Unable to Boot Windows OVH Dedicated Server After Installation (Rescue Mode + QEMU)

rekznoz · April 7

Hello, I don’t usually ask for help on forums, but I’m on the verge of my head exploding haha.

I’m trying to install Windows Server on a dedicated OVH server, and no matter what I do, I just can’t get it to work. In the past, I’ve installed Windows using rescue mode on other OVH servers. I’ve followed at least three guides I found on the forum that seemed promising, but none of them worked.

All my services depend on Windows, and I don’t have the time to start converting everything to a Linux-based system. It’s extremely frustrating because I have another server with Windows installed through OVH’s control panel, and I don’t understand how a more powerful server from the same range doesn’t have access to Windows licenses it’s really exasperating.

Using Proxmox or Unix-based virtualization isn’t an option for me either, since I don’t want to add more layers in between.

I managed to install Windows using QEMU in rescue mode, but when I switch to the HDD, Windows doesn’t boot. At first, I thought it was a network driver issue, but I set up a startup script that writes to a .txt file to check whether Windows was actually booting, and there are no signs of life. So I’m assuming it’s a boot-related issue.

I’ve also been looking into how to use the BYOI feature that OVH provides in its control panel, but the documentation is practically nonexistent. I assume it should be possible to install Windows using that method, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to create my own Windows image in the required format for this type of installation.

I don’t have KVM access, so I can’t properly check what’s going on... I’m basically shooting in the dark here.

plumberg · April 7

Unfortunately without ipmi/ kvm you are probably outta luck. I have heard reports feom users where this has happened before and usually its drivers issue.

From rescue mode during install via vnc are you able to see windows boot up fine?

What system you got? Specs?

kkoneko · April 7

IIRC long time ago there was a way to dd a windows image to disk entirely but that require IPMI

tux · April 7

There are ready made Windows Server templates in OVH panel, but you need provide Windows license to use them.

rekznoz · April 7

@plumberg said:
Unfortunately without ipmi/ kvm you are probably outta luck. I have heard reports feom users where this has happened before and usually its drivers issue.

From rescue mode during install via vnc are you able to see windows boot up fine?

What system you got? Specs?

Xeon E3 - 4c/8t
32G Ram
1TB Rom

Ye in the VNC inside the rescue mode boot fine like a normal server, but when i change the boot to the hdd nothing work hahaha is frustrating

@tux said:
There are ready made Windows Server templates in OVH panel, but you need provide Windows license to use them.

Negative is disabled, i have a SPLA licence working in other server

plumberg · April 7

Seems you got a lemon or something else is borked

aRNoLD · April 7

https://github.com/bin456789/reinstall/blob/main/README.en.md

muhbootloader · April 7

You’re not crazy this is one of those OVH pain points everyone runs into eventually.

rekznoz · April 7

@plumberg said:
Seems you got a lemon or something else is borked

I see your comment and tried installing (in the control panel) Ubuntu on a single disk (since I have two 500GB drives). When I install Ubuntu using RAID, it works perfectly. However, when I try to install it on just one disk, the installation never completes and gets stuck in an infinite loop.

I’ve already contacted OVH support, but it looks like it might take ages for them to respond.

plumberg · April 7

@rekznoz said:

@plumberg said:
Seems you got a lemon or something else is borked

I see your comment and tried installing (in the control panel) Ubuntu on a single disk (since I have two 500GB drives). When I install Ubuntu using RAID, it works perfectly. However, when I try to install it on just one disk, the installation never completes and gets stuck in an infinite loop.

I’ve already contacted OVH support, but it looks like it might take ages for them to respond.

Interesting. I have got windows running with raid and its a slightly extra process. So not sure if thats got anything to do with the install issues.

Good luck!

rekznoz · April 7

@aRNoLD said:
https://github.com/bin456789/reinstall/blob/main/README.en.md

Dont work for me

concept · April 7

Does this not work?
https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/196165/install-windows-server-on-any-vps-or-dedicated-server-without-kvm-ilo-or-ipmi/p1

rekznoz · April 7

@concept said:
Does this not work?
https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/196165/install-windows-server-on-any-vps-or-dedicated-server-without-kvm-ilo-or-ipmi/p1

Nop i repeat the tutorial 3 o 4 times, every tutorial in the forum, i have a txt to save all links jajaja

plumberg · April 8

What version of windows are you trying to setup?

plumberg · April 8

Many years ago I had written a post... ig you havent seen it, may be try once

https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/160282/windows-kimsufi-qemu-fresh-install-probably-will-work-for-others-too/p1

rekznoz · April 9

I have been trying hours and hours to install Windows since April 3rd. I’ve basically tried everything and looked into every possible solution. I have tested versions from Windows Server 2012 all the way to the latest one, and still nothing. It’s all so frustrating… I guess I just thrown €30 to the trash

plumberg · April 9

@rekznoz said:
I have been trying hours and hours to install Windows since April 3rd. I’ve basically tried everything and looked into every possible solution. I have tested versions from Windows Server 2012 all the way to the latest one, and still nothing. It’s all so frustrating… I guess I just thrown €30 to the trash

Sometimes that may be a good idea.

