Author: allen

Server Migrated

~ allen ~ Leave a comment

I’ve migrated this site from my server in Japan to a Windows Azure hosted server in Hong Kong. OS of server has also been changed from CentOS to Windows. Hope it works well.

Theme is changed coz the old one is not compatible with IIS…

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Update: New server (Windows Azure A1) is really really slower than the previous one hosted by Linode.

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Update 2: Sometimes, Windows Server 2012 R2 is not responded. None of network connection can be made, including RDP and HTTP.  Azure says it’s still running. After a manually reboot, get lots of network related errors in event log like:

The VM and host networking components failed to negotiate protocol version ‘5.0’
The VM and host networking components successfully negotiated protocol version ‘4.0’
Miniport NIC ‘Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter #4’ connected
The miniport ‘Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter #4’ was successfully initialized
Miniport NIC ‘Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter #4’ restarted

…

WDS of Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update

~ allen ~ Leave a comment

No matter the way you get the Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update, by fresh installing from the CD supplied by MSDN Subscription or simply upgrading by Windows Update, the WDS of this system sucks.

 

If you planned to upgrade, please remember to backup the Boot folder of WDS while using Windows Server 2012 R2 without that update. After upgrading process, you need to stop WDS service, replace the Boot folder with your backup and restart WDS.

 

The Boot folder provided with Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update or Windows 8.1 with Update, is not compatible with capture image creation. If you use the original Boot folder from Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update, or get the Boot folder upgraded by adding a boot.wim from Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update or Windows 81. with Update, it can boot but cannot support capture image any more. No matter which boot file your capture image is created based on, even you get your capture image from another server, it just cannot boot your PC for capturing. After loading finished, you will get an error in winload.exe with the status code 0xc000000f.

 

To avoid this, do NOT use the boot.wim from Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update or Windows 8.1 with Update ISO files which are provided by MSDN Subscription. And do NOT use the Boot folder provided with the WDS of Windows Server 2012 R2.

To fix this, you just need to restore the WDS Boot folder from your backup before upgrading this update. If you don’t have a backup, copy this folder from another server which is hosted by Windows Server 2012 R2 (without that Update).

 

Still don’t know the reason but it’s not suprised me that WDS is not tested well. In many versions of Windows Server, WDS cannot work well.

 

Related:

Do NOT add a boot file for WDS from Windows 6.3 with Update

Steps to Migrate a Web Application between SharePoint 2013 Farms

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  1. Create a new web application on the target farm;
  2. Run this command under SharePoint 2013 Management Shell of target farm server with administrator privilege:

Get-SPContentDatabase -WebApplication <url> | Dismount-SPContectDatabase

  1. Delete or detach the related database of this application of target farm;

  2. Attach or restore the database of the source web application to the SqlServer of target farm;

  3. Run this command under SharePoint 2013 Management Shell of target farm server with administrator privilege:

Mount-SPContentDatabase <DBName> -DatabaseServer <DBServerName> -WebApplication <url>

Caution: Upgrading Windows to 2012 R2 may change the interface number of network interface card

~ allen ~ Leave a comment

Some server has specified settings wrote by command “route -p” to deal with multiple internet or intranet connections. To make it work with RRAS, the option “if <number>” must be provided with each route command.

If you’re planning to upgrade such a server to Windows Server 2012 R2, be careful, you may have to get a console connection. Through upgrading process will not failed or at least give you any warning about route settings, after it done, the interface number of NIC (network interface card) will be changed. It means you have to remove and add the related persistent routes to resume the remote connection before you can use this server again.

If you cannot get a console, you may want to disable RRAS, remove the “if <number>” parameter from the route command before upgrading.

Visual Studio 2013 Update 1 is not compatible with Windows 8.1 with Update (MSDN CD) while using sysprep

~ allen ~ Leave a comment

While the new installation CD named Windows 8.1 with Update launched for MSDN subscriptions user, I downloaded it and try to upgrade all the images from the Windows Deployment Service in my company. But I found the new version of Windows 8.1 might have some problem with Visual Studio 2013 Update 1.

 

Coz I need to upgrade some related images in batch, this is my way:

Create a VM and install Windows 8.1 (x64 enterprise version with update, downloaded from MSDN subscriptions site);

  1. Install Office 2013 with Service Pack 1 (VL version, coz there is a KMS in our company);
  2. Update to the latest patches;
  3. Run Cleanmgr to minimal the system;
  4. Create a snapshot named Office 2013;
  5. Use Sysprep to boot into the audit mode;
  6. Remove the current user;
  7. Use Sysprep to boot into the OOBE mode with Generalize checked;
  8. Use WDS to capture this status and upload, named as Office 2013. Before capturing, I deleted the pagefile, swap file and the contents within temp folder.

It works great.

Then,

  1. Reverse to snapshot Office 2013;
  2. Install Visual Studio 2013 with Blend, Office Developer Tools, SQL Server Data Tools, Web Developer Tools, Silverlight Development Kit; (No C++, nor mobile things)
  3. Install Update 1 from iso;
  4. Install Visual Studio SDK;
  5. Update to the latest patches;
  6. Run Cleanmgr to minimal the system;
  7. Create a snapshot named Visual Studio;
  8. Use Sysprep to boot into the audit mode;
  9. Remove the current user;
  10. Use Sysprep to boot into the OOBE mode with Generalize checked;
  11. Use WDS to capture this status and upload, named as Visual Studio. Before capturing, I deleted the pagefile, swap file and the contents within temp folder.

It looks familiar right? Actually, it WON’T WORK.

After deploy from this Visual Studio and create a new user, system end with this text:

The User Profile Service service failed the sign-in.

User profile cannot be loaded.

Even when trying to boot from the template VM in current status, it failed in the same way.

But if I try to install Team Explorer from Team Foundation Server with Update 2 CD instead, or using the Office 2013 image created above, it works like a charm. Even just use the old Windows 8.1 CD instead of the new one, it still works great.

I’ve check by using reg in command line. There is nothing wrong like this KB mentioned: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947215.

I have no clue about this but just leave a message here for avoiding others go into the same jam.

 

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Update: It fixed in VS 2013 with Update 2.

Do NOT add a boot file for WDS from Windows 6.3 (2012R2/8.1) with Update

~ allen ~ 10 Comments

If you have a Windows Deployment Service (WDS for short) hosted by Windows Server 2012 R2 (w or w/o update), never try to add a boot file from Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update (MSDN CD) or Windows 8.1 with Update (MSDN CD). If you do so, all capture image, no matter which version of boot file is based on, or it’s created by this server or others, just cannot work. After the loading finished, you will get an error in winload.exe with the status code 0xc000000f.

If you have been in this jam, you have to restore the whole boot folder from the backup before you attach the new version boot files. Don’t forget to stop the WDS before you replace the folder. Delete the new boot file only won’t work.

Update: There is another way to fix the broken capture image file directly. But you have to do that for every capture file. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/a164b948-1778-42bd-8d77-9cef1ca70866/image-capture-boot-image-fails-with-0xc000000f?forum=winserversetup