Category: Windows Server

Cannot Delete A Storage Pool Because It Is Read Only

I do a lot of messing around with Storage Spaces. This can involve reusing disks that have been used in other pools – I want to erase the disks but I encounter an error:

Error deleting virtual disk: The storage pool could not complete the operation because its configuration is read-only.

This is easy to fix … with PowerShell. Get the name of the Storage Pool, also known as the friendly name – for example Pool1. Then run:

Get-StoragePool –FriendlyName “Pool1” | Set-StoragePool –IsReadOnly $false

Then if you are sure, you can delete the storage pool, thus cleaning the disks for reuse:

Get-StoragePool –FriendlyName “Pool1” | Remove-StoragePool

IT Pros In Ireland Can Win Xbox One Or Nokia 520 For Evaluating Windows Server or System Center

Microsoft Ireland is running a promotion in the months of April, May, and June for people in Ireland who download and evaluate either Windows Server 2012 R2 or System Center 2012 R2. Download any of the ISOs or VHDs for WS2012 R2 or SysCtr 2012 R2, or even use an Azure trial using the above links.

Once you do that you’ll get an email from Microsoft (check your junkmail folder). Send that email as an attachment to appireland@microsoft.com and send your feedback on the product in less than 140 characters. Alternatively, tweet a screenshot of your download with your live ID to @IEITPRO with this text:

Hey @IEITPRO I just downloaded #WindowsServer2012R2 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/dn205286

Each month through to the end of June 2014 someone will win an Xbox One and someone will win a Nokia 520. You can find terms and conditions here. Remember this is open only to residents of the island of Ireland.

“The Update” For Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1 Is GA … But Not For Everyone

The much talked about “Update 1” which is actually called “Update” (and can be thought of as Service Pack 2, after the big GA update) is out via Windows Update. And that’s it. You won’t get this update via WSUS, and downstream products.

And that’s because there’s a problem.

I applaud Microsoft for taking the following action to avoid breaking security patching:

Microsoft plans to issue an update as soon as possible that will correct the issue and restore the proper behaviour for Windows 8.1 Update scanning against all supported WSUS configurations. Until that time, we are temporarily suspending the distribution of the Windows 8.1 Update to WSUS servers.

So if you’re desperate for The Update then you can manually download it via Windows Update but forget about deploying it in business for the time being until Microsoft resolves the WSUS SSL issue.

BTW, if you are using Veeam to backup WS2012 R2 hyper-V then MVP Hans Vredevoort has important news of a hotfix from Veeam that you should read before approving The Update.

KB2935616–Memory Leak Caused By WMI Scripts On WS2012 Cluster

It’s a busy day for fixes. This one is for when you run a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) script in a Windows Server 2012 cluster, the memory usage for the Wmiprvse.exe process increases over time.

The cause is this:

… issue occurs because the cluster WMI provider leaks basic strings or binary strings (BSTRs).

To resolve this issue, install update 2934016, the Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012 update rollup: April 2014.

KB2937633–Manually Copying Files To A WS2012 Scale-Out File Server Is Slow

Waaaaay too many people have tried to test SOFS performance (and therefore SMB 3.0 as the medium and often Storage Spaces as the backend storage) by copying files and watching transfer rates. I have news for you: this is not what SMB 3.0 was intended for. File copies are chatty and inefficient. SMB 3.0 is for application data such as data streaming to/from a Hyper-V virtual machine or SQL database files.

I know that Microsoft got hit with this over and over and over and over. I know I’ve seen it on various social media types over and over and over and over and over. And people don’t listen or read. So Microsoft has a KB article.

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

  • You use Storage Spaces to create storage pools on a Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2-based failover cluster.
  • You have a file server or scale-out file server resource that hosts continuously available Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 (or a later version) shares that are backed by the storage pools.
  • You try to copy large files from a Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 computer to the continuously available SMB shares.

In this scenario, the observed copy throughput is significantly lower than what the connected network and storage system can support.

The fix is included in KB2934016, the big “Update” for Windows Server 2012 (and Windows 8 and Windows RT).

KB976424–Important Update For W2008 Or W2008 R2 DCs If You Have WS2012 Clusters

Microsoft has published an elective hotfix that they want you to know about if you haveWindows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controllers and you are running Windows Server 2012 clusters.

Symptoms

You perform an authoritative restore on the krbtgt account in a Windows Server 2008-based or in a Windows Server 2008 R2-based domain. After you perform this operation, the kpasswd protocol fails and generates a KDC_ERROR_S_PRINCIPAL_UNKNOWN error code. Additionally, you may be unable to set the password of a user by using the kpasswd protocol. Also, this issue blocks kpasswd protocol interoperability between the domain and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) realm. For example, you cannot set the user password by using the Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager during user provisioning.

Note The krbtgt account is used for Kerberos authentication. The account cannot be used to log on to a domain.

You may experience additional symptoms in a Windows Server 2012-based server cluster. Assume that you try to set the password for the cluster computer object in a Windows Server 2012-based server cluster. Additionally, assume that there are Windows Server 2008-based or Windows Server 2008 R2-based domain controllers in the environment. In this situation, you receive the following error message:

CreateClusterNameCOIfNotExists (6783): Unable to set password on <ClusterName$>

To resolve this issue, apply this hotfix on the Windows Server 2008-based or Windows Server 2008 R2-based domain controllers, and then create the Windows Server 2012-based server cluster.

Note You do not need to apply this hotfix if you have Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 installed.

Cause

When a user requests a ticket for the Kpasswd service, a flag is incorrectly set in the Kerberos ticket-granting service (TGS) request for the Kpasswd service. This behavior causes the Key Distribution Center (KDC) to incorrectly build a new service name. Therefore, an incorrect service name is used, and the KPasswd service fails.