Maybe if you're eligible out it up for service transfer.

Good luck

fredo1664 · April 9

If you find the license key for the demo version of windows server, you can add that to your server as a SPLA license and install their own templates. Windows won't activate but i think after that you know what to do. Pretty sure you can put any license in the panel as long as it more or less looks like a license, and add it to the server and off you go. I've done it a few times.

rekznoz · April 9

@fredo1664 said:
If you find the license key for the demo version of windows server, you can add that to your server as a SPLA license and install their own templates. Windows won't activate but i think after that you know what to do. Pretty sure you can put any license in the panel as long as it more or less looks like a license, and add it to the server and off you go. I've done it a few times.

I have a valid SPLA Licence, but for some reason i rent the only server in OVH where windows is not a option in the control panel, a joke for me

fredo1664 · April 9

@rekznoz said:

@fredo1664 said:
If you find the license key for the demo version of windows server, you can add that to your server as a SPLA license and install their own templates. Windows won't activate but i think after that you know what to do. Pretty sure you can put any license in the panel as long as it more or less looks like a license, and add it to the server and off you go. I've done it a few times.

I have a valid SPLA Licence, but for some reason i rent the only server in OVH where windows is not a option in the control panel, a joke for me

Assuming it's a KS-LE-1, I passed the hw description for the one I have from the API to Claude and he told me:

The DH67BL motherboard uses AHCI for SATA. QEMU's -hda flag presents the disk as an emulated IDE drive. Windows will install IDE storage drivers, then on reboot the real controller speaks AHCI and Windows can't find the boot volume — instant bluescreen (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE).

A better QEMU command would be something like:

/tmp/qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -machine pc \
  -enable-kvm \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 4 \
  -m 10000M \
  -device ahci,id=ahci0 \
  -drive file=/dev/sda,format=raw,if=none,id=disk0 \
  -device ide-hd,drive=disk0,bus=ahci0.0 \
  -cdrom /tmp/17763.379.190312-0539.rs5_release_svc_refresh_SERVER_EVAL_x64FRE_en-us.iso \
  -boot d \
  -net nic,model=e1000 \
  -net user,hostfwd=tcp::3389-:3389 \
  -vnc :1 \
  -usbdevice tablet \
  -k en-us \
  -localtime

Key changes: -cpu host passes through the real Xeon instead of emulating a Core2Duo, the AHCI device presents the disk the same way the real motherboard will, and e1000 for the NIC gives Windows a generic Intel driver that has a decent chance of working on the real Intel NIC on that board.
After Windows is installed and before rebooting out of rescue, he might also want to make sure the MBR and boot flag are correct on /dev/sda with fdisk -l /dev/sda.

In fairness though, you could spend days on this and never succeed, no IPMI on these e3-1245v2 is a pain.

rekznoz · April 9

@fredo1664 said:

@rekznoz said:

@fredo1664 said:
If you find the license key for the demo version of windows server, you can add that to your server as a SPLA license and install their own templates. Windows won't activate but i think after that you know what to do. Pretty sure you can put any license in the panel as long as it more or less looks like a license, and add it to the server and off you go. I've done it a few times.

I have a valid SPLA Licence, but for some reason i rent the only server in OVH where windows is not a option in the control panel, a joke for me

Assuming it's a KS-LE-1, I passed the hw description for the one I have from the API to Claude and he told me:

The DH67BL motherboard uses AHCI for SATA. QEMU's -hda flag presents the disk as an emulated IDE drive. Windows will install IDE storage drivers, then on reboot the real controller speaks AHCI and Windows can't find the boot volume — instant bluescreen (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE).

A better QEMU command would be something like:
/tmp/qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -machine pc \
  -enable-kvm \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 4 \
  -m 10000M \
  -device ahci,id=ahci0 \
  -drive file=/dev/sda,format=raw,if=none,id=disk0 \
  -device ide-hd,drive=disk0,bus=ahci0.0 \
  -cdrom /tmp/17763.379.190312-0539.rs5_release_svc_refresh_SERVER_EVAL_x64FRE_en-us.iso \
  -boot d \
  -net nic,model=e1000 \
  -net user,hostfwd=tcp::3389-:3389 \
  -vnc :1 \
  -usbdevice tablet \
  -k en-us \
  -localtime
Key changes: -cpu host passes through the real Xeon instead of emulating a Core2Duo, the AHCI device presents the disk the same way the real motherboard will, and e1000 for the NIC gives Windows a generic Intel driver that has a decent chance of working on the real Intel NIC on that board.
After Windows is installed and before rebooting out of rescue, he might also want to make sure the MBR and boot flag are correct on /dev/sda with fdisk -l /dev/sda.

