Windows Server 2012 R2: Backup Failure

Error reviewed: 

• Error Code: 0x8078006B
• Windows Backup failed to create the shared protection point on the source volumes. Detailed error: The operation ended before completion.
• MMC has detected an error in a snap-in and will unload it. (Windows Server Backup MMC console getting crashed.)

Resolution:

• Ensure Dot Net Framework 3.5 SP1 is installed.
• Hard-drive or partition designated for backup is a primary active partition.
• And most importantly Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service or VSS is up and running. If on a domain then ensure that the service is running with local system rights.

VMware ESXi Update Failed: Cannot run upgrade script on host.

I faced some problems while upgrading my VMware infrastructure from ESXi 5.1 to 5.5. On one of the server; the remote and manual update both failed and resulted in error:

Cannot run upgrade script on host. 

Upon exploring the issue; came across a KB article that suggested to move the boot sate file up a folder level. But that didn’t helped either. The issue was only solved when the H/A agent (VMware FDM) was removed manually. Although there were other servers in the cluster with agents installed and they upgraded seamlessly. Anyhow the manual uninstall solved the issue. Following snapshot shows the commands on how to uninstall the VMware FDM agent manually.

Errors with File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) in Windows Server 2008 R2

That amazing moment amazing amazing moment when you are able to resolve a long pending issue even that the TechNet forum was all baboons about it.

Having issues with management of your once applied quotas via File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) on your WIndows Server 2008 R2 SP2. Apparently the following can be the reasons for this error:

• You have installed the FSRM role; created quotas; un-installed the FSRM role and re-installed it.
• You have installed the FSRM as a Windows Feature instead of a Role.

And you will be apparently having these following errors/warnings in your Event Viewer:

• Warning 12317:  File Server Resource Manager failed to enumerate share paths or DFS paths. Mappings from local file paths to share and DFS paths may be incomplete or temporarily unavailable. FSRM will retry the operation at a later time.
• Error: DfsMapCacheAdd(Domain), 0x8007054b, The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.
• Error 8197:  File Server Resource Manager Service error: Unexpected error.
• Error: CGlobalStoreManager::Install(), 0x80070005, Access is denied.

Now when you access the Quota tab from the FSRM MMC; you get the an error and no quotas are visible. Or you apply a quota on a folder but instead you get an error saying that the quota for the folder already exists but you don’t see any.

This is apparently due to the fact that the system files associated with the FSRM either get corrupted or the SYSTEM account access is restricted to these files or the previously installed FSRM role settings are still not completely removed.

Now the work around to this issue depends upon how bad have you played with your FSRM role. Just to let you know that This workaround will remove all your previously implemented quota rules and templates.

The work around to this is basically deleting the system files related to the FSRM. Before doing that; uninstall the FSRM Role or the FSRM Feature you installed previously.

Now to delete the FSRM related system files; you won’t be able to access them with you Admin credentials (even Enterprise Admin is not able to alter these files). Only the SYSTEM account has access to it.

Now to access these files here is a small tool; rather set of tools I used. Download the PSTools and follow the following steps.

1. Unzip the downloaded PSTools.
2. Run Command Prompt as Administrator.
3. Navigate to the folder where you unzipped the PSTools.
4. Execute the following command

PSEXEC -i -s -d CMD

Click YES if you have executed the command for the first time. A new Command Prompt window will be opened which basically is running under the privileges of the SYSTEM Account.

Now what you need to do is first delete a couple of files from inside the partition on which you have applied quotas before.   If you have quotas applied on multiple partitions then you will need to repeat the following steps for all the partitions.

What you will basically do is delete the files quota.xml and quota.md from the %SystemVolumeInformation\SRM folder. These two system files will be write-protected hence you will need to alter the rights before deleting them.

In the newly opened Command Prompt window; execute the following commands but do not close the windows yet after these commands.

cd \System Volume Information\SRM
attrib quota.xml -s -h
attrib quota.md -s -h
del quota.xml
del quota.md

Along these files you will also need to delete the files ReportSettings.xml and SrmGlobalSettings.xml inside the root drive (i.e. C:\) %SystemVolumeInformation\SRM\Settings folder. In the same Command Prompt window opened earlier; execute the following commands.

cd \System Volume Information\SRM
attrib ReportSettings.xml -s -h
attrib SrmGlobalSettings.xml -s -h
del ReportSettings.xml
del SrmGlobalSettings.xml

After deleting these system files; install the FSRM Role again; this time hopefully you will be able to install the FSRM Role without any errors. If not then feel free to leave a message! Cheerio!!

