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Virtual Machine Clouds troubleshooting

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Applies To: Windows Azure Pack

This topic describes troubleshooting issues that pertains to provisioning virtual machine clouds and virtual machine roles in Windows Azure Pack for Windows Server. Recommendations are provided for issues in the following areas:

Virtual machine troubleshooting

If you are not seeing clouds that were defined in Service Provider Foundation, see the Credentials checklist in Security Troubleshooting for any authentication issues. Also see Service Provider Foundation troubleshooting. Another way to debug is to test the functionality and operations in the Virtual Machine Manager console.

  • Can’t log in to a virtual machine using the administrator account

  • Access a profile setting when creating a VM from a template

  • Access a virtual machine with remote desktop from the tenant portal

  • Add a second NIC card to VM template using Service Provider Foundation

  • Get the error of failure to load virtual machine templates

  • Configure a tenant to use an existing virtual machine

  • Specify a computer name for virtual machine

VM Roles and gallery troubleshooting

  • Access or create gallery items

  • Add an existing virtual machine to a subscription

  • Add gallery items to a plan

  • Create a gallery item for a standalone virtual machine

  • Deploy a highly available VM role

  • Deploy a VM role

  • Get a VM role to stop continuous suspending and repairing

  • Use a generation 2 virtual machine as a gallery item

  • Specify a product key when deploying a gallery item

Also see the following blog posts:

For gallery tools, see Automation and tools troubleshooting.

Remote Console troubleshooting

  • Access a virtual machine with Remote Console and only get JSON data

  • Configure Remote Console without using a Remote Desktop Gateway

  • Connect to the console of a virtual machine

  • Determine which URLs to use for HTTP actions in Remote Console

  • Pass Ctrl-Alt-Delete to virtual machine console using Remote Console

All_Symbols_Cloud

Did you know that Microsoft Azure provides similar functionality in the cloud? Learn more about Microsoft Azure virtualization solutions.

Create a hybrid virtualization solution in Microsoft Azure:
- Set up a hybrid cloud environment for testing
- Manage Azure VMs with Virtual Machine Manager in System Center 2012 R2 with Rollup 6

Virtual machine troubleshooting

If you are not seeing clouds that were defined in Service Provider Foundation, see the Credentials checklist in Security Troubleshooting for any authentication issues. Also see Service Provider Foundation troubleshooting. Another way to debug is to test the functionality and operations in the Virtual Machine Manager console.

Also see the topic Known issues with Virtual Machine Clouds.

Can’t log in to a virtual machine using the administrator account

Pertains to: Administer Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

“Account is disabled” message is displayed when trying to log in to a virtual machine as an administrator.

Recommendation

If the tenant created the virtual machine from a Windows 8 template, it is possible that the administrator account was disabled. To fix this issue, enable the administrator account and republish the VHD and/or template. To enable this administrator account, follow the steps in Enable and Disable the Built-in Administrator Account.

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Access a profile setting when creating a VM from a template

Pertains to: Administer Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

After adding a hardware profile on the Windows Azure Pack management portal for administrators, the profile can't be selected for a virtual machine created on the management portal for tenants.

Recommendation

Hardware profiles are not supported when you create a virtual machine from a template. Instead, create the virtual machine from a disk.

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Access a virtual machine with remote desktop from the tenant portal

Pertains to: Administer Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

An error message displays in the management portal for tenants when accessing a virtual machine using RDP (Connect->Desktop on the command bar), that Remote desktop can't connect to the remote computer for one of these reasons:

  1. The access to the server is not enabled.

  2. The remote server is turned off.

  3. The remote computer is not available on the network.

Recommendation

You may need to include the public profile in the setting that allows Remote Desktop through the virtual machine's firewall. You will need to adjust the firewall setting in the Control Panel of the tenant's virtual machine using Virtual Machine Manager. Perform the following procedure:

  1. In Virtual Machine Manager on the VMs and Services tab, find the cloud that is hosting the tenant's virtual machine, and select that virtual machine.

