Windows post-launch issues

This topic covers Windows-specific issues that can occur after you launch drill or recovery instances with AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery.

Windows license activation failure

Cause: AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery converts Windows OS licenses to AWS licenses and activates them against AWS KMS. Activation can fail if the recovery instance cannot reach the AWS KMS endpoint.

Resolution: Follow the AWS guide to resolve this issue: Troubleshooting Windows activation.

Important

During failback, AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery does not have access to customer licenses and cannot activate them. After failback completes, activate licenses manually or by using post-launch scripts.

Windows drive letter reassignment

Symptom: Drive letters change after launch (for example, D: becomes E:).

Cause: Windows reconfigures drive letter assignments when a machine starts on new infrastructure, especially if the source server had drive letters mapped to disks that were not replicated (such as network drives or excluded volumes).

Resolution: Remap the drive letters on the recovery instance after launch by using Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) or diskpart. This is a one-time post-launch step.

Windows Dynamic Disk shows as Foreign

Symptom: After launch, a Dynamic Disk shows status Foreign in Disk Management.

Cause: Moving a Windows Dynamic Disk between computers changes the disk status to Foreign. This is normal Windows behavior when disks are presented to a different machine.

Resolution: Import the foreign disk by using Disk Management:

1. Open diskmgmt.msc.

2. Right-click the disk showing Foreign and choose Import Foreign Disks.

For more information, see Microsoft Dynamic Disk troubleshooting.