Release Notes: Important Issues in Windows Server "8" Beta

  • Article

Updated: February 29, 2012

Applies To: Windows Server 8 Beta

[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

These release notes address the most critical issues and information about the Windows Server® “8” Beta operating system. For information about by-design changes, new features, and fixes in this release, see documentation and announcements from the specific feature teams. For information about important steps to take before installing this release, including issues that you may need to work around, see Installing Windows Server "8" Beta, a document available at the same location as this document. Unless otherwise specified, these notes apply to all editions and installation options of the Windows Server “8” Beta.

Important

Because this is a pre-release, updated drivers may not be available for all devices. If you experience driver issues, contact the appropriate OEM for the affected device for availability of updated drivers. In particular, to avoid potential installation failure or network performance issues, ensure that you update relevant drivers or firmware for the following network adapters: Brocade, Emulex, Qlogic, and Mellanox.

Authentication

  • If you set the system clock forward, Kerberos authentication may fail. To correct this, use the klist command to purge all cached tickets.

  • If the domain is configured to use dynamic access control and the primary domain controller is not running Windows Server “8” Beta, clients which present passwords that cannot be validated by any domain controller will receive a “bad password” error. To avoid this, either install Windows Server “8” Beta on the primary domain controller or change the password on a device that is not running Windows Server “8” Beta or the Windows 8 Consumer Preview before the password expires.

Features on Demand

If you convert a server that was installed with the Server Core installation option during initial setup to the Server with a GUI option, Windows Explorer will not be pinned to the desktop taskbar, and the Start screen will not contain a Desktop tile. This issue does not occur if you choose the Server with a GUI option during setup, convert to a Server Core installation, and then convert back.

To correct this, manually create the shortcuts and tiles by searching for a program on the Start screen. Type its name until its tile appears, and then right-click its tile and choose Pin to taskbar or Pin to Start. To return to the desktop, on the Start screen, type desktop and then click the Desktop tile.

Hyper-V

You should be aware of the following issues affecting Single-Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV):

  • SR-IOV supports only 64-bit guest operating systems, either Windows Server “8” Beta or 64-bit versions of Windows® 8 Consumer Preview. In addition, SR-IOV requires both hardware and firmware support. If you configure a guest operating system to user SR-IOV and either the hardware or firmware is not supported, the Network tab in Hyper-V Manager will show Degraded (SR-IOV not operational). The following systems are confirmed to support SR-IOV at this time. In most cases, you must still install the latest firmware release for the system and configure the firmware appropriately for memory and interrupt mapping. For systems not listed which might nevertheless support SR-IOV, contact the system manufacturer.

  • Even with the supported hardware as listed above (or otherwise confirmed by the manufacturer) and all appropriate firmware, BIOS settings, and network drivers are configured, the Network tab in Hyper-V Manager for a selected virtual machine might show Degraded (SR-IOV not operational). In this circumstance, check the event log for event 12607 in Application and Services\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V-SynthNic\Admin with this text: ‘VMName’ Network Adapter ({GUID}) is configured to use SR-IOV but that capability is disabled by policy on this machine. (Virtual Machine ID {GUID}).

    If this occurs, first check with the system manufacturer to determine if a BIOS update is available. If no update is available, run the following command from an elevated command prompt, and then restart the physical computer:

    reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtualization" /v IOVEnableOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 1

    Important

    After the computer restarts, you will find event 24012 in the event log, warning you that the system is vulnerable and could experience reduced performance or system instability. Although SR-IOV might function, this warning is valid and you should assign SR-IOV devices only to virtual machines that run trusted workloads (or do not use SR-IOV).

  • If the Network tab in Hyper-V Manager still shows Degraded (SR-IOV not operational) and you do not find event 12607 in the event log, run the Windows PowerShell commands below from an elevated Windows PowerShell prompt to get further information on the cause:

    get-vmhost

    If the cause is related to the platform, the properties IovSupport and IovSupportReasons will contain further information.

    get-vmswitch * | fl *

    If the cause is related to the physical network adapter or driver, the properties IovSupport and IovSupportReasons will contain further information.

    get-vmnetworkadapter * | fl *status*

    If the cause is related to the virtual network adapter, the properties Status and StatusDescription will contain further information.

Networking

When you start the Remote Access Management console or while you are monitoring it, the console could stop responding and close unexpectedly. To avoid or recover from this problem, verify the following and correct as needed:

  • Verify that the user that is logged on has both read and write permissions for all Group Policy Objects that are configured in the Remote Access deployment.

  • Verify that connectivity exists to the Remote Access server domain controller and any other domain controller that contains Group Policy objects used in the Remote Access deployment.

  • In deployments with multiple sites or that use failover clustering, verify that the computer on which the Remote Access Management console is running has access to all of the Remote Access servers in the deployment.

  • Verify that the user that is logged on has Administrator permissions for all Remote Access servers in the deployment.

Resilient File System

If you configure the Resilient File System (ReFS) to use the integrity functionality for user data, disable the integrity feature on any VHD or VHDx files and the directories where they will be located; otherwise the files will not mount. In addition, disable the integrity feature on any files or directories associated with apps or applications that already provide integrity.

Server Manager

Storage

  • Failover clusters might become unresponsive if you use them with storage pools that contain virtual disks, such as storage spaces, that use the parity storage layout (also known as resiliency type). Do not use failover clusters with virtual disks that use the parity layout. If this has already occurred, restart any affected cluster nodes and remove the storage pool that contains the relevant virtual disk from the cluster, including all virtual disks contained by the storage pool.

  • Attempts to remove a physical disk that hosts any part of a storage space from a storage pool will fail. There is no workaround at this time. If this has already occurred, back up the data, delete the storage spaces that are using the drive, remove the drive, recreate the storage spaces, and then restore the data.

  • If an application consumes all of the capacity of a storage pool by writing to a thinly provisioned storage space, the application might pause indefinitely. To avoid this, ensure that you provide at least as much available pool capacity as data you that intend to store in it. If the storage pool has already become full, restart the computer, add more physical disks (drives) to the storage pool, and then continue using the storage space.

  • If you configure the Resilient File System to use the integrity feature for user data, disable the integrity feature on any VHD or VHDx files and the directories where they will be located; otherwise the files will not mount. In addition, disable the integrity feature on any files or directories associated with apps that already provide integrity.

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