  2. On the ribbon, click Connect or View->Connect via Desktop.

  3. Sign on with the computer's Administrator password the tenant set when the virtual machine was created.

  4. In Control Panel, click System  and Security->Windows Firewall->Allow an App or Feature through Windows Firewall.

  5. Scroll down to Remote Desktop and make sure the Public profile is checked. By default it is not.

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Add a second NIC card to VM template using Service Provider Foundation

Pertains to: Administer Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

Service Provider Foundation does not support adding a second NIC card to a virtual machine template.

Recommendation

If you want to add a second NIC card to a virtual machine template, you must use Virtual Machine Manager.

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Get the error of failure to load virtual machine templates

Pertains to: Administer Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

Getting the error "Failed to load virtual machine templates in tenant portal" when creating a virtual machine in the management portal for tenants.

Recommendation

When a tenant is unable to access a virtual machine template in the tenant portal, this error may occur especially if the browser session had timed out.

Log on to management portal for tenants, and sync the plan that has the template that was having trouble. For more information see the forum Failed to load virtual machine templates.

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Configure a tenant to use an existing virtual machine

Pertains to: Administer Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

Need to associate an existing virtual machine with a tenant's subscription.

Recommendation

See the blog post Adding an already running VM in Virtual Machine Manager to a Windows Azure Pack Subscription.

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Specify a computer name for virtual machine

Pertains to: Administer Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

Different tenants (and different users in the same tenant network) can easily choose the same computer name and introduce non-unique values on the network. To prevent such name collisions in multi-tenant environments, Windows Azure Pack generates a random computer name for each computer.  The Name field is consistent across Windows Azure Pack, VMM, and Hyper-V and should be the primary criterion used to identify a computer.   

Recommendation

If you can guarantee unique naming conventions or isolation between virtual machines, you may modify computer names after installation. This can be done manually or in an automated fashion using Service Management Automation.

To have the computer name that was specified in the VM template for a virtual machine to be used by Windows Azure Pack, in the management portal for administrators in Virtual Machine Clouds you must choose Use template to define computer name under custom settings.

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See the following blog posts:

For gallery tools, see Automation and tools troubleshooting.

Pertains to: Using gallery items in Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

During deployment of gallery item, such as with the Create VM from Gallery wizard, you get an unexpected error.

Recommendation

You might have an error in a Virtual Machine Manager setting. Ensure that the following are true:

  • The list of read-only shares in the Cloud Properties includes the library share hosting the virtual hard drive.

  • The virtual hard drive familyname is set.

  • The virtual hard drive release is in the format n.n.n.n (for example, 1.0.0.0).

  • The virtual hard drive operating system property is set.

  • All tags required by the gallery item are set for the virtual hard drive. These are found in the gallery item’s readme and can only be set using the Set-SCVirtualHardDisk cmdlet.

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Add an existing virtual machine to a subscription

Pertains to: Using gallery items in Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

A tenant migrated a virtual machine from an on-premise environment to a service provider environment and now wants to assign that virtual machine to his subscription.

Recommendation

Follow the steps outlined in Adding an already running VM in Virtual Machine Manager to a Windows Azure Pack.

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Pertains to: Using gallery items in Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

The gallery does not show the expected items to add to a plan.

Recommendation

Make sure you have imported the gallery item correctly. Follow the procedures in Using gallery items in Virtual Machine Clouds.

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Pertains to: Using gallery items in Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

Need to have a gallery item for a standalone virtual machine.

Recommendation

Standalone virtual machines are Virtual Machine Manager templates. To create one follow these steps:

  1. In Virtual Machine Manager, create a virtual machine template.

  2. In Window Azure Pack, add the template to a plan. It will then show up in the gallery.

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Deploy a highly available VM role

Pertains to: Administer Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

How do I deploy a highly available VM role?

