Forum Discussion

A-H-S's avatar
A-H-S
Level 3
15 years ago

Problem BESR 2010 ( 8.5 ) with XenServer 5.6 ( XenTools )

We got massive Problems with the new Xentools 5.6 und BESR. After Installation of the Xentools 5.6 the SystemGui hangs ( for about 2 min
you cannot do anything, then the System reacts for 1-2 sec.). If you stop the BESR services or go back to the 5.5 Version of the Xentools,
everything is working fine again. We can reproduce the error on SBS 2003, 2008, WinXP...
I open a thread here and on the Xenside, because i don't know who is guilty. All I know is, that we need a solution for this problem,
because we have many combinations of Xen/BESR on customers side.

Regards
Achim Heisler
Backup and Recovery
BESR 2010
Installing
System Recovery
Virtualization
  • criley's avatar
    criley
    Moderator
    15 years ago
    After Installation of the Xentools 5.6 the SystemGui hangs ( for about 2 min you cannot do anything, then the System reacts for 1-2 sec.).

    I'm not sure I fully understand the issue. Are you saying that the gues machine freezes/hangs? Please explain in more detail.

    Also, what build of BESR 2010 are you using (check in Help/About)? Is it 9.0.0 or 9.0.1? If 9.0.0, please update to 9.0.1 using either LiveUpdate or the manual download: http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/347749.htm. This update will require a reboot.

    *** Please mark thread as solved if you consider this to have answered your question(s) ***
  • A-H-S's avatar
    A-H-S
    Level 3
    15 years ago
    Hello Chris,

    In that time the Gui of the Guestmachine will not react. You cannot klick any Icon or window. But it is in the Buffer of the
    VM. So after 2 min all you klicks and keyboardentries will go to the Gui ( but just for 1 or 2 seconds). There is no bluescreen
    or 100% CPU load.
    We use LiveUpdate, and it told us that we have the newest Version ( 9.0.0.35656 ) on the SBS2003

    Regards
    Achim
  • criley's avatar
    criley
    Moderator
    15 years ago

    Achim,

    So the VM 'hangs' then? Is this when you load the BESR GUI or at random times? Or during backup..?

    As a starting point, I would recommend you update to 9.0.1 using the link above.
  • A-H-S's avatar
    A-H-S
    Level 3
    15 years ago
    1. If you read my post you'll see, that it happens wenn the BESR service is active. It has nothing to do with the BESR GUI.
    For example if you do a restart, it happens allready at the logon screen of the windows GUI. then it takes 2min before you
    can put in your passwort, 2 further min before you can press the logon button and so on.
    2. So I should install 9.0.1 even if LiveUpdats said there is no newer version for SBS2003?

    I've checked it now with a XP machine and the 9.0.1.36527 version, but still the same effect...

    Regards
    Achim
  • criley's avatar
    criley
    Moderator
    15 years ago

    Achim,

    OK, so the VM is very 'sluggish' when the BESR service is running then? Everything works but there are delays in clicks etc?

    I would recommend that you open up a case with Technical Support so we can investigate this further. Feel free to email me via these forums with the case details and I will take a look at it for you.
  • A-H-S's avatar
    A-H-S
    Level 3
    15 years ago

    Hello Chris,

    I found a workaround with Citrix, but I think it is important that Citrix and Symantec will talk together asap.
    With the correction of the registrykey everything in running now. I've got only a Partner NFR Version, so
    I cannot open a case.

    Here ist the citrix statement:
    scsifilt sits above (or below if your stacks grow downwards ;-)) the scsiport wrapper so it is able to access SRBs before any munging by scsiport. This means you'll be able to have more outstanding reads or writes and you won't suffer from scsiport's heavyweight locking. So, depending upon your disk workload, you may well see a performance drop if the filter is not there.
    My suspicion is that the Symantec code is attemptiing to directly access the storage PDO and is thus bypassing scsifilt. There is code in xenvbd to cope with this, but it is a violation of Windows driver layering so IMO the fault does lie with Symantec.

    Regards
    Achim

  • criley's avatar
    criley
    Moderator
    15 years ago

    Achim,

    Could you please confirm the exact change that was made in the registry? And what exactly does this change do (does it disable anything)? Also, if you have any documentation/TechNote from Citrix that discusses this, please provide a link.

    Thanks.
  • Martijn_Hoogenb's avatar
    Martijn_Hoogenb
    Level 3
    15 years ago

    We at our business have the same problem, we installed xentools 5.5 and now it works fine again. We really would like to use xentools 5.6.

    Could you please explain what you have as workaround so we can install 5.6 again?
  • criley's avatar
    criley
    Moderator
    15 years ago

    Martijn,

    Do you have a support contract with Symantec? If yes, please open up a case for this and let me know what the case ID is. This is the best route to take in order for us to address this issue.
  • A-H-S's avatar
    A-H-S
    Level 3
    15 years ago
    Hello Chris,

    here the reghack from Citrix:

    Your problem might be a bad interaction between the Symantec s/w and the filter driver in the xentools storage stack. Try disabling the filter by locating the following registry key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

    This should be the class key for DiskDrive. In there you should see a LowerFilters MULTI_SZ containing 'scsifilt'. Delete that entry and reboot.

    This is all I have, there is no technote or doc from Citrix for that problem. I thought with the comments above your experts could find an initial
    idea.

    Regards
    Achim