Upgrading a Windows instance from Xen to Nitro: the ENA installs successfully, but then doesn't appear in Device Manager

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I am following these procedures to upgrade our M4 instance so that we can run on a Nitro instance type. I'm on Part 2 which is to install the Elastic Network Adapter driver. The OS is Windows Server 2008 R2 so I installed ENA version 2.2.3 as directed. It says that the driver installed successfully:

Powershell Screen Shot

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Then I restarted the server, but the ENA is not appearing where it says in the instructions. Under Device Manager -> Network adapters, the "Amazon Elastic Network Adapter" does not appear:

Device Manager

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And in the Network and Sharing Center when viewing the network details, next to Description it does not say Amazon Elastic Network Adapter as indicated in the instructions.

Network & Sharing Center

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The instance will not boot as a Nitro instance type: it cycles this screen repeatedly:

Boot screen

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(It still boots successfully as an M4 instance.)

Can someone assist with any ideas, so that we can migrate to the Nitro instance types? Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

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asked 5 months ago406 views
1 Answer
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Sounds like a storage driver issue.. Have you followed part 3? Ensure you have a snapshot/backup before proceeding

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/migrating-latest-types.html

AWS NVMe drivers are used to interact with Amazon EBS and SSD instance store volumes that are exposed as NVMe block devices in the Nitro system for better performance.

Important The following instructions are modified specifically for when you install or upgrade AWS NVMe on a previous generation instance with the intention to migrate the instance to the latest generation instance type.

  1. Download the latest driver package to the instance.

  2. Extract the zip archive.

  3. Install the driver by running dpinst.exe.

  4. Open a PowerShell session and run the following command: start rundll32.exe sppnp.dll,Sysprep_Generalize_Pnp -wait

  5. For Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012, shut down the instance, change the instance type to a latest generation instance and start it, then proceed to Part 4. If you start the instance again on a previous generation instance type before migrating to a latest generation instance type, it will not boot. For other supported Windows AMIs, you can change the instance type anytime after the device sysprep.

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EXPERT
answered 5 months ago
  • Thanks for the reply: I hadn't moved on to Part 3 yet because Part 2 was not successful. But at your suggestion I just now tried Part 3 as well, installing the NVMe drivers. This did not make a difference: the instance still gets stuck repeatedly cycling that Windows Boot Manager screen when trying to start as an M5 instance type.

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    Thanks again and I will hope for other ideas so that we can get this upgraded to use the Nitro instance types.

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