How to debug Aborting guest

[nearstateandrew]

I am running Windows 7 Pro on my OS/X virtualbox VM. I've given it 4Gb of physical RAM and it was stable for 4 weeks, but in the last week it has begun aborting the VM without warning. Often this is when there are a lot of documents open (I run Visual Studio 2012), but sometimes when there is nothing much happening. Nothing in the windows logs.

How do I go about diagnosing the problem causing the VM to abort itself? Are there log files I can review?

[mpack]

Minimum information needed for assistance.

[nearstateandrew]

VBoxManage -v ==> 4.2.6r82870
Yes, I have installed the Guest editions

Host make: Apple
Host version: OS X Lion 10.7.5, 64bit kernel and extensions
Host memory: 8GB


VBoxManage showvminfo RAEng ==>

Guest OS: Windows 7 (64 bit)
UUID: f69df378-7e13-443f-a2c7-0ae5804cd494
Config file: /Users/andrewgibson/VirtualBox VMs/RAEng/RAEng.vbox
Snapshot folder: /Users/andrewgibson/VirtualBox VMs/RAEng/Snapshots
Log folder: /Users/andrewgibson/VirtualBox VMs/RAEng/Logs
Hardware UUID: f69df378-7e13-443f-a2c7-0ae5804cd494
Memory size: 4096MB
Page Fusion: off
VRAM size: 16MB
CPU exec cap: 100%
HPET: off
Chipset: piix3
Firmware: BIOS
Number of CPUs: 1
Synthetic Cpu: off
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode: message and menu
Boot Device (1): Floppy
Boot Device (2): DVD
Boot Device (3): HardDisk
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI: on
IOAPIC: on
PAE: off
Time offset: 0ms
RTC: local time
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: off
Nested Paging: on
Large Pages: on
VT-x VPID: on
State: running (since 2013-07-26T11:45:57.423000000)
Monitor count: 1
3D Acceleration: off
2D Video Acceleration: off
Teleporter Enabled: off
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address:
Teleporter Password:
Tracing Enabled: off
Allow Tracing to Access VM: off
Tracing Configuration:
Autostart Enabled: off
Autostart Delay: 0
Storage Controller Name (0): IDE
Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX4
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0): 2
Storage Controller Port Count (0): 2
Storage Controller Bootable (0): on
Storage Controller Name (1): SATA
Storage Controller Type (1): IntelAhci
Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (1): 30
Storage Controller Port Count (1): 1
Storage Controller Bootable (1): on
IDE (1, 0): /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso (UUID: 65def76d-e85f-4fd8-915b-3f92233e3150) (passthrough enabled)
SATA (0, 0): /Users/andrewgibson/VirtualBox VMs/RAEng/RAEng.vdi (UUID: 754be3ec-d20c-4e9f-91e3-30612bc6d433)
NIC 1: MAC: 080027E14DC9, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings: MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 2: disabled
NIC 3: disabled
NIC 4: disabled
NIC 5: disabled
NIC 6: disabled
NIC 7: disabled
NIC 8: disabled
Pointing Device: USB Tablet
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1: disabled
UART 2: disabled
LPT 1: disabled
LPT 2: disabled
Audio: enabled (Driver: CoreAudio, Controller: HDA)
Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional
Drag'n'drop Mode: disabled
Video mode: 1280x800x32
VRDE: disabled
USB: enabled
EHCI: disabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Available remote USB devices:

<none>

Currently Attached USB Devices:

<none>

Bandwidth groups: <none>

Shared folders: <none>

VRDE Connection: not active
Clients so far: 0

Guest:

Configured memory balloon size: 0 MB
OS type: Windows7_64
Additions run level: 3
Additions version: 4.2.6 r82870


Guest Facilities:

Facility "VirtualBox Base Driver": active/running (last update: 2013/07/26 11:46:05 UTC)
Facility "VirtualBox System Service": active/running (last update: 2013/07/26 11:46:11 UTC)
Facility "VirtualBox Desktop Integration": active/running (last update: 2013/07/26 11:46:23 UTC)
Facility "Seamless Mode": active/running (last update: 2013/07/26 11:46:05 UTC)
Facility "Graphics Mode": active/running (last update: 2013/07/26 11:46:05 UTC)

[mpack]

You have provided four logs. Which of them demonstrates the problem? AFAICS all but one run for a trivial length of time until being shut down or suspended apparantly normally. Only one log ends abruptly after 34mins.

I am concerned that you have allocated 4GB to this VM, which IMHO is more than your host can easily afford (it shows 5GB available, so ideally you would assign no more than 2GB to the guest, i.e. leave half for the host).

[nearstateandrew]

I think it's probably the second one which begins VirtualBox VM 4.2.6 r82870 darwin.amd64 (Dec 19 2012 15:09:38) release log, and ends as you say after 34 minutes. If these logs are saved on disk somewhere I could probably find a couple more where the problem occurs.

I initially had the default 1GB allocated, but upped it to 4 after the first two aborts on the advice of a colleague. the Host is performing fine in both cases.

[loukingjr]

I sure can't run Windows 7 with 16MBs of VRAM. I'm not sure it would run with both 2D and 3D disabled either.

[nearstateandrew]

It has run very well for a whole month. Just started aborting in the last week.
If there's some change required to the VRAM, or the 2D/3D settings, what would that be?

[loukingjr]

It has run very well for a whole month. Just started aborting in the last week.
If there's some change required to the VRAM, or the 2D/3D settings, what would that be?

if it has run fine for a whole month then something had to change either on the host or the guest. updates, app installs etc.

as far as the settings, the VirtualBox default for Windows 7 VRAM is 128MB I believe. as far as 2D and 3D I have them both enabled but someone else could answer that better than I.

[mpack]

The VM settings dialog will normal warn you if the VRAM settings are below the minimum amount. That 128MB is the default for Win7 is news to me (could be a recent thing I guess). My own is set for 64MB. People tend to forget that VMs don't have GPUs so with only one monitor there isn't necessarily a great need for simulated VRAM. You need enough to cache a few fullscreen 32bit images.

[loukingjr]

my fault. the default vram in VB for Windows 7 is 48MB. The 128MB number is the minimum MS recommends. the default ram in VB is 512 which seems too low. MS recommends 2048.

[mpack]

Lets not get too far from the OPs question.

[nearstateandrew]

The only thing which could have changed are automatic updates on the guest OS (windows updates). But, wouldn't these make the machine freeze / reboot, rather than aborting the VM?

[nearstateandrew]

So is it basically a case of rebuild the guest and hope it turns out to be more stable next time?

[mpack]

Without an adequate log of an offending session, or some other clue as to what was happening when the abort happened, then I would not be confident about saying anything about it, including what you just said.

The fact that you observe that "it happens when a lot of Windows are open" implies that the issue is related to resource consumption of some kind, hence my suggestion to reduce the VMs memory requirement.

[nearstateandrew]

Are you saying that there is a better log I could provide you with, or just that the logs recorded by virtualbox are insufficient? I'm happy to provide anything else that is available.

The problem occurred first when physical memory is configured at 1GB, then again when configured at 4GB. Are you suggesting that I try a different configuration?