Windows update driver change breaks all KVM-based VPS, boot loop / missing disks

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Posted by randalk, 12-15-2015, 08:31 PM
Hey everyone, Thought I'd put this out there in the public forum -- just notified our customers. On December 8th, Microsoft began distributing an optional Windows update that replaces the RedHat provided KVM VirtIO storage drivers with a version provided by SUSE. This component is not compatible with KVM virtualization. Installing this optional update will irreversibly force your VPS into a boot loop, with Windows being unable to detect any hard disks. In-place recovery is very difficult at best. The update is named "SUSE - Storage Controller - SUSE Block Driver for Windows", and, depending on your OS, has one of the following KB numbers: KB3102429, KB3107998, KB3112148. Atlantic has some good instructions on preventing this from happening: https://www.atlantic.net/community/h...-fail-to-boot/ ** We found out about this problem the hard way - a new customer ran a full windows update, rebooted, bsod, and then fails to boot. Recovery console sees no disks, because the kernel driver is broken. Running `diskpart` and `list disk` results in no devices found. You can potentially boot off a separate windows CD, linux recovery media, or similar and perhaps maybe fix it, but we haven't gone that deep. Similarly, if your virtualization platform supports changing the disk type, you can revert to IDE-based disks and it will boot, but performance will be bad until the driver gets swapped with the RedHat VirtIO drivers. FYI - Randal
Posted by dediserve, 12-16-2015, 05:22 AM
Good catch, we saw the same issue.
Posted by RockTBN, 12-16-2015, 06:35 AM
Thank you for the information, will notify our customers about that
Posted by DewlanceHosting, 12-16-2015, 07:24 AM
Same issue was occurred and I was think this happened due to installing wrong driver software. Many many thanks, Now at lest I can inform my customers.