[KingJ]

And in an ovh classic there has been no communication about this whole thing I assume?

I've never had any communication initiated by OVH. If I reply to an incident ticket or send an email off to customer support, I get a very limited answer back. There's no timeframe for R2 being properly available, but I do appreciate that it's very difficult to provide estimates. At least knowing what the progress and blocking problems are would be interesting to know though.

[FrenchTart]

Interestingly, the 2012 R2 option has disappeared from the re-install options. At least it's now easier to determine if they've got the image ready yet or not!

And in an ovh classic there has been no communication about this whole thing I assume?

[KingJ]

Interestingly, the 2012 R2 option has disappeared from the re-install options. At least it's now easier to determine if they've got the image ready yet or not!

[KingJ]

Overnight I tried another upgrade, installing the latest network and chipset drivers first, but to no avail.

I think i'll be doing the same as Tz-OVH - keeping my current server for a while, then getting one of the new range when hopefully 2012 R2 will work. And they wonder why they have such high turnover...

[Tz-OVH]

Once they open up new servers for rent, I'll either dump this KS-16G or get a temp server so I can run some test setups and fix my Windows install on this server, till then I'll just live with the server crash.

[KingJ]

Interesting, i've tried updating the drivers pre-reinstall before but to no avail, i'll give it one more go with updated chipset drivers too.

(Interestingly, my miniSP uses the Intel 82579LM NIC, rather than a Realtek one as in your server)

[rickyday]

Well I am pretty happy, just tried again and Server 2012 R2 Datacenter is installed.

The drivers I installed were as follows just incase anyone else wants to try?

Realtek PCI Gigabit NIC -

Win8 and Win8.1 Auto Installation Program (SID:1606893) found here - http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...etDown=false#1 (manually installed drivers through device manager via zip download)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Intel Chipset Drivers (Intel Driver Update Utility) - Version 9.4.0.1026 - https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...adType=Drivers

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Could be a fluke and it could have just been a random error the first time I attempted the upgrade but this might help some others and I am sure the issue was one of the above culprits.

[NeddySeagoon]

I had some fun with the vKVM and Linux

Everything was built wth -march=native on an intel CPU.
but the vKVM is/was an AMD qemu instance so it didn't get very far.

You cold probably hear the crash

Also the emulated hardware was nothing like the real hardware, so kernel hardware support needed to be changed too.

[rickyday]

What error reason did it give when it failed?

Ah I forgot to look at logs, I believe it was just a generic error like "Update could not complete"

I have updated Realtek NIC drivers to 8.1 (yes I know im on 2012 atm, but they work ok and will in R2) and I have also installed the latest Intel Chipset drivers, I am going to give it another go will keep you updated Tz.

[cartwright118]

You can still boot the vKVM, and there are instructions here on the forum on how to do so, but it doesn't work well with a lot of newer OSes these days - the 2012 R2 install gets stuck in a boot loop for example.

Ideally, it'd be great if every server had a free, built in KVM. However, failing that i'd happily settle for 7 or 30 days KVM access at a more reasonable price (say £15-30).

Oh yeah I know you can manually do it yourself, but I meant as in an official support method from OVH it's now discontinued. As far as OVH are concerned they are expecting windows users to use WinRescue to restore a system with issues. Agree completely with your KVM rates.

[KingJ]

rather than relying on the PXE systems to work like WinRescue and vKVM, which they have also now removed. Which neither I have never had a great lot of success with.

You can still boot the vKVM, and there are instructions here on the forum on how to do so, but it doesn't work well with a lot of newer OSes these days - the 2012 R2 install gets stuck in a boot loop for example.

Ideally, it'd be great if every server had a free, built in KVM. However, failing that i'd happily settle for 7 or 30 days KVM access at a more reasonable price (say £15-30).

[Tz-OVH]

Totally agree!!

We had that feature for free, goodness knows why OVH removed it, well we do know, it was removed so it could be a money making exercise for OVH to readd it.

FYI I attempted to upgrade my mSP server 2012 to R2 and that failed (using my own ISO), unfortunately too much data on server to reinstall from control panel.

The silly thing is that 2 x 4G servers upgraded fine and yet a pro server has issues.

What gives?

What error reason did it give when it failed?

[cartwright118]

Totally agree!!

