afokkema VMware

Network issues with VMware Tools 10.2.0 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Guest VMs


When you’re (still) running Windows 2008 R2 and are using VMware Tools 10.2.0 you might run in an issue regarding to network loss. VMware has published KB54459.

Windows Server 2008 R2 guest VM ports are exhausted after upgrading to VMware Tools 10.2.0

Details:

  • Guest virtual machine ports are exhausted after a few days.
  • Networking is lost.
  • Network connections cannot be made.

Source: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/54459

VMware has fixed the issue with the release of VMware Tools 10.2.5.

Ports are exhausted on a guest VM after using VMware Tools 10.2.0

Guest VM ports are exhausted after using VMware Tools 10.2.0. This results in network connection failure.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Source: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tools/10.2/rn/vmware-tools-1025-release-notes.html

But how do you know if you’re running this buggy combo? Well PowerCLI to rescue. The script below gathers all the VMs running Windows 2008 R2 and VMware Tools 10.2.0:

Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.Core

Connect-VIServer -Server <vCenterName>

$AllVms_view = get-view -ViewType VirtualMachine -Property Name, Config, Guest

Disconnect-VIServer -Confirm:$false

$AllAffectedVMs = $Allvms_view |?{$_.Config.GuestId -eq 'windows7Server64Guest' -and $_.Config.Tools.ToolsVersion -eq '10304'}

$AllAffectedVMsInfo = @()
$AllAffectedVMs | % {

  $AllAffectedVMsInfo += [pscustomobject]@{
     Name = $_.Name
     ToolsVersion = $_.Config.Tools.ToolsVersion
     GuestOSId = $_.Config.GuestId
     GuestFullName = $_.Config.GuestFullName
  }
}

$AllAffectedVMsInfo | ft -AutoSize

Copy the script and change the <vCenterName>. The script will gather all the VMs via Get-View with the Name, Config and Guest properties only. So it’s lightning fast. Once the script has all the information the filtering will take place.  The variable $AllAffectedVms contains all the VMs with Windows 2008R2 as GuestOS and with tools version 10304. Take a look at https://packages.vmware.com/tools/versions to correlate all the different version/build numbers.

The fix is easy. Just upgrade the VMware Tools on the affected VMs.

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afokkema Veeam

Veeam: Unable to install Windows 2008 R2 SP1 error 800F0A12


One of my test Veeam Backup servers was running Windows 2008 R2 without Service Pack 1. So I decided to install Service Pack 1 but all I got was the following error message:

image

To fix this error follow the next steps:

  1. Be sure there are now active Veeam Backup jobs. But I think that’s not the case during a maintenance windows.
  2. Open a command prompt and start DISKPART.
  3. Enable the automount feature via: automount enable:
    image
  4. Restart the Veeam Backup server.
  5. Install Windows 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.
  6. Restart the Veeam Backup server.
  7. Open a command prompt and start DISKPART.
  8. Disable the automount feature via: automount disable
  9. Restart the Veeam Backup server.

Source: http://blogs.technet.com

afokkema Veeam

Veeam Backup: RPC error The RPC server is unavailable. Code 1722


In one of my Veeam Backup jobs I had two Windows 2008 R2 VM’s with the Windows Firewall enabled. The backup job failed with the error: RPC error The RPC server is unavailable. Code 1722.

You can find the error in the job Statistics screen:

image

This error is the result of enabling Application-aware image processing (Microsoft VSS) and the Windows Firewall. RPC by default doesn’t like to work through a firewall. But Microsoft has a fix for this. KB article KB154596 explains how to change the RPC settings within the Windows Registry. You need to add the following settings:

Ports REG_MULTI_SZ

Specifies a set of IP port ranges consisting of either all the ports available from the Internet or all the ports not available from the Internet. Each string represents a single port or an inclusive set of ports. For example, a single port may be represented by 5984, and a set of ports may be represented by 5000-5100. If any entries are outside the range of 0 to 65535, or if any string cannot be interpreted, the RPC runtime treats the entire configuration as invalid.

PortsInternetAvailable REG_SZ Y or N (not case-sensitive)

If Y, the ports listed in the Ports key are all the Internet-available ports on that computer. If N, the ports listed in the Ports key are all those ports that are not Internet-available.

UseInternetPorts REG_SZ ) Y or N (not case-sensitive

Specifies the system default policy.

If Y, the processes using the default will be assigned ports from the set of Internet-available ports, as defined previously.

If N, the processes using the default will be assigned ports from the set of intranet-only ports.

Or you can copy the following *.REG file and execute this on the Windows 2008 R2 VM.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Rpc\Internet]
“Ports”=hex(7):35,00,30,00,30,00,30,00,2d,00,35,00,31,00,30,00,30,00,00,00,00,\
  00
“PortsInternetAvailable”=”Y”
“UseInternetPorts”=”Y”

The next step is to add a firewall rule:

image

After changing these settings you need to reboot the VM.

Now you are able to run the Veeam Backup job with the Firewall enabled on a Windows 2008 R2 VM.

 

Source Link
Micrsoft.com KB154596