References: 

• Getting a CMD prompt as SYSTEM in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
• You cannot create quotas on File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) in Windows Server 2003 R2 KB 555941.

vSphere Design Pocket Book

Came across this eBook today and finished it reading almost two times on the go. Its basically a combination of tweets by VMware tech evangelists/experts giving away some very valuable tips and tricks on ESXi, vSphere, clustering, hardware considerations and resource allocation. I surely will start to follow these guide lines for my data-center. Thanks to PernixData; its available as a free download. You can access it here.

 

Microsoft’s Private Cloud

Just attended a conference; Microsoft’s Private Cloud which was an extension in regards to the TechEd 2013 event; the  Microsoft’s Premiere Event for IT Professionals & Enterprise Developers held from 3- 6 June 2013 at LA USA based on the new developments in Microsoft’s Private Cloud. So whats new? Well these are the new developments.

– R2 releases for Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 instead of going towards service packs.

– Azure comming to SQL as SQL Azure.

– SQL Server 2014 release.

– Concept of Hybrid Cloud was much emphasized. Utilization of services from a private cloud plus reservations in the Public Cloud as well. But then why would I let my datacenter invest in a 2-tier solution; didn’t understood that.

– Windows Intune now avaliable for Pakistan region.

– Full focus in integrating other virtualization platforms rather than sticking to Microsoft centric approach.

– Windows 8.1 release.

 

 

VMware Stand Alone Converter Issues

My woes with the P2V conversions is growing ever since I posted last time! Just an update on couple of things I learned in doing so. First would like to mention an error while specifying source computer to Standalone Converter; it would return the following error.

Unable to complete installation/uninstallation of vCenter Converter agent on ‘X.X.X.X’

As I stated in my last post that I read somehwere in the Standalone Converter help/troublshoot giude to disable files shares in order to access the source hardware information. I disabled my file shares last time for a server which I had to revert then as doing so didn’t solved my problem. But eventually I found out that in Windows Server; ADMIN$ (which points to C:\Windows) cannot be added from Computer Management once deleted. Hence to add that again; do the following steps:

• Run CMD Prompt as administrator.
• Run the command > net share ADMIN$ /UNLIMITED

This will enable your ADMIN$ share which will be used by the Standalone Converter to push its agent. Another error I figured out with one of my servers was

The source computer has GPT disk(s). Conversion of live computers with GPT disks is not supported. Conversion of virtual machines with GPT disk is supported only if disk-based cloning is performed.

This was due to the fact that the Standalone Converter is unable to read partitions with GUID tables! Hence it fails the whole process which is just insane on the part of VMware. At least it must give an option to skip that very partition and thus not failing the complete process. To resolve this you will need to disable the partitions. Following these steps:

• Run CMD Prompt as administrator.
• Run the command > DISKPART
• Type > list disk
• This will give you a list of the partition configured with GPT (indicated by *).
• Now goto Server Management > Disk Management and make the specific partition OFFLINE (Do note its capicity).
• Once the partition is OFFLINE; go to Device Manager > Disk Drives
• Verify the partition which you just turned OFFLINE by right clicking on the Disk Device > Properties > Volumes > Populate. You can verify it from the Capacity parameter. Click OK.
• Now right click on this Disk Device and click DISABLE.

After doing this again run the P2V conversion process; it will work like a charm! Hopefully🙂 !!!

VMware Standalone Converter 5.1.0: Error: Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine.

With updating of VMware Infrastructure to 5.1; I also installed the latest Standalone Converter 5.1.0. While doing P2V conversions with Windows Server 2008 R2; I faced a few problems.

With Converter 5.1 Build 1087880: Was constantly getting the error:

Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine.

I made sure to follow the checklist given on VMware KB 1016330 but to no avail. Hence reverted all the changes I did according to the given list.

With Converter 5.0 Build 470252 (as used that version previously with success but with vCenter 5.0): Surpassed the initial error but when pointed to my vCenter 5.1; the Converter would stop responding and get crashed.

I then finally resolved the issue by using Converter 5.0.1 Build 875114. Worked like a charm!

I still haven’t figured it out what could be the issue!  But for now the Converter 5.0.1 is working great with vCetner 5.1 Update 1. But I did figured out the following steps bears no fruit;

• VSS Shadow Copy service on source machine does not need to be on.
• Third Party antivirus or backup services on source machine need not to be stopped.
• Simple file sharing on source machine need not to be disabled.

 

LDAPS Identity Source for VMware vCenter Single Sign On 5.1

Once you are done with installation of VMware vCenter 5.1; you will notice that vSphere 5.1 client wont let you login into your vCenter Server. Either you will need to configure a local admin ID on your vCenter Server or if you have an active directory (AD) running in your environment; you will need to link that to your vCenter Server i.e. by configuring an identity source.

