CentOS virt - Dec 2015 - win2008r2 update on centos 6 host made system unbootable

On 09.12.2015 00:39, NightLightHosts Admin wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 5:26 PM, Dennis Jacobfeuerborn
> <dennisml at conversis.de> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> today we ran into a strange problem: When performing a regular Windows
>> 2008r2 update apparently among other things the following was
installed:
>> "SUSE - Storage Controller - SUSE Block Driver for Windows"
>>
>> Previously the disk drive was using the Red Hat virtio drivers which
>> worked just fine but after the reboot after the update I just get a
blue
>> screen indicating that Windows cannot find a boot device.
>>
>> Does anyone understand what is going on here? Why is the windows update
>> installing a Suse driver that overrides the Red Hat driver even though
>> it is apparently incompatible with the system?
>>
>> Regards,
>>   Dennis
> 
> Did you roll back the driver and did it work after that?
I can't roll back the driver for that device because I can't boot the
system. The only way I can boot into the system is by changing the disk
type to IDE but then I cannot roll back the driver because the entire
device changed. As far as I can tell the Suse version of the virtio
block driver is incompatible with the incompatible with the system but
right now I see no way to tell windows "Uninstall the driver completely
for the entire system" so that on the next boot it would fall back to
the old virtio driver from Red Hat.
I tried installing the current stable drivers from this URL:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Windows_Virtio_Drivers

But Windows refuses and says the driver is already up-to-date.

What worries me is that I want to update other win2008r2 guests as well
but now fear that they will all be rendered unbootable by such an update.

Regards,
  Dennis

This is pretty epic if true.
I'm installing some Fail 2008r2 now to check.

Is your hypervisor running CentOS 6 or 7?

--
Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!

Nux!
www.nux.ro

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dennis Jacobfeuerborn" <dennisml at conversis.de>
> To: "Discussion about the virtualization on CentOS"
<centos-virt at centos.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, 9 December, 2015 00:00:28
> Subject: Re: [CentOS-virt] win2008r2 update on centos 6 host made system
unbootable
> On 09.12.2015 00:39, NightLightHosts Admin wrote:
>> On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 5:26 PM, Dennis Jacobfeuerborn
>> <dennisml at conversis.de> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> today we ran into a strange problem: When performing a regular
Windows
>>> 2008r2 update apparently among other things the following was
installed:
>>> "SUSE - Storage Controller - SUSE Block Driver for
Windows"
>>>
>>> Previously the disk drive was using the Red Hat virtio drivers
which
>>> worked just fine but after the reboot after the update I just get a
blue
>>> screen indicating that Windows cannot find a boot device.
>>>
>>> Does anyone understand what is going on here? Why is the windows
update
>>> installing a Suse driver that overrides the Red Hat driver even
though
>>> it is apparently incompatible with the system?
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>   Dennis
>> 
>> Did you roll back the driver and did it work after that?
> 
> I can't roll back the driver for that device because I can't boot
the
> system. The only way I can boot into the system is by changing the disk
> type to IDE but then I cannot roll back the driver because the entire
> device changed. As far as I can tell the Suse version of the virtio
> block driver is incompatible with the incompatible with the system but
> right now I see no way to tell windows "Uninstall the driver
completely
> for the entire system" so that on the next boot it would fall back to
> the old virtio driver from Red Hat.
> I tried installing the current stable drivers from this URL:
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Windows_Virtio_Drivers
> 
> But Windows refuses and says the driver is already up-to-date.
> 
> What worries me is that I want to update other win2008r2 guests as well
> but now fear that they will all be rendered unbootable by such an update.
> 
> Regards,
>  Dennis
> 
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS-virt mailing list
> CentOS-virt at centos.org
> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-virt

Confirmed! :-(

Installing the SUSE Network and Storage drivers from the Optional Updates
renders the OS unbootable.

http://img.nux.ro/xR4-Screenshot.png

--
Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!

