Windows Guests

HP Insight Manager Automatic Server Recovery does not work

On Windows guests, the HP Insight Manager product supports Automatic Server Recovery: if a system does not send out a heartbeat within a specified interval, a user-specified action takes place (for example, automatic reboot). Integrity VM takes no action if a heartbeat is not detected; instead, a message is logged on the console and the VM Host System Event Log. You should monitor these log files and manually perform the reboot if the guest does not respond.

Running Windows guests on a dual core intel Itanium2 processor (Montecito) based system

If you use the OPK version 4.5 of the Smart Setup Media and wish to run a Windows guest on a Montecito server, you must disable the PalHaltLightRegEdit patch. To do this, go to Add/Remove Programs and remove the PalHaltLightRegEdit component.

Installing Windows with removable media is not recommended

Installing software should be done using a virtual DVD defined explicitly as a file or as the physical drive. For example, use one of the following commands:

# hpvmmodify -P guest-name -a dvd:scsi::file:/InstallMedia/Windows.iso

# hpvmmodify -P guest-name -a dvd:scsi::disk:/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0

Inserting and removing media (for software installation using multiple CDs), may be done by using the hpvmmodify command to effectively eject and insert files or, in the case of a physical drive, actually ejecting and inserting the media in the drive. For example, to change the media in an existing virtual DVD defined as in the example above, you would use:

# hpvmmodify -m dvd:scsi:0,0,1:file:/InstallMedia/SmartSetup.iso

Where the path name indicates the new media to be used.

Defining the virtual DVD as a null type (for example: hpvmmodify -a dvd:scsi:null:/path/to/media/) is not recommended for software installation.

Software installation from virtual DVDs defined with the null storage type (also referred to as removable media functionality) often results in installation failures because the removable media is automatically ejected when the virtual machine is stopped and started, which occurs during software installation.

To complete Windows installation from removable media, follow these steps:

For more information about using removable media, see the HP Integrity Virtual Machines Installation, Configuration, and Administration manual.

Enabling MP Services on Windows guest logs telnetd errors

If you enable MP Services on a guest, the following telnetd errors might be written to the VM Host's log file (/var/adm/syslog/syslog.log). You can safely ignore these messages:

Jun 13 11:41:41 AGTVM telnetd[21551]: getmsg error:no data
Jun 14 20:38:00 AGTVM telnetd[29216]: getmsg error:no data
Jun 14 21:52:07 AGTVM telnetd[29504]: getmsg error:no data

To prevent this problem, disable MP Services.

Using Windows firewall requires ICMP to allow echo

When the Microsoft firewall is on, ICMP must be configured to be able to ping a guest (echo). This setting can be found in the network properties applet, as follows: Control Panel => Network Connections => Local Area Connection/Properties Advanced => Windows Firewall => Settings ICMP. Check the Allow Incoming Echo Requests box.

Poor console screen formatting

The Windows guest console may not format the virtual console display properly because of incompatibilities between the Windows operating system and Integrity VM. Manage the guest using the Remote Desktop or make a network connection to the Windows guest.

The hpvmstop command does not shut down Windows guests gracefully

Do not use the following commands to shut down Windows guests:

# hpvmstop -P winguest

# hpvmconsole -P winguest "pc -off"

These commands do not stop the Windows operating system gracefully. To shut down a Windows guest, use the standard Windows operating system commands.