During installation of vCenter Single Sign On 5.1; it tries to add the identity source but in my case resulted in error (Error 29155.Identity source discovery error). I then found out its the case with other users as well and also was pointed out in VMware in their KB articles. The workaround for the issue given was to add the identity source manually. Doing so I got the following errors.

[LDAP: error code 8 – 00002028: LdapErr: DSID-0C0901FC, comment: The server requires binds to turn on integrity checking if SSL\TLS are not already active on the connection, data 0, v1db1]

and

simple bind failed:yourdomain:636

These errors are due to the fact that your AD is configured to communicate over LDAPS SSL connection. Hence to register your identity source; you will need the X.509 certificate of your AD domain controller (DC). For that export the certificate of your AD but make sure its the Base-64 X509 Certificate.

Once imported; again add the identity source as demonstrated below.

Once you chose the certificate from Choose Certificate tab; make sure you get the following confirmation. If not there must be something wrong with your certificate.

You can click on Test Connection to verify your AD connectivity.

If you are still facing problems in adding the identity source; make sure of he following things:

• Your vCenter, vSphere, vSphere Web Client, vCenter SSO etc must all be installed in the same default directories.
• Do add the port 3269 with your FQDN.
• There must a proper forward and reverse pointer entry on your DNS for your vCenter Server.
• Enter the complete user name for authentication e.g. user@domain.com
• If your domain controller is behind a firewall; make sure you have configured a policy to allow vCenter traffic.

SQL Database Creation for vCenter 5.1 and vCenter Single Sign On 5.1

I am not a database guy and always have avoided anything related to it. When installing VMware vCenter 5.1 or earlier; you are prompted to create a DB instance. You can carry on by creating a default instance of SQL Express (zero effort required; YES I have always done that). But doing so is not recommended in a production environment as the DB gets populated and there are limited options to purge/protect your logs. Hence installation of separate SQL server is recommended. For a dumb person like me VMware is kind enough to include scripts for the DB creation and permission rights are available in the setup package but I found that customization was required. Hence for all the linked-minded fellows out there; this post might be of some help.

There are basically two DB’s needed to be created. One for the vCenter and other for the vCenter Single Sign On (SSO). VMware has made a major change in vCenter 5.1 for with its mandatory to install the SSO module.

I used Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (Enterprise Edition) to carry on my installation. For the basic requirement; select the following features:

• Database Engine Services.
• Client Tools Connectivity.
• Integration Services.
• Management Tools Basic/Complete

Once installed. Open the SQL Database Enterprise Manager and create a New Query. Execute the following three scripts one by one. (WordPress wont let me upload .sql or .txt files hence bear with .doc extension :) )

1. VCENTER_DB_CREATION_SCRIPT
2. SSO_RSA_DB_CREATION_SCRIPT_1
3. SSO_RSA_DB_CREATION_SCRIPT_2

Once done with this; make sure to create the ODBC SYSTEM DSN for the vCetner DB (VCDB). Following are the steps to create the SYSTEM DSN.

1. Go to ODBC DATA SOURCE ADMINISTRATOR from the Control Panel. Click the SYSTEM DSN tab from the top. Click ADD.
2. Double click SQL NATIVE CLIENT. 
3. Enter the NAME for the data source and the IP of the DB Server. Click NEXT. 
4. Select the SQL SERVER AUTHENTICATION OPTION and give the user (default: vpxuser) credentials (you provided in VCENTER_DB_CREATION_SCRIPT). Click NEXT. 
5. Make sure that VCDB database is selected in the CHANGE THE DEFAULT DATABASE TO tab. Click NEXT. 
6. Leave the default settings and click FINISH. 
7. You can verify your DB connectivity by clicking TEST DATA SOURCE. 

After doing this; you can now proceed with your vCenter installation. Start the installation by clicking the vCenter Server Simple Install from the vCenter Setup Wizard.

During the SSO installation you will be asked to provide the DB details as illustrated below.  Provide the credentials you created in script SSO_RSA_DB_CREATION_SCRIPT_2.

When the SSO and vCenter inventory setups get completed; the installation for the vCenter Server will begin. During the setup you will be again asked to provide the DB details. Select the radio tab for USE AN EXISTING SUPPORTED DATABASE and select the already created SYSTEM DSN (VCDB).  Make sure to enter the credentials you entered while you creating the SYSTEM DSN.

Thats all you need to configure the DB’s for your vCenter installation. I am personally done with my installation but now am stuck on a couple of up-gradation issues from 5.0 to 5.1. Hence in my next blog I will be writing on those issues.

CentOS + Tumy

# yum install salad.bar

😀