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VM startup is stuck on "Getting Windows ready. Don't turn off your computer" in Azure

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This article describes the "Getting ready" and "Getting Windows ready" screens that you may encounter when you start a Windows virtual machine (VM) in Microsoft Azure. It provides steps to help you collect data for a support ticket.

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Symptoms

A Windows VM doesn't start. When you use Boot diagnostics to get the screenshot of the VM, you may see that the VM displays the message "Getting ready" or "Getting Windows ready".

Screenshot of the Windows Server 2012 R2 V M, showing the message: Getting ready.

Screenshot of the V M, showing the message: Getting Windows ready.

Cause

Usually, this problem occurs when the server does the final restart after the configuration is changed. The configuration change might be initialized by Windows updates or by the changes on the roles or feature of the server. For Windows Update, if the updates were large, the operating system needs more time to reconfigure the changes.

Solution 1: Restore the VM from a backup

If you have a recent backup of the VM, you can try restoring the VM from the backup to fix the startup problem.

Solution 2: Collect an OS memory dump file

If restoring the VM from backup isn't possible or doesn't resolve the problem, you have to collect a memory dump file so that the crash can be analyzed. To collect the dump file, see the following sections.

Part 1: Attach the OS disk to a recovery VM

  1. Take a snapshot of the OS disk of the affected VM as a backup. For more information, see Snapshot a disk.
  2. Attach the OS disk to a recovery VM.
  3. Remote desktop to the recovery VM.
  4. If the OS disk is encrypted, you must turn off the encryption before you move to the next step. For more information, see Decrypt the encrypted OS disk in the VM that cannot boot.

Part 2: Locate dump file and submit a support ticket

  1. On the recovery VM, go to the Windows folder in the attached OS disk. If the drive letter that's assigned to the attached OS disk is F, you need to go to F:\Windows.
  2. Locate the memory.dmp file, and then submit a support ticket with the dump file.

If you can't find the dump file, go to the next section to enable the dump log and the Serial Console.

Enable dump log and Serial Console

To enable the dump log and the Serial Console, run the following script:

  1. Open an administrative Command Prompt session.

  2. Run the following script:

    Note

    In this script, we assume that the drive letter that is assigned to the attached OS disk is F. Replace it with the appropriate value in your VM.

    reg load HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM F:\windows\system32\config\SYSTEM

#Enable Serial Console
bcdedit /store F:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes
bcdedit /store F:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} timeout 5
bcdedit /store F:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} bootems yes
bcdedit /store F:\boot\bcd /ems {default} ON
bcdedit /store F:\boot\bcd /emssettings EMSPORT:1 EMSBAUDRATE:115200

#Enable OS Dump

REG ADD "HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CrashControl" /v CrashDumpEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG ADD "HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CrashControl" /v DumpFile /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP" /f
REG ADD "HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CrashControl" /v NMICrashDump /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

REG ADD "HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\CrashControl" /v CrashDumpEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG ADD "HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\CrashControl" /v DumpFile /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP" /f
REG ADD "HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\CrashControl" /v NMICrashDump /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

reg unload HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM

    1. Make sure that there's enough space on the disk to allocate as much memory as the RAM, which depends on the size that you're selecting for this VM.

    2. If there isn't enough space or this is a large size VM (G, GS or E series), you could then change the location where this file is created and refer that to any other data disk that's attached to the VM. To do this, you have to modify registry keys, as shown in the following code:

      reg load HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM F:\windows\system32\config\SYSTEM

REG ADD "HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CrashControl" /v DumpFile /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "<DRIVE LETTER OF YOUR DATA DISK>:\MEMORY.DMP" /f
REG ADD "HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\CrashControl" /v DumpFile /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "<DRIVE LETTER OF YOUR DATA DISK>:\MEMORY.DMP" /f

reg unload HKLM\BROKENSYSTEM

  3. Detach the OS disk and then Re-attach the OS disk to the affected VM.

  4. Start the VM and access the Serial Console.

  5. Select Send Non-Maskable Interrupt(NMI) to trigger the memory dump.

    Screenshot of the Send Non-Maskable Interrupt item.

  6. Attach the OS disk to a recovery VM again, and collect the dump file.

After you collect the dump file, contact Microsoft support to analyze the root cause.

Contact us for help

If you have questions or need help, create a support request, or ask Azure community support. You can also submit product feedback to Azure feedback community.