Windows Server 2025 on XCP-ng
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WinServ 2025 on xcp-ng 8.2.1, xcp-ng tools v.8.2.2 rc1. No additional roles, except Windows Admin Center preview installed. Uptime about 2 months. No conhost processes at all.
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I currently suspect that the ADDC role could cause this on the 2025 server. I have reinstalled the server with the new ISO to 8.2.1 to see how it works. No entries for a few days. But as soon as the ADDC role is installed, it starts. Could also be due to the role itself. I haven't tested this on any other hypervisor yet. If it occurs also on others it's not related to XCP-ng
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Conhost process is related to command-line / console apps. It could be that something (either a server role in Win Server 2025, or perhaps the Citrix/XCP-ng guest tools, or at worst malware) is stuck in a loop and spawning these multiple instances.
If you absolutely need to salvage this particular OS install, perhaps hunt through the process IDs to find what is spawning them, or setup some debug/trace tools to determine the same. Or try remove roles / software one at a time to see which one, if any, stop the conhost spawning.
EDIT: must have missed your previous post where you've nailed it down to the ADDC role. If you typically install the role via GUI, switch to PowerShell to see if the same problem persists, or vice versa, if you typically use PowerShell, switch to the GUI
Beyond that, I have no insights except to point at the current "Preview" status of Win2025. I'm not familiar with which OS components (not to mention server roles, frameworks, etc.) Microsoft have re-used and which are entirely new.
Also, sadly, conhost process issues have been a sporadic problem in Windows for decades...
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Hi
Thanks for your reply.
Yes you are right. It's not the first time that this problem occurs within windows.
To countercheck i've set up a comparable vm on another hypervisor to see if it behaves differently.
Also at this time i would think it's not XO backup related because my second scenario does not make any backups.
I will report back how it goes.
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Installed AD DS role on my test Winserv2025 VM and conhost processes are appeared and already gone from 7 to 10 in about hour. In the same pool Winserv2022 AD DC VM no conhost processes at all.
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@TS79 said in Windows Server 2025 on XCP-ng:
Also, sadly, conhost process issues have been a sporadic problem in Windows for decades...
What hasn't ??????
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I have now found time to run a test VM on another hypervisor (Hyper-V).
It is also freshly installed and an ADDS role has been set up on it.
My observations show that the VM has now been running for 3 days and so far no hanging conhost processes have occurred.
I will continue to monitor this for a while. -
I'll have to try installing this on my lab which is XCP-NG 8.3.0 and see what I see (downloading now at very slow speeds).
Did you try the latest management tools and drivers from https://www.xenserver.com/downloads
This is version 9.3.3 and latest drivers.
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I will give you a brief interim report.
Nothing has changed so far. After about 6 days I have almost 600 conhost processes again.
I have currently activated weekly reboots as a workaround.
On my Hyper-V test VM, this has still not occurred after 16 days. -
@Chemikant784 I haven't had time to check this, I don't even remember where I put the 2025 eval, but I'll get to it soon. If I put the eval on my VMware system, then I'll likely try it sooner and remember to put it on my XCP-NG system too.