Nux!
www.nux.ro

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Nux!" <nux at li.nux.ro>
> To: "Discussion about the virtualization on CentOS"
<centos-virt at centos.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, 9 December, 2015 09:04:26
> Subject: Re: [CentOS-virt] win2008r2 update on centos 6 host made system
unbootable
> This is pretty epic if true.
> I'm installing some Fail 2008r2 now to check.
> 
> Is your hypervisor running CentOS 6 or 7?
> 
> --
> Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!
> 
> Nux!
> www.nux.ro
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Dennis Jacobfeuerborn" <dennisml at
conversis.de>
>> To: "Discussion about the virtualization on CentOS"
<centos-virt at centos.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, 9 December, 2015 00:00:28
>> Subject: Re: [CentOS-virt] win2008r2 update on centos 6 host made
system
>> unbootable
> 
>> On 09.12.2015 00:39, NightLightHosts Admin wrote:
>>> On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 5:26 PM, Dennis Jacobfeuerborn
>>> <dennisml at conversis.de> wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> today we ran into a strange problem: When performing a regular
Windows
>>>> 2008r2 update apparently among other things the following was
installed:
>>>> "SUSE - Storage Controller - SUSE Block Driver for
Windows"
>>>>
>>>> Previously the disk drive was using the Red Hat virtio drivers
which
>>>> worked just fine but after the reboot after the update I just
get a blue
>>>> screen indicating that Windows cannot find a boot device.
>>>>
>>>> Does anyone understand what is going on here? Why is the
windows update
>>>> installing a Suse driver that overrides the Red Hat driver even
though
>>>> it is apparently incompatible with the system?
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>   Dennis
>>> 
>>> Did you roll back the driver and did it work after that?
>> 
>> I can't roll back the driver for that device because I can't
boot the
>> system. The only way I can boot into the system is by changing the disk
>> type to IDE but then I cannot roll back the driver because the entire
>> device changed. As far as I can tell the Suse version of the virtio
>> block driver is incompatible with the incompatible with the system but
>> right now I see no way to tell windows "Uninstall the driver
completely
>> for the entire system" so that on the next boot it would fall back
to
>> the old virtio driver from Red Hat.
>> I tried installing the current stable drivers from this URL:
>> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Windows_Virtio_Drivers
>> 
>> But Windows refuses and says the driver is already up-to-date.
>> 
>> What worries me is that I want to update other win2008r2 guests as well
>> but now fear that they will all be rendered unbootable by such an
update.
>> 
>> Regards,
>>  Dennis
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> CentOS-virt mailing list
>> CentOS-virt at centos.org
> > https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-virt

Op 09-12-15 om 01:00 schreef Dennis Jacobfeuerborn:
> On 09.12.2015 00:39, NightLightHosts Admin wrote:
>> On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 5:26 PM, Dennis Jacobfeuerborn
>> <dennisml at conversis.de> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> today we ran into a strange problem: When performing a regular
Windows
>>> 2008r2 update apparently among other things the following was
installed:
>>> "SUSE - Storage Controller - SUSE Block Driver for
Windows"
>>>
>>> [...]
>>> [...]
>>> What worries me is that I want to update other win2008r2 guests as
well
>>> but now fear that they will all be rendered unbootable by such an
update.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>    Dennis
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> CentOS-virt mailing list
>>> CentOS-virt at centos.org
>>> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-virt
>>>
Which virtualization are you using? KVM?

How did you get that update offered?

I can't reproduce it, but then my servers are on a patch management
software.
And I can't check on WU because I don't want to install the new update
client.

Anyway, I would uncheck that patch when updating the other guests if I were you.
And work on a copy / snapshot.

Patrick

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On 09.12.2015 13:47, Patrick Bervoets wrote:
> 
> 
> Op 09-12-15 om 01:00 schreef Dennis Jacobfeuerborn:
>> On 09.12.2015 00:39, NightLightHosts Admin wrote:
>>> On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 5:26 PM, Dennis Jacobfeuerborn
>>> <dennisml at conversis.de> wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> today we ran into a strange problem: When performing a regular
Windows
>>>> 2008r2 update apparently among other things the following was
>>>> installed:
>>>> "SUSE - Storage Controller - SUSE Block Driver for
Windows"
>>>>
>>>> [...]
>>>> [...]
>>>> What worries me is that I want to update other win2008r2 guests
as well
>>>> but now fear that they will all be rendered unbootable by such
an
>>>> update.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>    Dennis
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> CentOS-virt mailing list
>>>> CentOS-virt at centos.org
>>>> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-virt
>>>>
> 
> Which virtualization are you using? KVM?
> 
> How did you get that update offered?
> 
> I can't reproduce it, but then my servers are on a patch management
> software.
> And I can't check on WU because I don't want to install the new
update
> client.
> 
> Anyway, I would uncheck that patch when updating the other guests if I
> were you. And work on a copy / snapshot.
Yes, this is a CentOS 6 Host using regular libvirt based virtualization.
The Suse driver is apparently an optional update that gets delivered
using the regular Microsoft update mechanism.
It's hard to believe that they didn't catch a completely broken driver
during QA so my hypothesis is that maybe the new Virtio driver is
incompatible only with the older Kernel of CentOS 6 and that this wasn't
properly tested. To verify this one could check if the same thing
happens on a CentOS 7 Host but at the moment I'm to busy the check this.

Regards,
  Dennis