We had that feature for free, goodness knows why OVH removed it, well we do know, it was removed so it could be a money making exercise for OVH to readd it.

FYI I attempted to upgrade my mSP server 2012 to R2 and that failed (using my own ISO), unfortunately too much data on server to reinstall from control panel.

The silly thing is that 2 x 4G servers upgraded fine and yet a pro server has issues.

What gives?

To be honest if they gave people KVM it would possibly save them time solving issues because people would be able to remotely log in properly to fix issues, rather than relying on the PXE systems to work like WinRescue and vKVM, which they have also now removed. Which neither I have never had a great lot of success with.

All my servers are linux, but I purchased a 2g some months back (just because it was cheap) and I've just stuck server 2012 r2 on that from the manager and it installed perfect. I guess OVH aren't interested in the fact that it doesn't install on your mSP?

As they are removing the 'pro' usage on some/all of he new ranges, maybe they will include KVM by default? Or for a monthly fee/one of cost for using it? No setup fee.

[rickyday]

The setup cost on the KVM is rather absurd.

Totally agree!!

We had that feature for free, goodness knows why OVH removed it, well we do know, it was removed so it could be a money making exercise for OVH to readd it.

FYI I attempted to upgrade my mSP server 2012 to R2 and that failed (using my own ISO), unfortunately too much data on server to reinstall from control panel.

The silly thing is that 2 x 4G servers upgraded fine and yet a pro server has issues.

What gives?

[KingJ]

According to the incident tickets, after carrying out the R2 upgrade, the server boots to the login screen, but does not ping.

I'd love to be able to connect in with a KVM to see exactly what's going on, but there's no way i'm going to pay £200+ just to do that. The setup cost on the KVM is rather absurd.

[rickyday]

I've got one of the recent range of mSP servers.

Hmm interesting I wasn't aware any of problems with Server 2012 R2 with this model as 2012 works flawlessly when I installed it a few months ago from within OVH Manager.

I unfortunately don't have the option of reinstalling my mSP to test.

[KingJ]

I fear that KingJ has the dreaded KS16G server which in all honesty is a real pain in the ass with Windows Server 2012/R2 and definitely not compatible, there are a lot of issues unfortunately.

I've got one of the recent range of mSP servers.

[Tz-OVH]

I'm just hanging onto this till the new range is out and hoping there's something in it for me.

[rickyday]

Would just like to add I have Kimsufi 4G servers and msP.

I fear that KingJ has the dreaded KS16G server which in all honesty is a real pain in the ass with Windows Server 2012/R2 and definitely not compatible, there are a lot of issues unfortunately.

[Tz-OVH]

Does anyone who used OVHs provided 2012 Standard R2 install have a KS-16G Raid Edition like myself? I'm desperately trying to find out what version of MB drivers they are using as OVH support say this is what fixed the crashing issue...but naturally they won't tell me the driver versions or supply me with the files, they say I should just install their version and get the information that way. I don't have a spare server to offload mine to temporarily though so I'm in a bit of a fix :/

[KingJ]

... but only on hardware profiles where R2 is known not to work.

Useful to know, thanks. Would be useful though if it had been communicated through to support, or better noted on the reinstallation options!

Just installed Server 2012 Standard R2 and it is indeed the real deal when installed from the manager

I confirm that it's showing as non-beta for me too. Just running a reinstall now so i'll report back in an hour with the results!

Edit: The non-R2 version was installed again.

I did try running an upgrade from the ISO, but unfortunately either the server didn't come back up properly, or OVH didn't give it enough time complete the upgrade and come back up before performing an intervention and booting WinRescue (likely the former rather than the latter, hopefully the OVH techs actually check the output of the server before rebooting it to WinRescue or RescuePro!).

Is there any particular requirements you have for running a windows server? I've been running linux servers since 2003 and the last 5 years they have been CentOS. I'm just curious.

For me personally, I want to run HyperV. There's a lot of interesting enhancements they've made in 2012 R2 to HyperV, and considering the direction that VMWare is moving with the free version of ESXi (see the lower part of this post), I wanted to give HyperV a go. (Even if I am just running Linux VMs on it!)

[ctype_alnum]

I have many servers. This is my only windows one, all of my others are Linux boxes. To answer your question, it's for ASP and Exchange mail.

