Windows Server 2022 VMs impacted by February updates, Microsoft acknowledges issue

According to Microsoft, certain virtual machines running Windows Server 2022 may fail to start up after the installation of updates released during this month's Patch Tuesday. It is important to note that this issue is limited to virtual machines with Secure Boot enabled and operating on vSphere ESXi 6.7 U2/U3 or vSphere ESXi 7.0.x.

Here is Microsoft’s official communique: ‘After installing KB5022842 on guest virtual machines (VMs) running Windows Server 2022 on some versions of VMware ESXi, Windows Server 2022 might not start up.’

VMware and Microsoft are actively investigating the matter and will communicate further details as soon as they become available. Although there is currently no resolution available for virtual machines affected by this issue, VMware is offering system administrators multiple temporary workarounds to address the problem on impacted hosts until a permanent solution is developed.

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To mitigate the boot issues related to this matter, there are several measures that can be taken:

1. Upgrade the ESXi Host running the affected virtual machine(s) to vSphere ESXi 8.0.
2. Disable the "Secure Boot" feature on the virtual machines.
3. Refrain from installing the KB5022842 patch on any Windows 2022 Server virtual machine until the issue is resolved.

If the Secure Boot feature needs to be disabled for a specific virtual machine, the following steps can be taken:

1. Power off the virtual machine.
2. Right-click the virtual machine and select "Edit Settings."
3. Navigate to the "VM Options" tab.
4. Under "Boot Options," uncheck the "Secure Boot enabled" option.

Regrettably, uninstalling this month's KB5022842 Windows Server 2022 cumulative update will not rectify the issue if it has already been installed. To enable the virtual machines to boot again, the only viable alternatives are to update the ESXi host to vSphere ESXi 8.0 or to deactivate the Secure Boot feature.

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It is important to note that Microsoft is actively working on resolving an additional issue whereby upgraded WSUS servers running on Windows Server 2022 may be unable to push the February 2022 Windows 11 22H2 updates to clients.

It is worth noting that this particular issue only impacts WSUS servers that have been upgraded from Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019.

Microsoft has provided system administrators with affected WSUS servers a workaround to address the issue, which involves re-adding the inadvertently removed Unified Update Platform (UUP) MIME types during the upgrade process that are causing the problems with update propagation.

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