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    Win Server 2012 R2 VM: repeated BSOD 0xD1 in xenvbd.sys (Citrix 8.1.0.130) - where to get VM Tools 9.2.3?

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      dinhngtu Vates 🪐 XCP-ng Team @hrvojer
      last edited by dinhngtu

      @hrvojer There are many bugs in older versions of the Xen PV drivers. I suggest running Windows without guest tools and drivers if you can take the performance and functionality hit (no suspend/migration on UEFI VMs, no metric reporting, etc).

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        hrvojer @dinhngtu
        last edited by

        @dinhngtu said:

        dinhngtu
        VATES 🪐
        XCP-NG TEAM
        a day ago

        @hrvojer There are many bugs in older versions of the Xen PV drivers. I suggest running Windows without guest tools and drivers if you can take the performance and functionality hit (no suspend/migration on UEFI VMs, no metric reporting, etc).

        Thanks @dinhngtu, appreciated.

        Running without PV drivers is hard for us: this is an I/O-heavy production SQL Server and we already had timeout problems before adding RAM, so I'm worried emulated disk performance would hurt more than an occasional crash.

        Our medium-term plan is to migrate SQL to a new VM with a supported Windows Server and current tools. Until then, a few follow-up questions:

        1. Is there any official place to still get XenServer VM Tools 9.2.3 (or whichever last version works on 2012 R2)?
        2. Would an older XCP-ng PV driver release (e.g. 8.2.2.200) likely be any better here, or is it the same xenvbd code base?
        3. One more detail I missed: in the same Feb 2026 change we also enabled "Lock Pages in Memory" for the SQL Server service account (together with 16 -> 64 GB RAM). Is there any known issue between old xenvbd and locked pages / large guest memory?

        Meanwhile we've capped SQL max server memory at 32 GB as a stopgap.

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          dinhngtu Vates 🪐 XCP-ng Team @hrvojer
          last edited by

          @hrvojer I can't tell for sure without detailed troubleshooting, but your crash reminds me of a bug in XenVbd that was fixed in the XCP-ng 9.1.200 tools (Apr 2026). It's unlikely that updating to an old Xen tools version would help in that case.

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            hrvojer @dinhngtu
            last edited by

            Thanks a lot @dinhngtu, that's very helpful. Is there any chance the 9.1.200 tools (or at least its XenVbd) would work unofficially on Server 2012 R2?

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              dinhngtu Vates 🪐 XCP-ng Team @hrvojer
              last edited by

              @hrvojer Ever since 2012 R2 went out of support, there have been multiple compatibility breaks in the drivers and guest agents since they now target Server 2016+. It might be possible to get the drivers working on 2012 R2 in a testing environment, but bringing that to production is another topic.

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                ovicz
                last edited by

                Why don't you upgrade the VM to Windows Server 2016 ??. It is possible to do an in-place upgrade from 12 to 16. Of course take a backup first.

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                  hrvojer @ovicz
                  last edited by

                  @ovicz said:

                  ovicz
                  17 minutes ago

                  Why don't you upgrade the VM to Windows Server 2016 ??. It is possible to do an in-place upgrade from 12 to 16. Of course take a backup first.

                  Thanks @ovicz, good point. An in-place upgrade to 2016 is definitely on the table. The main constraints on our side are a 2016 license and downtime: this is a production SQL server without a regular maintenance window, so we’d first test the whole upgrade on a clone to know the exact downtime and catch surprises. One practical question if you’ve done it: did you remove the old Citrix PV tools before the in-place upgrade (and install the new XCP-ng tools afterwards), or upgrade with the old tools still installed?

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                    dinhngtu Vates 🪐 XCP-ng Team @hrvojer
                    last edited by

                    @hrvojer You should remove old tools before doing an in-place upgrade because the older ones are almost guaranteed to cause upgrade failures or BSODs if they're still installed when the upgrade takes place. Also note that removal of older tools (and installation in some cases) will wipe out your static IP config if you happen to depend on it.

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                      dinhngtu Vates 🪐 XCP-ng Team @dinhngtu
                      last edited by

                      Also, I'd recommend upgrading to Server 2019 or even Server 2025 if that's feasible, since support for Server 2016 is ending soon anyway.

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                        ovicz
                        last edited by

                        Upgrading to another windows version will probably require a new license key. Going straight to 2025 is doable...but i think it's a little too much of a strech. Try to go with 2019-2022. Also you can't jump more than 2 versions from 2012R2 directly to 2022, you can go only to 2019 and then another in-place upgrade to 2022. Only 2025 allows upgrading from 2012R2 directly.

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                          hrvojer
                          last edited by

                          Thanks both, very useful. One constraint on our side: this VM runs SQL Server 2014, and per Microsoft it’s supported only up to Windows Server 2019 (not 2022/2025). So our realistic target is 2012 R2 → 2019 in-place (after updating SQL to SP3), with the old Citrix tools removed beforehand and the new XCP-ng tools installed afterwards. We’ll rehearse the whole thing on a clone first, and note down the static IP config before removing the tools.

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