Fair enough.

[cartwright118]

Is there any particular requirements you have for running a windows server? I've been running linux servers since 2003 and the last 5 years they have been CentOS. I'm just curious.

I have many servers. This is my only windows one, all of my others are Linux boxes. To answer your question, it's for ASP and Exchange mail.

[ctype_alnum]

Is there any particular requirements you have for running a windows server? I've been running linux servers since 2003 and the last 5 years they have been CentOS. I'm just curious.

[cartwright118]

Since they have taken it out of beta, I have reinstalled and it's worked fine. Activated with my SPLA key assigned to my account.

Problem solved

[cartwright118]

Ricky,

Do you have any idea why my SPLA R2 licence isn't working? Or anything you think I could try? I read your post about upgrading from standard 2012, so may still give that a go.

It adds to OVH manager but when the installation has finished, it's just installed the evaluation version and when windows prompts me for my key it just says incorrect.

Thank you!
Christian

[rickyday]

Unfortunately, the 'beta' option of Server 2012 R2 that's on the reinstall options actually just installs the non-R2 version of Server 2012.

Just installed Server 2012 Standard R2 and it is indeed the real deal when installed from the manager

Also R2 no longer is marked as BETA (install) so I presume it has been fully tested by OVH and working

In fact the only BETA version in my manager now is "Windows Server 2012 Standard (InstallV2 BETA)" which I have never had to install as the other version worked fine for me, that would be for people that have previously had issues with 2012, presume its some kind of sysprep version OVH were testing and tweaking.



I also see now that Hyper-V Standalone has completely disappeared (this is on a capable server a mSP)

Any chance of getting Hyper-V Standalone 2012 in the install manager for virtualisation enabled servers? and that will be the icing on the cake.

... but only on hardware profiles where R2 is known not to work.

Thanks for clearing that up Felix explains a lot.

[Felix@OVH]

Unfortunately, the 'beta' option of Server 2012 R2 that's on the reinstall options actually just installs the non-R2 version of Server 2012. [...]

... but only on hardware profiles where R2 is known not to work.

[cartwright118]

Unfortunately, the 'beta' option of Server 2012 R2 that's on the reinstall options actually just installs the non-R2 version of Server 2012. According to support, the 'beta' is just a new re-installation system rather than Server 2012, and there's no estimate for when 2012 R2 will actually be available..

Ahh! That explains why my SPLA key for server 2012 R2 doesn't work! I've installed twice with no luck. Will try doing what Tz-OVH said about the upgrade option. My SPLA key loaded into the OVH manager but it just installs the evaluation version on the server and won't accept my key.

Why name it R2 if it's not R2? I don't quite understand, the system information states R2?

[Tz-OVH]

I simply got the image of Win 2012 R2 and ran through the setup over my existing Win 2012 installation and picked "Upgrade", worked just fine.

In other news, it didn't solve my server crashing issues and OVH are of little or no help.

[KingJ]

Unfortunately, the 'beta' option of Server 2012 R2 that's on the reinstall options actually just installs the non-R2 version of Server 2012. According to support, the 'beta' is just a new re-installation system rather than Server 2012, and there's no estimate for when 2012 R2 will actually be available.

I don't think it's possible to do an in-place upgrade of 2012 to 2012 R2 without the physical media either. Shame.

[Tz-OVH]

I upgraded my Win 2012 Standard to Standard R2, went flawlessly.

But of course its my own install so no support wrt my BSOD (Blank Screen of Death) issue since OVH say if I want to know how they solved it (OVH support say it had to do with MB drivers), I need to install their version and see the driver versions for myself...

I'm hoping that upgrading to R2 solves the issue, fingers crossed

[Trapper]

90% of things with OVH are in 'BETA' - they might as well just mention the things that aren't in BETA so that most people can assume the rest is in BETA.

If 90% is BETA, the other 10% is ALPHA...

Except the new offerings, they are still in "back of fag packet"...

~Trap

[cartwright118]

Please note it is BETA with OVH.

90% of things with OVH are in 'BETA' - they might as well just mention the things that aren't in BETA so that most people can assume the rest is in BETA.

[rickyday]

Server 2012 R2 is now available to install in control panel.

Please note it is BETA with OVH.

Enjoy

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/serve...r-2012-r2.aspx