Note The expected behavior is that the Key Distribution Center (KDC) directly copies the correct service name from the Kerberos ticket-granting tickets (TGTs).

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft.

So Now You’re Rid Of Windows XP, Turn Your Focus To W2003 (And More)

Today, April 8th is when support for Windows XP came to it’s extended end of life. It’s now time for you to turn your attention to the next product in your portfolio that is going end of life.

On July 14th 2015 Windows Server 2003 (W2003) and Windows Server 2003 R2 (W2003 R2) will be going end of life. This should be of no surprise; the information was shared publicly years ago. It will be 10 years since the release of W2003 R2, and 12 years since the release of W2003.

How big is this challenge for customers? Or from the partner perspective, how big is this opportunity? Personally, I think it’s much bigger than the XP upgrade. There are several reasons. You’re not dealing with standardised builds.  I can’t find market share figures for W2003 but I have heard it said that over 50% of Irish servers are still on W2003 (an 11 year old server OS). And almost every one of those servers has a complex bespoke build that cannot be dealt with using the same levels of automation that we can bring to the desktop. And then there’s the processor architecture challenge.

Migrating server workloads has it’s own set of complexities when compared to desktops. There are lots of workload specific tools to help with migration, and for most of you, that’s what you’ll be doing … a migration.

The vast majority of W2003 installations are 32-bit. Microsoft’s last 32-bit server OS was Windows Server 2008. If you’re going to make a substantial effort, then it makes no sense to upgrade to an old OS (WS2012 R2 > WS2012 > W2008 R2 > W2008).

Realistically, you should be moving to the newest OS that you can. Right now, that is WS2012 R2. You cannot upgrade from x86 to x64, so you’re looking at an opportunity to get fresh rebuilds using your experience at engineering the products that you are running (yeah – that’s a positive spin). In reality, upgrades are messy and bring forward old problems and corruptions. Fresh builds are always best.

You might argue that a new version of Windows Server (2015?) is coming around April and that gives you a few months to upgrade. If that’s how you plan server migrations, then you’re going to be running W2003 long after support and patch availability ends.

So get planning … NOW!

And no, I don’t give a flying monkey’s about your old services that only support W2003. You and your employers need to either pressure those vendors or find a replacement. The world keeps moving, and those who remain static stay in the past and die.

A number of other infrastructure products are also going end of life in the next year or so:

  • Compute Cluster Pack: 14 July 2015
  • Forefront Client Security: 14 July 2015
  • Host Integration Server 2004: 13 January 2015 (I haven’t heard of this one in years)
  • Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 Enterprise Edition: 14 April 2015
  • Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 Standard Edition: 14 October 2014
  • Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005: 13 January 2015
  • Systems Management Server 2003 and 2003 R2: 13 January 2015
  • Virtual Server 2005 and Virtual Server 2005 R2: 13 January 2015

There are other things going end of life but I’ve stuck to infrastructure.

Virtual Networking Problems With Emulex NICs And Windows Server 2012 R2

Unfortunately, problems have arisen with WS2012 R2 Hyper-V networking where Emulex NICs are used. Hans Vredevoort (Hyper-V MVP) and Marc van Eijk (Azure MVP) have been experiencing this issue and blogged about it on Hyper-V.nu.  It appears that lots of you have encountered the same problem with VMs and virtual NICs losing connectivity when a virtual switch is connected to an Emulex NIC – in the guys’ case in HP blades with FlexFabric.

The core issue seems to be related to Emulex 10 GbE NICs – As they guys report in their post Kristian Nese (System Center MVP) also sees the problem on IBM servers with Emulex NICs.

There is no fix. Please watch the thread on Hyper-V.nu to keep up with updates.

KB2920193 – Virtual Hard Disk Can’t Be Created On WS2012 SMB Share Without Resiliency

Another hotfix, KB2920193, has been released by Microsoft, this time to deal with a scenario where a virtual hard disk cannot be created on an SMB server without resiliency support from a Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 computer.

Assume that you have a computer that has Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 installed and you are connected to a server share across a SMB2 link that does not support resiliency. Resiliency is an optional feature beginning with SMB 2.1 and some SMB2 implementations do not support resiliency. Then, you experience one of the following issues:

  • When you use Windows Server Backup, you receive the following error message: Backup failed to complete. There was a failure in preparing the backup image.
  • When you use Hyper-V manager to create a VHD or VHDX, you receive the following error message: The filename \<system><share>New Virtual Hard Disk.vhdx is reserved for use by Windows.
  • When you try to mount an .ISO image by right-clicking on the .ISO file in Explorer and select mount from the right-click menu, you receive the following error message: sorry there was a problem mounting the file.
  • When you use the Win32 API, CreateVirtualDisk() fails.

Uhhh, SMB 2? Huh? Just use WS2012 on all ends to stick with SMB 3.0 and avoid this issue.

A hotfix is available from Microsoft

KB2913766 – Improving JBOD Management For WS2012 R2 Storage Spaces

A very useful update, KB2913766, was released by Microsoft to improve storage enclosure management for Storage Spaces in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

This article introduces a hotfix that extends platform support for Storage Spaces in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. After you install this hotfix, storage enclosure management is improved. The improvement is achieved by adding Storage Management Application Programming Interface (SMAPI) support for enclosure awareness that enables managing and health monitoring of just-a-bunch-of-disks (JBOD) enclosures.

The hotfix is available from Microsoft.

There is no documentation to state what the exact improvements are. I know “some” stuff but I don’t know how clear I am to share it. A search based on that “stuff” revealed nothing public.