A server stack is the collection of software that forms the operational infrastructure on a given machine. In a computing context, a stack is an ordered pile. A server stack is one type of solution stack — an ordered selection of software that makes it possible to complete a particular task. Like in this post about 2 VMDK’s for ESXi 6.7U2 Windows Server 2019 VM was one problem in server stack that need for a solution. Below are some tips in manage your windows server when you find problem about windows, vmware-esxi, windows-server-2019, , .
I am running ESXi 6.7 U2 with a Windows Server 2019 VM.
In my Datastore I have 2 100GB VMDKs, both of which are currently mounted in the VM. If I remove one, the OS will not start, doesn’t matter which one I remove.
The problem I am having is; I did not create that second harddrive that is attached. Unsure how it was created and mounted. This is a problem, because I cannot remove one without the entire OS going haywire, even though according to Windows, that drive is completely empty.
Attached is an image of what is seen in Windows Disk Management, and I have tried to mount the EFI partition and take ownership, however it is saying it is an insecure filesystem. And will not allow me to take ownership.
I cannot right click the partition, as every option is greyed out. And I am hesitant to delete it using DISKPART, because when I dismount the harddrive the entire OS will not boot.
My assumption currently is that when installing the OS initially, it has split the EFI partition, and the actual C volume to separate VMDKs and mounted both in ESXi, however I am unsure how this would have happened.
I have checked and there is not snapshot through ESXi or anything of that nature.
Sorry for the delay in responding to any requests and so on.
Thank you everyone for the responses.
I worked out the issue, unsure if this was a mistake on my part, however I created a VM with the same name as the original VM (Which was a Ubuntu VM).
However I believe I neglected to delete the original file(s), which mean it kept the 100GB VMDK for Linux, and when I switched over to Windows, it mounted the VMDK as well, and installed the EFI partition on the Linux disk, and the rest of the system files on the VMDK created with Windows. Unsure if this was because windows auto-detected another boot loader on the drive prior. Unsure.
However, I am going to just migrate data doing some SATA passthrough and create a new VM migrating back to UbuntuServer and keeping a fresh install of Windows Server for testing and so on.
WHWL? (What have we learned?):
- Do not create VMs with the same name unless you are ready to delete the data from the previous VM.
- Check ensure OS has installed correctly before rushing into the setup of my Homelab…
- Probably some other things I am too tired to realise at 4:17 AM.
