KB Article 2522766 & KB Article 2135160 Published Today

At this moment in time I don’t have any more Hyper-V clusters to support that are below Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. That’s good as I only have one list of patches to keep up to date for my own use. As for you guys still taking care of Windows 2008 R2 RTM Hyper-V cluster you might want to take a look at KN article 2135160 FIX: "0x0000009E" Stop error when you host Hyper-V virtual machines in a Windows Server 2008 R2-based failover cluster that was released today. The issue however is (yet again) an underlying C-State issue that already has been fixed in relation to another issue published as KB article 983460 Startup takes a long time on a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an Intel Nehalem-EX CPU installed.

And for both Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM and SP1 you might take a look at an MPIO issue that was also published today (you are running Hyper-V on a cluster and your are using MPIO for redundant storage access I bet) KB article 2522766 The MPIO driver fails over all paths incorrectly when a transient single failure occurs in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

It’s time I add a page to this blog for all the fixes related to Hyper-V and Failover Clustering with Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 for my own reference Smile

Extra Info on Clustering & Hyper-V with Dynamic Memory When You Start With Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1:

Here’s a quick “heads up” if your starting to use or thinking about using Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 for your Hyper-V clusters. The most common issues I’ve seen in the wild are:

  1. https://blog.workinghardinit.work/2011/04/01/kb2230887-hotfix-for-dynamic-memory-with-windows-2008-standard-web-edition-does-not-apply-to-without-hyper-v-editions/ This one is being worked on and the hotfix will be re-released to support the “Without Hyper-V” SKU of Windows Server 2008 SP2.  It’s a simple oversight but one that can be important when your Hyper-V clusters are filled with that SKU.
  2. We also got bitten by this one Déjà vu Bug: The network connection of a running Hyper-V virtual machine may be lost under heavy outgoing network traffic on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, but the hotfix was already available luckily.
  3. And than one to head and to read the TechNet forum about Cluster Validation Bug In Windows 2008 R2 SP1 – Disk has a Persistent Reservation on it. They are also working on a fix. I’ve written a blog post on this and I suggest you read it and also take note of the discussion in the TechNet forum.

    UPDATE: The hotfix for issue 3 has become available today, April 26th 2011 as announced on the TechNet forum here:

    A hotfix is now available that addresses the Win2008 R2 service pack 1 issue with Validate on a 3+ node cluster. This is KB 2531907. The KB article and download link will be published shortly, in the mean time you can obtain this hotfix immediately free of charge by calling Microsoft support and referencing KB 2531907.   Update 27/05/2011 Here is the link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2531907/en-us?sd=rss&spid=14134

An other one that I haven’t seen in the wild is:

Windows Server 2008 R2 installation may hang if more than 64 logical processors are active. There is is a workaround and a hotfix for this one.

Issue: When you try to install Windows Server 2008 R2 on a computer that has more than 64 logical processors, Windows Setup may stop responding in one of the following operations:

  • Initialization of Windows Setup
  • One of the two restarts that are required to complete Setup

Cause: This issue occurs because of an error in the Network Driver Interface Specification.This issue occurs because of an error in the Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) driver.
When a computer has more than 64 logical processors, the NDIS driver does not correctly handle some operations. Therefore, the computer encounters stop responding issues and other system failures.

I don’t have any nodes under my care who have more than 64 logical processors so that’s why I guess Smile But with ever more cores available you it’s bound to happen in the near future.

Update 2: To keep me busy this KB article was released within 24 hours of me posting this blog on a BSOD with CSV and redirected access for witch a hot fix is available

Stop error 0x0000007a occurs on a virtual machine that is running on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based failover cluster with a cluster shared volume, and the state of the CSV is switched to redirected access

The KB article with instructions on how to get the hot fix is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2494016/en-us?sd=rss&spid=14134

The scenario is detailed as follows:

Consider the following scenario:

  • You enable the cluster shared volume (CSV) feature on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based failover cluster.
  • You create a virtual machine on the CSV on a cluster node.
  • You start the virtual machine on the cluster node.
  • You move the CSV owner to another cluster node, and you change the state of CSV to redirected access.
  • The connection that is used for redirected access is switched to another connection when one of the following scenarios occurs:
    • The cable for local area network (LAN) is disconnected.
    • The related network adapter is disabled.
    • The connection is switched by using Failover Cluster Manager.

In this scenario, you receive a Stop error message that resembles the following in the virtual machine:

STOP 0x0000007a ( parameter1 , parameter2 , parameter3 , parameter4 )
KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR

Note

  • The parameters in this Stop error message vary, depending on the configuration of the computer.
  • Not all "0x0000007a" Stop error messages are caused by this issue.
  • You may also receive other Stop error messages when this issue occurs. For example, you may receive a "0x0000004F" Stop error message.