Short version: Windows Updates causing BSOD on PVS Master Device after updating XenServer PV Storage Host Adapter.
During a ”regular” updates session running Windows Updates on two master devices for a PVS farm I faced a blue screen of death with the following error message:
Immediately one started to blame the complexity of PVS (compared to MCS) to cause problems with components. After some investigation and a couple of snapshots and reverts later I could conclude:
Windows Update worked fine and updated the master device as usual. After the Windows Updates where finished I was prompted with the following:
This restart was resulting in the BSOD seen in the first picture. The resolution was to remove and upgrade the XenTools/Guest VM Tools as can be seen below:
I removed both Citrix Hypervisor PV Tools and Citrix XenServer Windows Management Agent. I then downloaded the latest Citrix VM Tools (9.1.5) and installed. I could then create a vDisk and publish the changes as per normal = problem fixed. The steps where:
- Revert to working Snapshot
- Windows Updates
- Prompted to restart machine due to ”XenServer PV Storage Host Adapter” > Press No
- Uninstall Hypervisor PV Tools & XenServer Windows Management Agent
- Install latest VM Tools
- Restart and everything is working.
I am a bit bummed that I could not identify and isolate a very detailed cause. It is likely that this is caused by the PV Tools updating either Storage or Network adapter.
The setup was accordingly:
PVS-farm: 7.24.1.24021
Master Device: Server 2016 Standard
XenServer: 7.1 CU2
Please feel free to comment with any other findings you may have stumbled upon whilst facing this.
