Author: allen

Do NOT add a newer boot file into an older Windows Deployment Service

~ allen ~ 19 Comments

In my company, there is a Windows Deployment Service (WDS for short) hosted by Windows Server 2012 R2. Since I got the new release of Windows Server yesterday, named Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update, I added the boot.wim from the new CD into this server and began my nightmare.

Result: All boot images from installation CD work great. But all capture images are failed to start, no matter the capture image is pre-existed, new created or copied from other servers. They’re failed in 2 ways:

  • Error in \Windows\System32\boot\winload.exe with status code 0xc000000f after the loading bar completed; or,
  • Black screen after displaying the Windows logo.

To fix this, I’ve tried to remove the new added boot image but this trying is ineffective. Finally, I googled and find there is a person who added a Windows 8 Preview boot file into an old WDS server, which lead to the similar result. The way to fix is:

  1. Stop the WDS;
  2. Restore the Boot folder from a previous version; and,
  3. Restart the WDS.

If you don’t have backup, you may need to reinstall WDS.

I guess when you add a new boot image into a WDS, it will update the existed boot folder to the latest version, which may not be compatible with other boot files. Maybe it will be fixed after patching the server OS, but it’s better never to do such a thing again.

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

Enable Remote Management for Hyper-V Server

~ allen ~ Leave a comment

After a clean installation process, firewall of Hyper-V Server is set to deny any remote connection by default.

If you need to management other than using console, you may want to enable inbound rules for Remote Management and Remote Desktop by running these commands in the console.

To enable the Remote Management:

cscript C:\windows\system32\scregedit.wsf /im 1

To enable the Remote Desktop:

cscript C:\windows\system32\scregedit.wsf /ar 0

And, you need to enable the remote desktop from the sconfig (the blue console window) also.

AVMA: An easier way to activate Windows Server 2012 R2 in Hyper-V

~ allen ~ Leave a comment

Microsoft provides a new way to activate VMs hosted in Hyper-V, named Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA). It makes the activation step of VMs much easier.

Requirement:

  • Hypervisor: Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter with Hyper-V role. Other versions are not supported. Dedicated Hyper-V Server is not supported.
  • VM: Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter, Standard and Essentials.

Steps:

  1. Prepare and activate your Hypervisor;
  2. Install supported OS as VM with the key listed below, or change the key of an installed VM with command “slmgr /ipk <key>”.

Keys:

  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter: Y4TGP-NPTV9-HTC2H-7MGQ3-DV4TW
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard: DBGBW-NPF86-BJVTX-K3WKJ-MTB6V
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials: K2XGM-NMBT3-2R6Q8-WF2FK-P36R2

These keys are supported to being used in any unattend.exe setup file also.

 

Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn303421.aspx

Remove unwanted IP addresses belong to Domain Controllers from DNS

~ allen ~ Leave a comment

If you have multiple IP addresses on domain controller and do not want to publish them all to local DNS, the original way may not help because no matter how you setup, all the interfaces can still access the DNS (localhost).

In this case, you can do this by editing the registry directly.

Open regedit.exe from Domain Controller, navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters, add a string value, named as PublishAddresses, and set the value to the IP address which you want to be published to DNS.

Don’t forget to reboot and delete the existed unwanted records from DNS manually.

Drobo 5D is not trustworthy

~ allen ~ 4 Comments

By believing the ad from Drobo, I brought a Drobo 5D June 2013. I installed a Plextor PX-128M5M as an SSD Cache and 5 WD30EFRX for storing with 2 disks redundancy. For using with OSX, I format it with HFS+ in Drobo Dashboard.

After 2 weeks, it’s failed. The partition cannot be mounted, neither fixed by OSX. After checked by engineer from DiskWarrior, I know the partition is too severely damaged and not possible to recover. I contact the support of Drobo. After 45 days waiting, I get the respond. The problem is partition-related (offset) and should be fixed by firmware 3.0.5. But the my Drobo 5D is shipped with firmware 3.0.7. Finally, the Drobo says there is no way to repo in the lab, and I lost all my home videos for 5 years.

For preventing this issue again, I rebuilt the partition and sent the log to Drobo engineer. After checking the log, the engineer confirmed it’s looks great now.

But, it’s failed again after 2 months. Same behavior, same problem confirmed by DiskWarrior. The funny thing is the support engineer from Drobo. After I submit the ticket again, first response is:

“Western Digital has emailed customers warning them about possible data loss issues between external hard drives and the latest version of Apple’s Mac software, OS X Mavericks (10.9).” taken from this article below:
http://www.zdnet.com/western-digital-warns-customers-os-x-mavericks-may-destroy-drive-data-7000022800/

On another note, not sure whether it is related, your mSATA card may not be entirely compatible, it is not found from the list shown here:
http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/662/

Should I worry about WD software? I guess not. for mSATA SSD cache thing, the PX-128M5M removed from the supported list, without any explanation, and not be put in to incompatible list either. It’s just gone.

After I tell the support I didn’t use WD software but Drobo Dashboard and prove the PX-128M5M WAS on the compatible list by searching mirroring sites, Drobo does like before, just ignore you and do not reply any more.

Now, this Drobo 5D is on my shelf to warn me and my friend: NEVER BUY THE DROBO PRODUCTS.