Microsoft DPM RPC connection issues

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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

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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

And then there was silence…

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It appears I have fallen into the regular trap of not keeping this place up to date…

Well I plan to change that. Over the coming months, I will have more time to update with some of the interesting things I have stumbled across recently.

ps Hope you like the new theme…

Update Group Policy Templates

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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

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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.