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Hyper-V - SBS 2011 - Black Screen

Answered Hyper-V - SBS 2011 - Black Screen

  • Monday, August 01, 2011 7:03 AM
     
     
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    Hello,

    Have been testing SBS 2011 backup and restore. Currently have a Dell R710 server. Hyper v is installed on the host and SBS 2011 installed as a guest OS. Have done a build and have created a backup using windows server backup. After doing a bare metal restore, the virtual machine is in running state with a black screen. The virtual machine has an IP and can ping the server from the host.

    Also have connected the virtual hard drives to another server and the restore has completed with all the data written to the hard drives after initially formatting these drives.

    This is quite important as this is our domain controller.

    Regards,

    Paul

     

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  • Monday, August 01, 2011 8:31 PM
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    So you did NOT use the built in SBS backup / restore, you manually ran a windows backup - is that right?

    What exactly did you backup and exactly how did you restore it?

    You were running this as a test on a "quite important... domain controller"?

    ...

    Do you have the original VHD files that comprised the complete installation of your virtualized SBS 2011 install?

     

     

    /kj
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
     
  • Monday, August 01, 2011 9:49 PM
     
     
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    am I right in guessing that rather than SBSBackup in SBS Paul has attempted to use WSB in the host to backup the VM of SBS?

    If so, simply change your plan. Provide an additional (virtual) HDD to the SBS VM to be used by SBSBackup. This gives you a standard SBS Restore into the VM. The backup HDD can then be copied from the host for your offsite backup.

    There may also be a problem with the HyperV VSS writer, try:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958662

     
  • Monday, August 01, 2011 11:39 PM
     
     
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    Hi Guys,

    I am planning a migration this weekend and am in the final stages of testing. To test this I have been using both SBS backup and restore. I have also been using a manual backup using windows server backup using the following in a script:

    Wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:\\XXX -include:C:,E: -allCritical -vssFull -quiet

    In both cases, the backup completes. I then have tried several restores using both SBS backup and windows server backup. The restore completes and the server restarts. The colourful windows dots appear at the start then its just a black screen and the virtual machine is in a running state. I can ping the virtual machine from the host.

    I don't have the original VHD's. After the restore, I connect the VHD's to another virtual machine and can see the files have been written to the hard drives.

    I hope this provides further information and any further details required, please ask.

    Regards,

    Paul

     
  • Tuesday, August 02, 2011 12:10 AM
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    What 'migration' type  are you attempting and what migration document are you following?

    To me it does not sound like you have a complete SBS backup data set to restore from.

    Were the "original VHDs" the migration source server and if so do you have any other backups of this migration server, like an "image" or SBS type backup?

     

    /kj
    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
     
  • Tuesday, August 02, 2011 12:28 AM
     
     
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    Hi Kevin,

    We are using Jeff Middleton's SBS migration. The majority of the migration is done offline.

    Regardless of this fact, I am testing SBS backup and windows server backup. The backups were complete. I then reformatted the VHDs and performed a full system restore using the SBS 2011 disc and selecting the appropriate backup. The restore completed and server restarted. I can see the files on the hard drive when connected to another virtual machine. However, the virtual machine doesn't boot.

    My major concern here is if there was a disaster with our server in the future, how are we going to deal with this and perform a restore?

    Regards,
    Paul

     
  • Tuesday, August 02, 2011 1:33 AM
     
     
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    OK, so let's forget the migration aspects for a moment and fcus on what others have successfully done, taken an SBSBackup of SBS in a VM and restored same.

    Are you able to start in either Directory Services Restore Mode or Safe Mode and get a desktop?

     
  • Tuesday, August 02, 2011 1:45 AM
     
     
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    Hi SuperGumby,

    Sounds good. I would like to know If I can restore this server in the case something happens, because all this is new for me.

    I cannot start in either safe mode or directory services restore mode. I get the same black screen with a arrow cursor.

    Regards,

    Paul

     
  • Saturday, August 06, 2011 11:46 AM
     
     
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    I am also seeing this behaviour on all the SBS2011s I have migrated from SBS2003 using swing migration methodology, all the servers are hardware based (no virtualisation involved at all apart from the temporary server used during migration which is long gone), using SBS backup to external USB HDD, after restore server will only boot to black screen with mouse cursor, safe mode, DSRM and repair mode install don't help.

     
  • Tuesday, August 09, 2011 12:54 AM
     
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    Hi Guys,

    Using a process of elimination, I have created several backup points and tested using the restore function using the new windows server backup program. The problem occurred after I installed the Windows NT backup restore utility as per the KB 974674 microsoft article. I installed the version compatible for 64bit windows server 2008 R2. I required this utility to restore the data from our current SBS 2003 server. I can confirm, that after uninstalling this utility and creating another backup point and restoring back to this point, the SBS 2011 machine is working correctly from the restore point.

