Every time I try to setup a VM the VNC Viewer disconnects and the install fails. What in the world is going on? I load all of the drivers per the wiki on the initial install of windows but just a few minutes in it disconnects and is done.

Please share your XML.

<domain type='kvm'>

  <name>Windows Server 2012 Essentials</name>

  <uuid>e30caebf-d2cc-79bd-03a7-34b9e14c1236</uuid>

  <metadata>

    <vmtemplate name="Custom" icon="windows.png" os="windows"/>

  </metadata>

  <memory unit='KiB'>1048576</memory>

  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>1048576</currentMemory>

  <memoryBacking>

    <nosharepages/>

    <locked/>

  </memoryBacking>

  <vcpu placement='static'>2</vcpu>

  <cputune>

    <vcpupin vcpu='0' cpuset='0'/>

    <vcpupin vcpu='1' cpuset='1'/>

  </cputune>

  <os>

    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-2.3'>hvm</type>

  </os>

  <features>

    <acpi/>

    <apic/>

    <hyperv>

      <relaxed state='on'/>

      <vapic state='on'/>

      <spinlocks state='on' retries='8191'/>

    </hyperv>

  </features>

  <cpu mode='host-passthrough'>

    <topology sockets='1' cores='2' threads='1'/>

  </cpu>

  <clock offset='localtime'>

    <timer name='hypervclock' present='yes'/>

    <timer name='hpet' present='no'/>

  </clock>

  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>

  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>

  <on_crash>restart</on_crash>

  <devices>

    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>

    <disk type='file' device='disk'>

      <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/>

      <source file='/mnt/disk5/Windows Server 2012 Essentials/vdisk1.img'/>

      <target dev='hdc' bus='virtio'/>

      <boot order='1'/>

      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/>

    </disk>

    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>

      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>

      <source file='/mnt/user/iso Library/Windows Server 2012 Essentials.iso'/>

      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>

      <readonly/>

      <boot order='2'/>

      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>

    </disk>

    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>

      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>

      <source file='/mnt/user/iso Library/virtio-win-0.1.102.iso'/>

      <target dev='hdb' bus='ide'/>

      <readonly/>

      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='1'/>

    </disk>

    <controller type='usb' index='0'>

      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x2'/>

    </controller>

    <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'/>

    <controller type='ide' index='0'>

      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/>

    </controller>

    <controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'>

      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/>

    </controller>

    <interface type='bridge'>

      <mac address='52:54:00:70:a8:26'/>

      <source bridge='virbr0'/>

      <model type='virtio'/>

      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>

    </interface>

    <serial type='pty'>

      <target port='0'/>

    </serial>

    <console type='pty'>

      <target type='serial' port='0'/>

    </console>

    <channel type='unix'>

      <source mode='bind' path='/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/channel/target/Windows Server 2012 Essentials.org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/>

      <target type='virtio' name='org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/>

      <address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='1'/>

    </channel>

    <input type='tablet' bus='usb'/>

    <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>

    <input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'/>

    <graphics type='vnc' port='-1' autoport='yes' websocket='-1' listen='0.0.0.0' keymap='en-us'>

      <listen type='address' address='0.0.0.0'/>

    </graphics>

    <video>

      <model type='vmvga' vram='16384' heads='1'/>

      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/>

    </video>

    <memballoon model='virtio'>

      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/>

    </memballoon>

  </devices>

</domain>

 

I'm certainly not the expert at this issue, and have never experienced this problem.

 

Can you describe the error you're getting?

It disconnects and will not reconnect?

Or does it just disconnect?

 

I know that it can disconnect during setup, however you should be able to get right back in.

You should try using a Java based VNC client like RealVNC, as it shouldn't disconnect between reboots/installation.

Just set the IP and port (should be 5900, or 5901, etc... if you have other VM's running with VNC enabled).

 

You may want to enable the network bridge under the network settings, and change the XML to use that newly created bridge name.

This will allow the VM to be issued an IP from your router (if you're using DHCP) as opposed to from UnRaid/bridge.

 

 

Log from VM:

 

2015-09-23 21:05:57.338+0000: starting up libvirt version: 1.2.18, qemu version: 2.3.0

Domain id=1 is tainted: high-privileges

Domain id=1 is tainted: host-cpu

char device redirected to /dev/pts/0 (label charserial0)

2015-09-23 21:12:22.014+0000: shutting down

 

 

Log from VM when trying to restart it after it shuts down:

 

2015-09-23 21:14:47.019+0000: starting up libvirt version: 1.2.18, qemu version: 2.3.0

Domain id=2 is tainted: high-privileges

Domain id=2 is tainted: host-cpu

char device redirected to /dev/pts/0 (label charserial0)

 

It's not giving me any other sort of errors besides disconnecting and shutting down. Upon restart of the VM it says an OS wasn't found press ctl alt del  to restart. When I do that it just give the same message over and over and won't try to install the OS again.

Please try using the virtio 109 drivers (marked as "latest"). Let me know if that changes anything.

Same results

Same results

Are you using the VNCRemote viewer built into unRAID or a free-standing VNC client?  On my system I find VNCRemote to often fail to connect to a VM, whereas a free-standing client (I am using the UltraVNC Viewer) works all the time.  It is a shame as VNCRemote is more convenient in many ways.

I'm using the build in viewer, but I have tried the free standing viewer as well. When it disconnects the CPU activity on the server stops. The entire virtual machine is crashing back to a stopped state.

Am I correct in that you are only assigning 1gb of memory to this? 

Yes. I have more on the way. I was just going to do a baseline install. I also tried installing Windows XP on it with the same configuration just to see if it was an issue of the low memory assignment, and it failed in the exact same manner.

Yes. I have more on the way. I was just going to do a baseline install. I also tried installing Windows XP on it with the same configuration just to see if it was an issue of the low memory assignment, and it failed in the exact same manner.

 

This could very well be a low memory issue.  On top of the memory you assign to the VM, there is additional memory required for the emulated devices that QEMU creates.  If your system is extremely thin on resources already, you may be suffering from an OOM (out of memory) issue.  I would wager the system log would show such an event occurring.

I'll wait until my other memory get here. It will have 8gb in it then and I can assign 6 to the VM.

I did a little digging around and found some more memory in a drawer. I threw it in and all is well. This thing should be running nicely when my new memory gets here, but at least this allows me to take advantage of some time off and get the new virtual server running and configured.