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Multiple GPT Pass Through Disks are not support in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

Article ID: 2505398 - View products that this article applies to.

Symptoms

When using System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, a Virtual Machine (VM) will report an unsupported state after adding multiple GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks. The status changes to 'Unsupported VM Configuration' or 'Unsupported Cluster Configuration' depending on whether the VM is running on a standalone server or on Failover Cluster nodes.

SCVMM traces report the following errors (The SCSI ID number could be a different value):

VM.contoso.com has an invalid bus specification or bad path or path that we cannot access and will be marked unsupported

Another device is already at the location (SCSI; 0; 1)

BusSlotIsBusy (659)

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Cause

The SCVMM cumulative rollup released June 8, 2010, allows GPT disks to be recognized and used by VMs. This also applies to pass through type GPT disks. This update does not allow, however, for multiple GPT disks per VM. A single GPT disk of VHD or pass through disk format is supported, but once more than one is added to a VM status will change to unsupported.

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Resolution

Using the Hyper-V Management Console, remove all but one GPT disks from the unsupported VM. Following a refresh in SCVMM the virtual machine will once again appear as healthy and can be managed once again.

Converting GPT disks to MBR is a workaround to this issue.

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More Information

This update addresses functionality with SCVMM 2008 R2 only. Previous versions cannot use GPT disks. All SCVMM rollups following that release in June also include this GPT update.

Description of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 hotfix rollup package: June 8, 2010
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;982522

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