Category Archives: Server

All about Microsoft Windows Server

Microsoft DPM RPC connection issues

Posted on by
Reply

I have be using Microsoft Data Protection Manager for a while now and really like it.

One tiny little problem that came up which kept us from replicating all of our data to a remote DPM server was the rpc errors that kept appearing.

We use Forefront Threat Managment Gateway, formerly ISA server, and were having this problem until the solution was successfully found!

The problem lies with Strict RPC compliance in the FTMG (ISA). You need to remove the check box from enforce strict RPC compliance. See the following blog from Microsoft for a complete run down:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/archive/2007/05/16/rpc-filter-and-enable-strict-rpc-compliance.aspx

Error 0x800f0818

Posted on by
Reply

Recently when trying to update a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine with service pack 1, I came across this error  0x800f0818 which made the update fail.

Also the error seems to be relevant on Windows 7 and Server 2008. Corrupted update files seem to be the order of the day. Server Manager will also show the error and refuse to refresh often with 0x800f0818 and 0x800b0100.

The fix to this is the Microsoft Update Readiness Tool, which can be downloaded from: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821

See this technet blog article for moer information about running the tool:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/roplatforms/archive/2010/05/12/how-to-fix-server-manager-errors-after-installing-updates-hresult-0x800f0818-hresult-0x800b0100.aspx

Update Group Policy Templates

Posted on by
Reply

If you are using Windows 7 clients on your network and wish to manage them fully via group policy you may have noticed that some of the new GP items are missing from your Group Policy Managament Console. This happens when you are running a Domain Controller that is not Windows 2008 R2.

Don’t worry its really easy to copy the newer group policy templates over to your DC, whether it be Windows 2003 or 2008.

Execute the following 2 commands on a Windows 7 workstation:

xcopy %systemroot%\PolicyDefinitions\* %logonserver%\sysvol\%userdnsdomain%\policies\PolicyDefinitions

xcopy %systemroot%\PolicyDefinitions\EN-US\* %logonserver%\sysvol\%userdnsdomain%\policies\PolicyDefinitions\EN-US\

This will copy all the updated ADMX and ADML files to your DC.

This should take but seconds, now when you access GPMC you will have a full set of Group Policy objects to look at.
 

You may also like to install the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) on your Windows 7 workstation, visit the link below to download:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7D2F6AD7-656B-4313-A005-4E344E43997D&displaylang=en

Adding Printers via Group Policy – Windows 7

Posted on by
2

I ran into a rather interesting problem the other day….

Trying to set up a new printer (MFD) on our network we wanted to roll out the drivers via group policy to all clients. As we completely skipped over Vista to Windows 7, I had never come across this problem before.

When I looked into the event log for inspiration I found the following error:

0x80070bcb The specified printer driver was not found on the system and needs to be downloaded.

This problem occured everytime group policy was applied. To fix this problem you could manually install the driver onto the workstation and it would obviously connect the printer. This however is not much of a solution as we want to roll this out to all workstations automactically.

Incidentally, if you try and manually add the printer you get this warning message:

Printer Driver Warning

Printer Driver Warning

The easy solution to this problem is in two group policy settings. This will reduce the security on your system if you set the policy to disable, or you can configure the policy settings to your environment for added security.

Under Windows 7, group policy you need to look at:

Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | Printers | Point and Print Restrictions : Disable

User Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | Control Panel | Printers | Point and Print Restrictions : Disable

Once applied, Group Policy processing should now compelete succesfully, and your printers should be added.

Windows Deployment Server woes

Posted on by
Reply

I have been configuring up some nice new Dell Optiplex 960 workstations. I use WDS under server 2003 and 2008 so I thought it would be a walk in the park…..

Problem 1

The first problem. Drivers are not included in the boot.wim image for the Intel Pro1000 Gigabit 825xx network card. Not a great problem in itself so a quick download of the network drivers from the Dell website and hey presto I have something to work with.

You need to ensure that you have the Windows Automated Install Kit (WAIK) installed. Now open up the command prompt through the WAIK program group.

Mount your boot image with ImageX. I would recommed setting up a couple of directories, so you can put the files in and then mount the image to.

I created a temp folder in the C drive. And a mount directory beneath it. I extracted the drivers into a folder called network beneath the temp folder.

Copy the boot.wim file to the temp folder. Then issue the following command:

imagex /mountrw c:\temp\boot.wim 2 c:\temp\mount

The number 2 is very important, it relates to the install image inside the boot.wim file. You can find out which images you have in a file by using imagex /info <wimfile>

Now you want to inject the drivers:

peimg /inf=c:\temp\network\*.inf /image=c:\temp\mount

This should complete successfully then all you need to do is commit the changes and unmount the wim image.

imagex /unmount /commit c:\temp\mount

You should now have your boot.wim file updated with new drivers. Insert this back into WDS using the console tools.

Problem 2

This one had my screaming at the machine for hours….

When the boot image loads it start Windows PE and gives you this error

WdsClient: An error occured while obtaining an IP Address from the DHCP Server

The only option is to hit OK, and thats the end.

The solution…..you might be interested in has nothing to do with the WDS server or the image file. It is actually the network switch. I have some very nice pretty shiney new Dell Powerconnect switches (62xx series), this is also a problem with Cisco switches. I messed about with some simply unmanaged switches and the problem goes away. So what is different??

Its called Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) portfast. You must enable this on the ports on your switch that you want to be able to network boot the machines on.

For the Dell Powerconnect 62xx series you need to log onto the switch in CLI mode and issue the following

at the Console> prompt

enable
configure
interface ethernet 1/g1
spanning-tree portfast

Where 1/g1 above that is the switch/port-type(number) 

I hope this helps.