Introduction
This article introduces an update that improves the resiliency of the cloud service provider in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. This update is dated December 2013.
This update replaces update 2870270, which is used to improve resiliency. Also, this update includes update 2869923 and update 2908415. Additionally, the update resolves several issues that occur in the following scenario:
- You have a Hyper-V failover cluster.
- The Hyper-V resources are saved in .vhd files on Cluster Shared Volumes File System (CSVFS) volumes.
- You use a backup solution. For example, you use System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) in the Hyper-V environment.
- You try to perform a backup, and a snapshot is taken of the CSVFS volume.
- The current active node encounters an error, and the cluster fails over to another node.
- DPM may start a consistency check on the volume unexpectedly.
Issue 1
Snapshots that are no longer being used are not cleaned up. Therefore, Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshots may accumulate on Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) and guest virtual machines. This causes a deadlock in the Resource Hosting Subsystem (RHS) process, and causes CSV failures. Additionally, all Hyper-V instances that uses the VHD files go down.
Additionally, the following events are logged separately in the Cluster log and in the System log:
Issue 2
If a CSVFS volume is repeatedly added and removed from a cluster, or if CSVFS snapshots are repeatedly created, the Plug and Play (PnP) hive in the following registry path may grow with many additional registry keys: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\STORAGE\VolumeSnapshot.
Therefore, installation of PnP volumes (which occurs usually during a resource move or failure) may become slow. This update prevents future unnecessary growth in the volume snapshot registry key, but does not clean up existing registry entries.
Resolution
This hotfix is also available at Microsoft Update Catalog
A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.
If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix Download Available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, submit a request to Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.
Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft website:
http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support Note The "Hotfix Download Available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.
Prerequisites
To apply this update, you must be running Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012.
Post-installation instructions
After you install this hotfix on a Hyper-V server, you must update the integration components in the virtual machines that are running Windows Server 2012. To do this, use Hyper-V Manager to connect to the virtual machine. This starts the Virtual Machine Connection tool. Then, on the Action menu, click Insert Integration Services Setup Disk. Run the Setup.exe file on the Integration Services Setup disk to update the integration component.
Registry information
To apply this update, you do not have to make any changes to the registry.
Restart requirement
You must restart the computer after you apply this update.
Update replacement information
This update replaces the updates that are described in KB articles 2870270, 2869923, and 2908415. For more information about these articles, click the following article numbers to view them in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
2870270 Update that improves cloud service provider resiliency in Windows Server 2012
2869923 The Physical Disk resource for a Cluster Shared Volume may not come online during backup
2908415 Clustered shared volumes go offline or the Cluster service stops during VM backup on a Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V host server
More Information
The update introduces the following configurable new properties:
- The snapshot diff area can be limited from 20 percent of the volume size to a maximum of 1 terabyte (TB). To configure this property, set the SnapshotDiffSize parameter in megabytes (MB).
- The default snapshot lifetime is 7 days. Old snapshots will be deleted automatically by the Cluster service. The minimum value for the snapshot lifetime is 1 day, and the maximum value is 60 days. To configure this property, set the SnapshotAgeLimit parameter in days.
For example, to change the snapshot lifetime on the disk to 5 days, use the following command:Get-clusterresourcetype -name "Physical Disk" | set-clusterparameter -name "SnapshotAgeLimit" -Value 5 A scavenger runs on every cluster node at approximately 3-minute intervals (which is non-configurable). For every CSV resource a given node owns, the scavenger checks the ages of the snapshots owned by that CSV volume, and deletes them if they are older than the SnapshotAgeLimit value.
After the update is installed, the Cluster service logs a Warning event when a snapshot is removed:Important All persistent and non-persistent snapshots on the volume are affected by the configuration. Also, if you set the properties to an arbitrarily high value (for example, you set the SnapshotAgeLimit property to 60 days), failover performance may still be reduced. This can cause a failure in some conditions, depending on the size of the underlying diff areas retained, and depending on the underlying system and storage performance. We recommend that you use the default value for these properties.
File information
The global version of this update installs files that have the attributes that are listed in the following tables. The dates and the times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The dates and the times for these files on your local computer are displayed in your local time together with your current daylight saving time (DST) bias. Additionally, the dates and the times may change when you perform certain operations on the files.
Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 file information notes
The files that apply to a specific product, milestone (RTM, SPn), and service branch (LDR, GDR) can be identified by examining the file version numbers as shown in the following table:
Version Product Milestone Service branch 6.2.920 0.20 xxx Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 RTM LDR GDR service branches contain only those fixes that are widely released to address widespread, critical issues. LDR service branches contain hotfixes in addition to widely released fixes.
