Impact on VM of Windows 10 Auto Restart after Update

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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Gibber
Posts: 4
Joined: 13. Jan 2022, 23:47

Impact on VM of Windows 10 Auto Restart after Update

Post by Gibber »

Hi,
I have a few questions relating to Windows 10 host automatic updates. Could not find answers in the documentation or the forum.

- What is the expected behavior of a Virtual Box guest following a Windows 10 host automatic restart after installing a Windows update?
- Is there a handshake between Windows and VirtualBox that allows for a soft shutdown of the guest OS to preserve data integrity or is it the equivalent of a power fail scenario?
- Other than setting up an automatic launch of the VM, are there any settings I can use to improve the odds of a successful restart?
- Is it recommended to attempt to block Windows host automatic updates, and if so do I need to manually shutdown the guest OS prior to doing Windows updates manually?
Thanks
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Impact on VM of Windows 10 Auto Restart after Update

Post by scottgus1 »

Host power events handled by Virtualbox are mentioned in the manual https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09. ... owertweaks. it seems that only host suspends, resumes, and battery-lows are handled, causing the VMs to pause while the host hibernates. Host reboots aren't mentioned, so I would not count on VMs being save-stated during a host reboot.

Plan for the worst-case scenario and you won't get bit. Expect the VM to be killed unceremoniously during a host reboot, so the VM should be shut down first.
Gibber wrote:Is it recommended to attempt to block Windows host automatic updates, and if so do I need to manually shutdown the guest OS prior to doing Windows updates manually?
Yes and Yes. Hosts that need VMs to stay running should not shut down or reboot on their own. Windows Pro & Server can block Updates from downloading, installing, and rebooting as desired with the Group Policy Editor. Home doesn't have the GPE but some web-searching might reveal what registry settings might be applicable to make the same updates settings that GPE makes on Pro & Server. Production hosts running essential services really should run Pro at least.

Windows 7 had a command line for triggering updates, maybe 10/11 does too. Control VM shutdown with a vboxmanage script, then manually or through script run host updates, reboot, then restart the VMs.
Gibber
Posts: 4
Joined: 13. Jan 2022, 23:47

Re: Impact on VM of Windows 10 Auto Restart after Update

Post by Gibber »

Thanks for the fast and very thorough response. :D
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