Re-arm trial Server 2008+

While doing labs, applying snapshots and whatnot the licensekey sometimes disappears or you just dont wanna waste an activation on a testmachine.

To re-arm a Server triallicense

Elevated Cmd-prompt

Check current licenselevel

/>slmgr.vbs –dli

Extend the evalution period with another 60 days

/>slmgr.vbs –rearm

Server can be rearmed up to 3 times giving you a total of 240 days.

References:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948472

http://blogs.technet.com/b/johnbaker/archive/2009/08/29/extending-your-evaluation-activation-grace-period-on-windows-server-2008-and-2008-r2.aspx

Remote Desktop Services in 2012

Problem:
In a customer environment they wanted to install RDS and DC on the same server. A nice cheap solution, which have worked perfectly fine in the past. Not so anymore. In Server 2012, RDS requires by default that

1. A domain controller is present, aka server is member of a domain
2. the RDS role cannot be installed on the DC

Which means, you need at least two servers for a working installation?
Well no, there is apparently a official workaround from microsoft. It was not easy to find so im posting it here for future reference or until I’ve had time to try it out.
Edit:  A colleague actually tried this out on several machines and it seemed to work as expected.
Solution:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2833839/en-us?sd=rss - Guidelines for installing the Remote Desktop Session Host role service on a computer running Windows Server 2012 without the Remote Desktop Connection Broker role service
References:
http://www.wackytechtips.com/installing-and-configuring-remote-desktop-services-rds-on-windows-server-2012/
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2013/07/09/what-s-new-in-remote-desktop-services-for-windows-server-2012-r2.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831447.aspx - specs about rds 2012.
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh831568.aspx - deprecated
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2013/03/14/what-s-new-in-windows-server-2012-remote-desktop-gateway.aspx - changes
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2012/10/30/windows-8-windows-server-2012-remote-desktop-management-server.aspx - new ways of managing rds
http://www.urtech.ca/2013/02/solved-1-hour-to-install-and-configure-a-single-server-remote-desktop-services-on-server-2012/
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/cbffb2d4-ff9d-49ee-a9ce-a60db2262422/managing-server-2012-rds-in-a-workgroup- -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2833839/en-us?sd=rss&spid=16526&wa=wsignin1.0 – ms article regarding standalone rds
http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.nl/

Exchange 2013 powershell issues

newly installed exchange 2013 environment. Clean install. When running exchange-powershell gets error “connecting to remote server : access denied … fully qualified errorid : accessdenied, pssessionopenfailed.

Solution:

One of these…

• Time on DC was off by 7 minutes. Corrected this
• Applied the Cumalative Update 1 for Exchange 2013

Tried quite a few other fixes before this that didn’t work for me.

Among the most popular

• Run "aspnet_regiis -ir" from C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework(64)\v4.0.30319 to register ASP.NET 4.0. – didn’t work for Server 2012
• Added powershell 2.0 and dotnet 3.5 frameowork features
• Activated wsman module from powershell virtuel catalogue in iis
• ran proxy reset > netsh winhttp reset proxy
• ran set-user administrator –remotepowershellenabled

See links below.

References:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38176 – cumulative update 1 for exchange 2013

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/09def496-1998-4b56-bae4-8d3675d18a30/exchange-2013-powershell-error

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/aa3c936f-bec1-4e24-b38f-81685df718c7/exchange-management-shell-fails-to-connect-to-exchange-server-2013 - .

http://dbanda.blogspot.se/2013/05/problem-with-exchange-2013-management.html

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2010/02/04/3409289.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351136.aspx - Troubleshooting the Exchange Management Shell

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/d50f27d0-9395-40af-94bb-a7320f7e8ef0/unable-to-connect-to-local-exchange-2013-server-when-opening-exchange-management-shell - .

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/04/02/released-exchange-server-2013-rtm-cumulative-update-1.aspx - cu1 update.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12411046/error-connecting-to-exchange-server-remotely-via-powershell

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd335083%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx – what needs to run powershell remote.

http://blog.subvertallmedia.com/2013/01/30/cant-open-exchange-shell-or-console-because-of-kerberos-authentication-error/ - very promising solution.

Refs or no refs

Should we start to use refs on ours filesystems?

Maybe, but not if any of the following true.

• It’s a domain controller – Refs doesn’t support hard links among other things.
• SQL Server – missing features like dbcc checkdb and snapshots.
• HyperV – missing features like integrity streams on vhdx
• It’s a bootpartition

Also there a few posts out there that have experienced problems with not being able to access refs-volumes after sudden power losses.

Why do we event want to use refs then?

• Refs handles corrupted files better
• Doesn’t need to use checkdisk anymore.

I think I’ll stick to ntfs for a little while longer…

References:

http://www.unitrends.com/hyper-v-backup/refs-generation-file-system-part-1/

http://www.petri.co.il/4-reasons-refs-is-better-than-ntfs.htm

http://windowsitpro.com/hyper-v/dont-use-refs-hyper-v

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserver8gen/thread/b14ddfe9-c31b-4dd8-a459-b177e355bdb1

http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=13245

Deploy printer through GPO

So I recently acquired an old printer for my home network. It’s a usb-only device so I need to connect it to my Server 2012 Essentials Server. Printers didn’t automatically work like they did on my W8 computer. Apparently a security feature that stops Server 2008+ from looking at Windows Update for printer drivers.

Anyways I now need to deploy this printer to all my home computers. Now I can just go around and connect manually from all machines but how fun is that. So, I’ll deploy it from a group policy. Easy and done right? So using GPO preference I add the printer and deploy it to my user OU. Hmm, nothing happens. Instead I receive an Event 4098 : Specified printer driver was not found.

After a bit of trial and error I found the solution. Creating a different GPO like on picture below and deploying it on the root gpo node makes it work.

Not really good security practice but it’ll work for my home network.

References:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverGP/thread/8c7f439c-be8c-4511-99fd-566985522673

Lockscreen shortcut

When bouncing about on different desktops, virtual and otherwise physical its easy to leave a computer unlocked sometimes. This isn’t so good, but shortcuts tends to flip out when accessing remote systems. A good security practice is to create a desktop shortcut that can lock the computer very easily.

So,

1. Create a shortcut

2. Enter: rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

3. Save and change icon to a padlock or something more logical. This among other icons can be found in Shell32.dll under system32

References:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/13278-lock-computer-create-shortcut.html

http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_change_the_icon_of_a_desktop_shortcut.html

Sharepoint 2010 and Server 2012

This will show when trying to install the prerequsites:

Always a bad sign…followed by

Server 2012 and Sharepoint 2010 is not a supported configuration. Support will come with Sharepoint 2010 Service pack 2. For now, stick to 2008 R2.

References:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2724471