to the release notes http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/vsp_esx40_u1_rel_notes.html

[Domino]

ahem - VMware KB: Disable SVGA drivers installed with VMware Tools on Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2

 

We found we needed to disable the svga driver or the machine would hang every 5 minutes

[oxide54]

ahem, update 1 fixes the vga hang issue, but the performance is still pants

[DMcCoy]

ahem, update 1 fixes the vga hang issue, but the performance is still pants

 

Performance of what? As a VM it's fine, the only slow part is the console, which is fine if you only use it to get far enough for RDP to work.

 

I've got about 12 R2 VMs with no performance issues.

[oxide54]

sorry yes that what i meant the performance of the console is slow.

 

rdp doesn't work very well over our vpn, vsphere is fine.

[oxide54]

sorry yes that what i meant the performance of the console is slow.

 

rdp doesn't work very well over our vpn, vsphere is fine.

 

the performance was still quite rubbish over rdp, then i noticed I had only give it 1 VCPU.

 

with 1 VCPU cpu = 100% constant and 3.25gb memory in use all the time.

with 2 VCPU cpu = 0% constant and 711mb

 

weird.

[oxide54]

the performance was still quite rubbish over rdp, then i noticed I had only give it 1 VCPU.

 

with 1 VCPU cpu = 100% constant and 3.25gb memory in use all the time.

with 2 VCPU cpu = 0% constant and 711mb

 

weird.

 

sorry the reboot just seemed to fix it for a bit.

 

its eating cpu, and memory usage is back to 3.25gb but task manager isn't showing any app as using the memory. and the cpu is blamed on system process. weird.

 

found something about the intel nic driver that comes with 08 r2 not working very well, and updated it but it hasn't helped. would make sense though if a kernel driver is eating all the memory then no app would show as using it.

[oxide54]

was the emulated intel nic,

 

I removed it and added a vmxnet and all seems well now, lets hope it stays that way.

 

it does seem sooo much more responsive.

[ahuxham]

I noticed the same with Windows XP Machines, assigned 1GB ram, and it would eat all its allocated RAM, reporting falsely. U1 fixed this.

[oxide54]

I noticed the same with Windows XP Machines, assigned 1GB ram, and it would eat all its allocated RAM, reporting falsely. U1 fixed this.

 

even on update one i still had problems, but i wiped it and put a server core install on which is running nicely now.

[ranj]

We are not running esx4 u1 yet and have noticed that one of our 2008 R2 enterprise servers doesnt come back online for about 30 minutes after a reboot. Don't understand why it takes so long.

 

Is there a guide which can guide me to do the upgrade to esx4 u1?

 

Any tips and things to avoid when doing this upgrade? I have got 3 esx hosts to upgrade.

 

Thanks

[oxide54]

We are not running esx4 u1 yet and have noticed that one of our 2008 R2 enterprise servers doesnt come back online for about 30 minutes after a reboot. Don't understand why it takes so long.

 

Is there a guide which can guide me to do the upgrade to esx4 u1?

 

Any tips and things to avoid when doing this upgrade? I have got 3 esx hosts to upgrade.

 

Thanks

 

All i did was shut down the VM's, pulled the fibre lead out, put the CD in and said install. Was really painless.