Windows 2008 Guest tools

paulorrockgit

Hi,

We have a couple of client VMs on Windows 2008 R2 (don't ask, these machines are apparently "critical" ) and I'm looking for windows 2008 tools.

I've tried a few old files that I've found to get the tools but they either only work for 2012 onwards on just "fail to install".

Does anyone have any versions of the tools somewhere is a dusty filestore that may work ?

regards,

Paul

manilx

@paulorrockgit Feel you. We have one XP with old needed sw, which we have to keep on proxmox because it doesn't work on xcpng......

These cases exist unfortunately.

Andrew

@paulorrockgit The Citrix 7.2 tools install, so you have a management agent, but most of the drivers don't work and it asks to reboot after every restart...

olivierlambert

You can run 2008 R2 and older without PV tools, it will work.

paulorrockgit

@olivierlambert Hi, It does work, in that the machine will boot and run without the tools but the network drivers dont install so I'm stuck on 100Mbit which seems to struggle to get above 30Mbit in actual usage. Is there no one out there or at Vates who can look at this problem as to why the XCP-NG tools fail to install at the final part ? I'll happily pay for someone to look at it and fix it, even if its just get the networking up to 1gb.

regards,

Paul

DustinB

@paulorrockgit have you tried uninstalling the NIC from within this VM and then letting the system reinstall?

It's been a bit since having to deal with 2008, but it has to support 1GBE FDX right, assuming your host isn't attached to a 10/100 connection.

olivierlambert

Try to switch to e1000 emulated NIC, it will be a lot better already, without having to install the PV drivers (VM/advanced tab)

2008 R2 is NOT supported with PV drivers anyway, or this requires some hacks so we do not want to support.

planedrop

I'm just goona say it, tell these clients to stop using 2008 R2 lol. I know you said don't ask, so I won't ask, but I will "suggest" it.

Mostly joking, I get it, have had to manage places before which had no option.

As Olivier said though, that's super old and not supported, I'd suggest swapping to e1000 for the NIC and leaving it without PV tools.

Gheppy

What I did.
I installed XCP-ng 7.5 from https://updates.xcp-ng.org/isos/7.5/ , on VirtualBox with the ability to enable Nested VT-x/Amd-V
Copy templates for windows 2008 in the current XCP-ng, be it 8.2+, as in the photo. The template is to recreate the existing VM and attach the existing HDD

Download the XenServer 7.2 image from http://downloadns.citrix.com.edgesuite.net/12636/XenServer-7.2.0-install-cd.iso

Open with 7zip or equivalent.
Extract XenServer-7.2.0-install-cd.iso\Packages\xenserver-pv-tools-7.11.0-1.noarch.rpm
From the above file extract xenserver-pv-tools-7.11.0-1.noarch.cpio\opt\xensource\packages\iso\guest-tools-7.11.0-1.iso. Here you have PV drivers for windows 2008

Mount and install the PV driver in the VM and everything is ok

Or already extracted on https://ncloud.neandria.ro/index.php/s/89i8D6E3nDX99G7

The template must be for windows 2008, otherwise the PV drivers will not install properly

uwood

@manilx I've running a modified WinXP without guest tools on XP.

manilx

@uwood What template should I use to create the VM? I would try then to import the disk from proxmox and try out.

Gheppy

@manilx I use the last one - Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit)
Steps are:

On XCP-ng 7.5 create a VM with template Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit), with out hdd
Copy the VM to XCP-ng 8.2
Import HDD to XCP-ng 8.2
Attach the imported HDD to VM
Start VM

If you get BSOD you need to insert xenbus driver.
You have them on https://ncloud.neandria.ro/index.php/s/89i8D6E3nDX99G7
I use Dism++ for insert them, just mount de disk to other windows
https://github.com/Chuyu-Team/Dism-Multi-language/releases

manilx

@Gheppy Thx. I have used other install media as template. Created a VM attached the imported disk and running. Another problem solved.
Now I have a MacOS Monterey VM on proxmox, which is a bigger problem

uwood

@manilx template Windows 8.1 (32-bit)

manilx

@uwood Using xcpng 8.3 this template is not available....

manilx

@manilx Created a VM using this template on our business xcpng 8.2 and exported it.
Attached disk from the last VM but doesn't work. Lots of drivers missing, scsi, vga etc.

VM created with Other Install media works fine.