The MANIFEST files (.manifest) and the MUM files (.mum) that are installed for each environment are listed separately in the "Additional file information" section. MUM and MANIFEST files, and the associated security catalog (.cat) files, are extremely important to maintain the state of the updated components. The security catalog files, for which the attributes are not listed, are signed with a Microsoft digital signature.
For all supported x86-based versions of Windows 8
| File name | File version | File size | Date | Time | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kernelbase.dll | 6.2.9200.20712 | 758,784 | 10-May-2013 | 05:21 | x86 |
| Ntfs.sys | 6.2.9200.20736 | 1,614,592 | 05-Jun-2013 | 05:07 | x86 |
| Rdbss.sys | 6.2.9200.20712 | 321,024 | 10-May-2013 | 04:13 | x86 |
| Srv2.sys | 6.2.9200.20712 | 494,592 | 10-May-2013 | 04:13 | x86 |
| Vhdmp.sys | 6.2.9200.20767 | 368,464 | 09-Jul-2013 | 04:48 | x86 |
For all supported x64-based versions of Windows 8 and ofWindows Server 2012
| File name | File version | File size | Date | Time | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows5.x-hypervintegrationservices-x64.msi | Not applicable | 1,716,224 | 09-Nov-2013 | 09:50 | Not applicable |
| Windows5.x-hypervintegrationservices-x64.xml | Not applicable | 130 | 09-Nov-2013 | 01:45 | Not applicable |
| Windows6.2-hypervintegrationservices-x64.cab | Not applicable | 675,617 | 09-Nov-2013 | 10:07 | Not applicable |
| Windows6.x-hypervintegrationservices-x64.cab | Not applicable | 682,068 | 09-Nov-2013 | 09:59 | Not applicable |
| Windows6.x-hypervintegrationservices-x64.xml | Not applicable | 167 | 09-Nov-2013 | 01:45 | Not applicable |
| Csvflt.sys | 6.2.9200.20712 | 205,824 | 10-May-2013 | 05:07 | x64 |
| Clusres.dll | 6.2.9200.20887 | 2,465,792 | 27-Nov-2013 | 06:04 | x64 |
| Clussvc.exe | 6.2.9200.20887 | 7,256,064 | 27-Nov-2013 | 06:07 | x64 |
| Cluswmi.dll | 6.2.9200.20887 | 2,052,096 | 27-Nov-2013 | 06:04 | x64 |
| Cluswmi.mof | Not applicable | 94,872 | 25-Jul-2012 | 20:13 | Not applicable |
| Cluswmiuninstall.mof | Not applicable | 409 | 02-Jun-2012 | 14:35 | Not applicable |
| Failovercluster-cluswmi-ppdlic.xrm-ms | Not applicable | 2,920 | 27-Nov-2013 | 08:29 | Not applicable |
| Csvfs.sys | 6.2.9200.20767 | 625,664 | 09-Jul-2013 | 05:40 | x64 |
| Fssagent.dll | 6.2.9200.20712 | 506,880 | 10-May-2013 | 06:14 | x64 |
| Kernelbase.dll | 6.2.9200.20712 | 976,384 | 10-May-2013 | 06:15 | x64 |
| Ntfs.sys | 6.2.9200.20736 | 1,937,152 | 05-Jun-2013 | 08:18 | x64 |
| Rdbss.sys | 6.2.9200.20712 | 423,424 | 10-May-2013 | 05:05 | x64 |
| Srv2.sys | 6.2.9200.20712 | 619,520 | 10-May-2013 | 05:05 | x64 |
| Witness.dll | 6.2.9200.20712 | 131,584 | 10-May-2013 | 06:17 | x64 |
| Csvvbus.sys | 6.2.9200.20887 | 151,552 | 27-Nov-2013 | 05:37 | x64 |
| Vhdmp.sys | 6.2.9200.20767 | 496,464 | 09-Jul-2013 | 08:22 | x64 |
| Kernelbase.dll | 6.2.9200.20712 | 666,112 | 10-May-2013 | 04:13 | x86 |
| Windows5.x-hypervintegrationservices-x86.msi | Not applicable | 1,462,272 | 09-Nov-2013 | 07:47 | Not applicable |
| Windows5.x-hypervintegrationservices-x86.xml | Not applicable | 130 | 09-Nov-2013 | 01:48 | Not applicable |
| Windows6.2-hypervintegrationservices-x86.cab | Not applicable | 607,677 | 09-Nov-2013 | 08:01 | Not applicable |
| Windows6.x-hypervintegrationservices-x86.cab | Not applicable | 613,596 | 09-Nov-2013 | 07:55 | Not applicable |
| Windows6.x-hypervintegrationservices-x86.xml | Not applicable | 167 | 09-Nov-2013 | 01:48 | Not applicable |