In fairness though, you could spend days on this and never succeed, no IPMI on these e3-1245v2 is a pain.

Thanks for your time, i try that and the same result, dont work i'm 90% sure that is some disk drive problem or something related to the disk and boot

Rabisu · April 10

Uff, sin KVM meter Windows en un dedicado de OVH es una lotería, te entiendo la frustración. A veces las opciones de SO preinstalado varían mucho entre sus series de hardware o incluso la antigüedad, y si no te dan la opción fácil es una pelea. Yo en esos casos, si no quiero complicarme, he mirado otros proveedores que sí te lo ponen más fácil para Windows directamente.

rekznoz · April 10

@Rabisu said:
Uff, sin KVM meter Windows en un dedicado de OVH es una lotería, te entiendo la frustración. A veces las opciones de SO preinstalado varían mucho entre sus series de hardware o incluso la antigüedad, y si no te dan la opción fácil es una pelea. Yo en esos casos, si no quiero complicarme, he mirado otros proveedores que sí te lo ponen más fácil para Windows directamente.

El soporte me mando a la basura prácticamente, diciéndome que el funcionamiento de Windows en ese sistema no esta asegurado y que no van a hacer nada, pero en la descripción del producto pone que si se puede instalar tanto Windows en general como Windows Hyper-V, visto lo visto, voy a reclamar por PayPal y que me bloqueen si quieren los de OVH, lo que no puede ser que vendas un producto como apto para un uso concreto y después me digas por interno que no lo es.

fredo1664 · April 12

So I gave it a try with a KS-LE-1 this weekend with qemu passing the disk as raw after a good wipe (including deleting the RAID).

qemu:

qemu-system-x86_64 \
    -enable-kvm \
    -m 4096 \
    -drive file=/dev/sda,format=raw,if=ide \
    -cdrom /tmp/win20xx.iso \
    -boot d \
    -usbdevice tablet \
    -vnc 0.0.0.0:0 2>&1

Win 2025 won't boot at all after the install.

One can check once back in rescue, like this (thanks to my man Claude):

mkdir -p /mnt/windows && ntfsfix /dev/sda2
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows
ls -la /mnt/windows/pagefile.sys
umount /mnt/windows

pagefile.sys exists = Windows booted successfully

Win 2022 boots, but it does not see the network card so game over.

Found intel drivers here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18293/intel-network-adapter-driver-for-windows-server-2022.html

Went back to rescue, booted the 2022 install in qemu again and did a pnputil /add-driver of the e1c65x64.inf from that download, rebooted to disk.

Still not working, because apparently Intel stopped supporting that driver after NDIS65 which means win10 or 2016.

My guy Claude wants to try to setup a task on 2019 to run at the first boot to change the network conf once on real HW, because he thinks 2019 might take the old drivers. Might also try 2016 which still supports NDIS65 drivers. But I also need to sleep so not tonight.

fredo1664 · April 13

So it's really not going to work.
With 2016 I manage to have it boot but everything I tried (and that Claude tried too) to make the Intel driver work, failed, we get Error 10 (DriverEntry fails).
It seems impossible to have Windows use the Ethernet adapter on this motherboard.

rekznoz · April 13

@fredo1664 said:
So I gave it a try with a KS-LE-1 this weekend with qemu passing the disk as raw after a good wipe (including deleting the RAID).

qemu:
qemu-system-x86_64 \
    -enable-kvm \
    -m 4096 \
    -drive file=/dev/sda,format=raw,if=ide \
    -cdrom /tmp/win20xx.iso \
    -boot d \
    -usbdevice tablet \
    -vnc 0.0.0.0:0 2>&1
Win 2025 won't boot at all after the install.

One can check once back in rescue, like this (thanks to my man Claude):
mkdir -p /mnt/windows && ntfsfix /dev/sda2
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows
ls -la /mnt/windows/pagefile.sys
umount /mnt/windows
pagefile.sys exists = Windows booted successfully

Win 2022 boots, but it does not see the network card so game over.

Found intel drivers here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18293/intel-network-adapter-driver-for-windows-server-2022.html

Went back to rescue, booted the 2022 install in qemu again and did a pnputil /add-driver of the e1c65x64.inf from that download, rebooted to disk.

Still not working, because apparently Intel stopped supporting that driver after NDIS65 which means win10 or 2016.

My guy Claude wants to try to setup a task on 2019 to run at the first boot to change the network conf once on real HW, because he thinks 2019 might take the old drivers. Might also try 2016 which still supports NDIS65 drivers. But I also need to sleep so not tonight.

I given up on this, to avoid losing money, I contacted OVH support. Within two days, they agreed to issue me a refund. Their website says that the service is compatible with Windows and Windows Hyper-V, but in practice, support told me it’s not compatible with versions newer than Windows Server 2012 in their system and they cannot guarantee it will work.

I really appreciate the technical support team’s attitude in acknowledging the issue and taking responsibility by offering a refund.

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