Recommendation

To deploy a highly available virtual machine role, follow these steps:

  1. Ensure that you have one or more clusters backing the cloud.

  2. In Virtual Machine Manager, open the Properties for the cloud.

  3. Click the Custom Properties tab, and then click Manage Custom Properties.

  4. Make sure the object type is set to Cloud.

  5. Create a new custom property and name it CreateHighlyAvailableVmRoles.

  6. Add the new property to the Assigned properties list, and then click OK.

  7. On the cloud, set the property to true, and then click OK.

  8. Refresh the browser, and then deploy.

Alternatively, you can use the following commands:

$customProperty  = New-SCCustomProperty -Name "CreateHighlyAvailableVmRoles" -Description "Create Highly Available Virtual Machine Roles" -AddMember @("Cloud")  
 $cloud = Get-SCCloud –Name "CloudName"  
 Set-SCCustomPropertyValue -CustomProperty $customProperty -InputObject $cloud -Value "true"

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Deploy a VM role

Pertains to: Using gallery items in Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

You get the following Virtual Machine Manager error (or something similar): VM Role resource (name) was not successfully deployed in the Cloud Service.

Recommendation

Make sure that you selected the Cloud capabilities option instead of the Hyper-V option.

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Get a VM role to stop continuous suspending and repairing

Pertains to: Administer Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

A virtual machine gets stuck in a continuous loop of suspending and resuming. This might be the result of one of the following.

  • A physical failure of the CPU.

  • The BIOS power saving option on the host was enabled, which turned a CPU off.

Recommendation

Try one of the following:

  • Replace the faulty CPU.

  • Disable the BIOS power saving option.

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Pertains to: Using gallery items in Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

Want to deploy a generation 2 virtual machine as an item in the gallery.

Recommendation

You can use Generation 2 virtual machines as standalones for a plan, but Windows Azure Pack does not support for deploying Virtual Machine Manager services or VM roles. Also see the blog post, Details on Generation 2 virtual machines and using them in VMM 2012 R2.

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Pertains to: Using gallery items in Virtual Machine Clouds

Problem

When deploying a gallery item, a product key must be manually entered or the operating system deployment can't continue.

Recommendation

There are two options to address this issue.

  1. Before deploying the gallery item, ensure that the sysprep disk is a volume license disk.

  2. Before deploying the gallery item, set a product key on the virtual disk using the following cmdlet:

    Set-scvirtualharddisk –virtualharddisk $vhd –productkey <product key>

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Remote Console troubleshooting

Access a virtual machine with Remote Console and only get JSON data

Pertains to: Remote Console in System Center 2012 R2 

Problem

When accessing a virtual machine with Remote Console all that is returned is JSON data.

Recommendation

Verify that you configured the RD Gateway and required certificates as described in Remote Console in System Center 2012 R2.

Also, make sure the Hyper-V hosts are running on a server running Windows Server 2012 R2.

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Configure Remote Console without using a Remote Desktop Gateway

Pertains to: Remote Console in System Center 2012 R2

Problem

Want to configure Remote Console without using a Remote Desktop Gateway (RDGW).

Recommendation

The RDGW is optional and you can skip that configuration. Not having the RDGW assumes that you want to connect directly to System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager or other Hyper-V hosts such as for a demo environment. The RDGW allows clients to connect to the hosts without the hosts being exposed to the internet.

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Connect to the console of a virtual machine

Pertains to: Remote Console in System Center 2012 R2

Problem

Receive an error when attempting to connect to a virtual machine.

Recommendation

Run the Configuration Analyzer for System Center 2012 R2 on System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, Remote Desktop Gateway, and Service Provider Foundation to determine any missing configurations.

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Determine which URLs to use for HTTP actions in Remote Console

Pertains to: Remote Console in System Center 2012 R2

Problem

When submitting an HTTP Get action using Remote Console, unable to determine the URL of how to send the request.

Recommendation

Use the Service Provider Foundation Virtual Machine Manager Service to get the RDP file and then send the RDP file to the tenant. The RDP file is in the VMConnection property obtained by performing a GET operation on the virtual machine. The contents of the VMConnection property need to be built into an HTTP document with ContentType = "application/x-rdp" and sent to the browser.

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Pass Ctrl-Alt-Delete to virtual machine console using Remote Console

Pertains to: Remote Console in System Center 2012 R2

Problem

Unable to pass a Cltr-Alt-Delete for signing on to a virtual machine.

Recommendation

Try Ctrl-Alt-End. If you use Remote Console from the client computer to virtual machine A, and then use Remote Console to virtual machine B, you will probably have to use the on-screen keyboard to do a Ctrl-Alt-End to sign on to virtual machine B.

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See Also

Windows Azure Pack troubleshooting