ideamatics
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Hyper V - Cannot connect to Virtual Servers after deleting snapshots
I have a Windows 2008 Server with Hyper V that has 5 virtual servers running in it. Everything was fine until my hard drive ran out of space. I noticed that one of the servers (called PANTRY) had a few snapshots that consisted of about 200GB. I went to the folder directly and deleted the snapshots. Ever since doing that, the PANTRY server is shown as "running" in the hyper V manager, but I cannot log into it at all. I also cannot access the server using Remote Desktop or the ip address. The PANTRY server uses Windows Server 2003 and is connected to our domain. I tried to log into the domain account on the PANTRY server but I keep receiving the message:
Windows cannot connect to the domain, either because the domain controller is down or otherwise unavailable, or because your computer account was not found. Please try again later.
I've tried to shut down PANTRY and restart it, log into the local account, and have not had any success.
How can I fix this?
Let me know if you have any questions about my network or about the PANTRY virtual server.
I found an interesting article about this here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverhyperv/thread/0e1a8961-dd04-4a59-9fec-ba6e70026148
but I'm not sure what to do to get this working.
Thanks!
-John
Windows cannot connect to the domain, either because the domain controller is down or otherwise unavailable, or because your computer account was not found. Please try again later.
I've tried to shut down PANTRY and restart it, log into the local account, and have not had any success.
How can I fix this?
Let me know if you have any questions about my network or about the PANTRY virtual server.
I found an interesting article about this here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverhyperv/thread/0e1a8961-dd04-4a59-9fec-ba6e70026148
but I'm not sure what to do to get this working.
Thanks!
-John
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jramsier
Did you merge your snapshot before you deleted? if not you deleted part of your virtual machine. If you can recover that snapshot file, this would be your easiest fix here.
This is a classic problem and a primary reason as to why snapshots should not be used in a production environment - only test labs etc.
Snapshots grow to pretty much the size of the original disk - so with 2-3 snaphots of the single VM - depending on the size of the VM you can quickly chew up several hundred gig without notice.
Naturally what should occur - is to delete the snapshots from within the Hyper-V manager - however even then they're not truly deleted. It is only when you turn the VM off - that the backmerge process begins. Depending on the number of snapshots - and the size - this merge process can run for hours. There are also problems here if you run out of space during the merge process - also a common problem.
In that scenario - you could free up space on C drive for instance - and the merge process can continue.
Unfortunately in your situation there is no get out of jail free card. Because you have manually deleted your snaphots without using thr Hyper-V manager - you have essentially broken the ability for the disk - and it's snaphots to merge.
Your best bet is if you have a backup of the Pantry VHD.
Delete the existing Pantry VM from within the Hyper-V Manager - and recreate a new VM using the backed up VHD. Configure all the settings that the VM use to have, number of CPUs, memory etc, fire it up and off you go. You will also likely need to recreate the IP settings within that VM once you have logged in.
Hope that helps - Nick
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd560637%28WS.10%29.aspx
Snapshots grow to pretty much the size of the original disk - so with 2-3 snaphots of the single VM - depending on the size of the VM you can quickly chew up several hundred gig without notice.
Naturally what should occur - is to delete the snapshots from within the Hyper-V manager - however even then they're not truly deleted. It is only when you turn the VM off - that the backmerge process begins. Depending on the number of snapshots - and the size - this merge process can run for hours. There are also problems here if you run out of space during the merge process - also a common problem.
In that scenario - you could free up space on C drive for instance - and the merge process can continue.
Unfortunately in your situation there is no get out of jail free card. Because you have manually deleted your snaphots without using thr Hyper-V manager - you have essentially broken the ability for the disk - and it's snaphots to merge.
Your best bet is if you have a backup of the Pantry VHD.
Delete the existing Pantry VM from within the Hyper-V Manager - and recreate a new VM using the backed up VHD. Configure all the settings that the VM use to have, number of CPUs, memory etc, fire it up and off you go. You will also likely need to recreate the IP settings within that VM once you have logged in.
Hope that helps - Nick
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd560637%28WS.10%29.aspx
ASKER
Funktopus - Thanks for your reply. Are you saying that I still have all my data on the VHD, and I just need to create a new VM using the same VHD? Will there be any data loss? Thanks
ideamatics
he said restore the vhd from backup then use this vhd after you create a new vm
he said restore the vhd from backup then use this vhd after you create a new vm
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ASKER
Thanks for the info everyone. My problem was that the snapshots were not being backed up, just the virtual hard drives. Therefore, all my data was lost and I had to rebuild the server and start from scratch.