Windows Server 2008 R2 Troubleshooting: In-place upgrade to W2012/R2 fails and rolls back
Background
We decided to move our domain controller from Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012/R2 (physical machine-Dell), as it was a domain controller so we had to meet some prerequisites before we could proceed with the upgrade. We met all the prerequisites. A disk of Windows Server 2012 R2 was inserted into the system and upgrade was initiated, compatibility report came OK and upgrade process started but it didn't complete and rollback to Windows Server 2008 R2 (thank god the rollback didn't fail) after the first reboot.
Error message
We saw below message after the machine came up:
Install Windows
This version of Windows could not be installed.
Your previous version of Windows has been restored, and you can continue to use it. Before trying to install this version of Windows again, check online to see if it is compatible with your computer.
OK
Log file location
Before we proceed further here's the location of the log files which can be checked while working on OS upgrade issue.
Below logs can be checked in case of an error while downlevel phase process (downlevel phase means, the in-place upgrade process before the first reboot):
- C:\WINDOWS\PANTHER\setupact.log (Contains information about setup actions during the installation).
- C:\WINDOWS\PANTHER\setuperr.log (Contains information about setup errors during the installation).
You can check below logs in case of rollback after the reboot:
- C:\WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log (Contains information about setup actions during the installation).
Please check below link for more information about different log files:
Interestingly, in our scenario, we didn't find any errors in the downlevel phase and post reboot, log files are mentioned below:
Downlevel Phase
2017-02-09 03:12:14, Info [0x0640d2] IBSLIB [Setup Disk Usage] ------ Drive C: ------
2017-02-09 03:12:14, Info [0x0640d3] IBSLIB [Setup Disk Usage] Total bytes on drive: xxxx.xx MB (xxxxxxxxxx.xx bytes)
2017-02-09 03:12:14, Info [0x0640d4] IBSLIB [Setup Disk Usage] Free bytes available to user: xxxxx.x MB (xxxxxxxx xxbytes)
2017-02-09 03:12:14, Info [0x0640d6] IBSLIB [Setup Disk Usage] Found Setup folder/file [LS Folder ].
2017-02-09 03:12:14, Info [0x0601dc] IBS Setup has completed phase 1 at 2017-02-09 03:12:14
2017-02-09 03:12:14, Info [0x0601ef] IBS RestartMachine:Successfully enabled the shut down privilege
2017-02-09 03:12:14, Info [0x0601f0] IBS RestartMachine:Trying to reboot machine from downlevel OS.
2017-02-09 03:12:14, Info [0x0601f1] IBS RestartMachine:Call to InitiateShutdownEx() succeeded. Shutdown should occur soon.
Logs of the server after the reboot (it was server 2008 R2 at this time):
2017-02-09 03:18:50, Info [0x0e00cf] TOOL Starting OS Rollback... (launched with command line ["/Upgrade"])
2017-02-09 03:18:51, Info TOOL OS Rollback: Rolling back upgrade...
2017-02-09 03:18:52, Info [0x090009] PANTHR CBlackboard::Close: x:\windows.~bt\sources\rollback\setupinfo.
2017-02-09 03:18:52, Info [0x064149] IBSLIB RollbackExecuteSequence in progress...
Because we didn't have any error in the above logs means that something went wrong while the machine was rebooting.
We tried to check if machine generated any dump file and we got the clue. We actually found a minidump at the location e:\Windows.BT~\windows\minidump
Point to be noted here is that the minidump was not in C drive rather we found it in E drive so please check all the drives for the logs/dumps, in case if you are dealing with OS upgrade issues.
Dump analysis
We analyzed the dump and found that the issue caused by a graphics driver g200ewm.sys (Matrox Graphics), analysis is mentioned below:
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************
Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.
BugCheck 1000007E, {ffffffffc0000005, 0, ffffd00020d21b98, ffffd00020d213a0}
!analyze -v
Probably caused by : g200ewm.sys ( g200ewm+1925e )
References
You may check below article about analyzing a dump file: How to Debug Kernel Mode Blue Screen Crashes (for beginners)
Solution
The issue was resolved after we uninstalled this graphics driver and initiated the upgrade with the basic VGA driver.