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I have a pair of Hyper-V servers (Server 2008 R2 + Hyper-V role).

I have duplicated one VM (exported from the first Hyper-V server to the Second) which seems to keep hanging.

The VM is running XP SP3, and has the Virtual Additions installed.

The first version runs fine, cpu normally around 0%-2% when idle and responds happily.

The second version runs very poorly, and keeps running at an idle of around 8% cpu.

I have checked the VM with Process Explorer, and the Idle process is (as expected) taking nearly all the cpu time, but what it's not using doesn't seem to show up in any other process. For example at one point idle dipped to 73%, but i could only account for anoth 4.5% in other processes.

After some time (around 1-2 days) the VM seems to become so unresponsive, the only way to resurect it is to power-off the VM and reboot (shutdown via the Hyper- V console of via the VM seems to be impossible).

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to trace the source of the problem?

Thanks

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  • Is there a way to see what the resource uses are on the VM from the outside, i.e., memory use maxed, processor pegged, network pegged, etc.? If you're running process explorer inside the VM does it show any processes leaking resources, high Virtual Memory usage, climbing processor usage, etc.? You don't mention what the machine does, but is it running anything periodically as a scheduled process that could be running amok? Chkdsk showing any corruption? And anything in the logs on either machine?
    – Bart Silverstrim
    Jun 4, 2010 at 10:06
  • Is this the only VM on the host? I'd be interested in knowing if other VM's hang as well.
    – Bart Silverstrim
    Jun 4, 2010 at 10:07
  • Why is this a Wiki?
    – Chris S
    Jun 4, 2010 at 14:49
  • Bart: there are a total of 8 VM's on this host, but this is the only one that hangs. All the other VM's were created and installed as VM's on this host. The hanging one was imported from another server. From inside the VM, process explorer shows nothing abnormal. from outside the VM process explorer also shows nothing abnormal. Even after a reboot of the VM and the Host, this particular VM just runs hot.
    – BParker
    Jun 6, 2010 at 6:16

2 Answers 2

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Have you tried shutting down the VM (XPSP3) on the 1st server, just copy the vhd and create a new vm on your 2nd hyper-v server, use the existing vhd > point to xpsp3 copied vhd file and see if the behaviour is similar.

You can also try uninstalling virtual guest additions - reboot and then re-install when on the new server.

hope that helps

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  • rihatum: good thinking!!! In the end, i uninstalled Addition, and shut down the VM. I created a new VM using the same VHD, rebooted and the problem appears to be gone!!!! Now runs at 0%-1% when idle! I haven't had a chance to compare the VM configs, but it seems to have cured it, and was a very fast fix! I Reinstalled the Addition, and still no issues. Interestingly i also did a P2V on an old machine we had hanging around. it kept stopping responding to network packets and various other oddities. Tried this same resolution and now it works perfectly!
    – BParker
    Jun 6, 2010 at 6:19
  • Glad to know that it has resolved for you, i think the hardware on the servers you have may have some different components / driver versions which is why it was behaving like this - had a similar problem on different machines and i always uninstall / reinstall integration services.
    – Mutahir
    Jun 7, 2010 at 12:28
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most likely you have a mismatch in executables between the two hosts, as in one may have a newer patch/firmware/driver. There are some critical hotfixes for both intel and amd, these are not part of the normal windows updates so you need to go get them.

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  • Tony: I think you're probably right, but the result seems to have been a mis-match in settings in the VM config. I have kept both hosts up to date, but i guess there may be some differences due to the fact one is a Dell, and the other an HP.
    – BParker
    Jun 6, 2010 at 6:20

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