    I called Microsoft technical support to notify them of this problem and they wanted $400 for a support charge. The utility says its all supported.

    If anyone has installed this utility, I would recommend uninstalling it as if your server requires a restore in the future, it wont work.

    Regards,

    Paul

    • Marked As Answer by Paul_SBS_2011 Tuesday, August 09, 2011 1:10 AM
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  • Tuesday, August 09, 2011 11:03 AM
     
     
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    paul, i'm gonna test this out later today, all my migrated 2011 servers have the bkf utuility installed so it adds up, if this turns out to be the answer you can be my hero
     
  • Thursday, August 11, 2011 2:37 AM
     
     
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    Hello Beechy,

    Just wondering if you had a chance to test this out?

    Regards,
    Paul

     
  • Thursday, August 11, 2011 9:57 PM
     
     
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    Not yet I'm afraid Paul.  Just to be clear - as soon as I uninstall the BKF restore utility, will a restore from a 2011 backup created whilst the utility was installed suddenly succeed - or do I need to create a new backup once the utility has been removed then restore from that?  If the latter is the case, does it need to be a full backup or will an incremental backup work?

     

    Cheers,

    Dave

     
  • Thursday, August 11, 2011 11:48 PM
     
     
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    Hi Dave,

    Any backup points made whilst the backup utility is installed failed for me. I did that many backup points and scenarios, I cannot confirm but I think incremental backups worked once the utility was uninstalled, but definitely the full backup did work for me.

    Regards,

    Paul

     
  • Saturday, August 27, 2011 8:11 AM
     
     
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    Just wanted to thank you for discovering this, it's been plaguing a couple of server restores I had.

    Thanks

    Mark

     
  • Wednesday, September 28, 2011 6:18 PM
     
     
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    I can finally confirm that backup restores from all the servers I had which were failing with the BKF utility installed, are now succeeding having run new backups after uninstalling the BKF restore utility.

    It took me so long because I didn't dare trying to restore to a working server and only now do I have a new server available to test restoring to.

    Thank you so much Paul for your help.

     
  • Tuesday, October 04, 2011 4:19 AM
     
     
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    I'm also having this issue but I can't see how to uninstall the NT Backup-Restore Utility. It's not showing up in Programs and Features. Is there some other way to uninstall the utility?

    My setup is SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 Standard on Dell PE 310 using Jeff Middletons swing migration.

    Thanks,

    SS

     
  • Tuesday, October 04, 2011 8:35 AM
     
     
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    I'm also having this issue but I can't see how to uninstall the NT Backup-Restore Utility. It's not showing up in Programs and Features. Is there some other way to uninstall the utility?

    My setup is SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 Standard on Dell PE 310 using Jeff Middletons swing migration.

    Thanks,

    SS


    Hi,

    From Programs and Features you need to go into the 'updates' section on the left, then uninstall 974674.  Once uninstalled I believe you need to run new full backups before you have a working, restorable backup.

    Dave

     
  • Tuesday, October 04, 2011 9:16 PM
     
     
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    Thanks Paul and beechy.

    I'm so glad I discovered this issue and found this solution before I needed to actually restore a server following a disaster. I'll follow-up with Jeff Middleton to suggest he mention this in an expert tip in the Swing Migration documentation. Otherwise everyone following his procedure will be in the same boat.

    Steve


    PS Just to confirm, I also uninstalled the update 974674 (NT Backup-Restore Utility) and was able to successfully restore my server to a different physical server (but similar hardware - Dell PE T310)
    • Edited by Stephen WS Tuesday, October 04, 2011 9:18 PM
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  • Tuesday, October 04, 2011 9:19 PM
     
     
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    I'm so glad I discovered this issue and found this solution before I needed to actually restore a server following a disaster.


    You were lucky!  I wasn't :(
     
  • Friday, March 23, 2012 5:04 PM
     
     
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    +1 for this information from me, too.

    What in my opinion would make sense is to add a verification to the Best Practices Analyser (BPA) for Server 2008R2/SBS2011. It would spit out an error message (possibly with some added information on why this is critical) in case the KB974674 is installed.

    I tried to add a comment to the official SBS blog anouncement on the februray 2012 BPA ruleset update, but did not find a way to comment - maybe anybody is willing to forward this to the right people...

    Best regards!

     
  • Monday, July 30, 2012 1:12 AM
     
     
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    We've just run into this problem over the weekend. There is a possible recovery to this, if the situation was caused by the presence of the NTBackup Restore utility.

    http://blog.powerbiz.net.au/fixes/fixing-the-black-screen-of-death-ksod-on-sbs-2011/

    And yes, the BPA now checks for this condition - http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2012/06/13/update-rollup-3-for-wssg-bpa-is-now-available-via-microsoft-updates-along-with-its-installation-tool.aspx

    Regards, Boon Tee - PowerBiz Solutions, Australia - http://blog.powerbiz.net.au