Windows Server 2008 Hibernation
As the Technical Editor for the forthcoming book, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Unleashed (Sams Publishing), I'm doing a lot of work with Windows Server 2008.
It seems that W2K8 Server enables hibernation by default. This is quite interesting since I'm not sure how many people actually hibernate a server. Nevertheless, it's something we need to deal with. Particularly for those (like me) who do most of their work in VMs.
As you may know, Windows creates a file named hiberfil.sys in the root of the system drive for systems where hibernation is enabled. The hiberfil.sys file is always the same size as physical RAM. In a VM where hibernation is normally replaced with the VM software's suspend feature, that can be quite a sizeable chunk of wasted space. In a production environment I would normally want to disable hibernation, too.
Trouble is, you can't disable hibernation anywhere in the GUI. It must be disabled from the command line using the command:
powercfg.exe /hibernate off
This is further documented in the following MS KB articles:
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920730
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929658
- How to Disable Hibernation on Windows Vista
Labels: tip, Windows Server 2008
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posted by Jeff @ 8:40 PM
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5 Comments:
that's no longer true for Windows Server 2008 RC1. By default no hibernating available. Even trying to switch it on gives an error message:
"Hibernation failed with the following error: The request is not supported.
The following items are preventing hibernation on this system.
An internal system component has disabled hibernation."
Franz
It's still true for Windows Server 2008 RTM Escrow. This is the version that goes through legal before official RTM.
You can verify this by running the ATTRIB command from the CMD line in the C:\ folder. You'll see a hidden system file named hiberfil.sys. Optionally, you can view hidden and system files in Windows Explorer to view it.
Hiberfil.sys is the same size as physical RAM, which can be quite sizeable.
Jeff
This is what you get when trying to enable hibernation while Hyper-V is installed.
FYI - Hibernation is still enabled in Windows Server 2008 RTM.
Jeff
Contrary to a lot of online advice, to activate hibernation in Windows Server 2008 (Enterprise, RTM), one needs to run the command line in administrative mode, then type powercfg.exe -h on (as opposed to powercfg.exe /hibernate on).
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