Tag: Microsoft

Deploy Windows 10 and Windows Server vNext Technical Preview Using MDT 2013

1. Mount boot.wim file
Dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:”D:\DeploymentShare\Operating Systems\Windows Server Technical Preview\sources\boot.wim” /index:1 /MountDir:D:\offline

2. Copy the dism.exe and DISM folder from the Windows 10 Technical Preview boot.wim file to your deployment share, in my case D:\DeploymentShare\Tools\x64.

The dism.exe file and DISM folder are found in the X:\Windows\System32 on your boot image (once booted), or D:\Offline\Windows\System32 if you just mounted the boot.wim.

3. Unmount the image|
Dism /Unmount-Image /MountDir:”D:\Offline” /Discard

4. Edit the Task Sequence
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After copying the files, add two run command line actions to your Windows 10 Technical Preview and Server vNext Preview task sequence after Preinstall – Enable Bitlocker (Offline)

Copy WTP dism.exe
cmd /c copy %deployroot%\tools\%architecture%\dism.exe x:\windows\system32\ /y

Copy WTP DISM subsystem
cmd /c copy %deployroot%\tools\%architecture%\dism\*  x:\windows\system32\dism /y

5. Deploy Machines

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Installing Windows 10 & Server vNext Technical Preview via PXE on Gen 2 VM

If you try to PXE boot a Windows 10 or Server vNext Technical Preview VM running on Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 R2, you are greeted by a nice error message: Boot Failed. EFI Network. Failed Secure Boot Verification.

The simple fix

Until there is an update available turn off secure boot for the Gen 2 VM.

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Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0 Released

New Features in Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0
The 3.0 release of MVMC adds the ability to convert a physical computer running Windows Server 2008 or above server operating systems or Windows Vista or above client operating systems to a virtual machine running on Hyper-V host.

Standard stuff is:

  • Converts virtual disks that are attached to a VMware virtual machine to virtual hard disks (VHDs) that can be uploaded to Microsoft Azure.
  • Provides native Windows PowerShell capability that enables scripting and integration into IT automation workflows.
    Note The command-line interface (CLI) in MVMC 1.0 has been replaced by Windows PowerShell in MVMC 2.0.
  • Supports conversion and provisioning of Linux-based guest operating systems from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts.
  • Supports conversion of offline virtual machines.
  • Supports the new virtual hard disk format (VHDX) when converting and provisioning in Hyper-V in Windows Server® 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012.
  • Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.1, and VMware vSphere 4.1 hosts Hyper-V virtual machines.
  • Supports Windows Server® 2012 R2, Windows Server® 2012, and Windows® 8 as guest operating systems that you can select for conversion.
  • Converts and deploys virtual machines from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts on any of the following operating systems:
  • Windows Server® 2012 R2
  • Windows Server® 2012
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
  • Converts VMware virtual machines, virtual disks, and configurations for memory, virtual processor, and other virtual computing resources from the source to Hyper-V.
  • Adds virtual network interface cards (NICs) to the converted virtual machine on Hyper-V.
  • Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.0, and VMware vSphere 4.1 hosts to Hyper-V.
  • Has a wizard-driven GUI, which simplifies performing virtual machine conversions.
  • Uninstalls VMware Tools before online conversion (online only) to provide a clean way to migrate VMware-based virtual machines to Hyper-V.
    Important MVMC takes a snapshot of the virtual machine that you are converting before you uninstall VMware Tools, and then shuts down the source machine to preserve state during conversion. The virtual machine is restored to its previous state after the source disks that are attached to the virtual machine are successfully copied to the machine where the conversion process is run. At that point, the source machine in VMware can be turned on, if required.
    Important MVMC does not uninstall VMware Tools in an offline conversion. Instead, it disables VMware services, drivers, and programs only for Windows Server guest operating systems. For file conversions with Linux guest operating systems, VMware Tools are not disabled or uninstalled. We highly recommend that you manually uninstall VMware Tools when you convert an offline virtual machine.
  • Supports Windows Server and Linux guest operating system conversion. For more details, see the section “Supported Configurations for Virtual Machine Conversion” in this guide.
  • Includes Windows PowerShell capability for offline conversions of VMware-based virtual hard disks (VMDK) to a Hyper-V–based virtual hard disk file format (.vhd file).
    Note The offline disk conversion does not include driver fixes.

Download

Source

Certain pages or windows don’t appear in Outlook Web App or in the Exchange admin center when using Google Chrome

When you use Google Chrome to access Outlook Web App or the Exchange admin center, you’re unable to perform certain actions because certain pages or windows don’t appear expected.
For example, you’re an admin and you want to change a custom attribute for a mailbox. You open the properties of the user, and then under Custom attributes, you click Edit.
However, the page that lists custom attributes doesn’t appear.

Update the policy settings for the browser. To do this, follow these steps.

  1. Click Start, type regedit in the search box, and then click regedit.exe.
  2. Locate, and then click the following registry subkey:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\EnableDeprecatedWebPlatformFeatures

    Note If the Google subkey is not present, create it manually. For steps on how to do this, see the More Information section of this article.

  3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click String Value.
  4. Type 1, and then press Enter.
  5. Right-click the 1 string value that you created, and then click Modify.
  6. In the Value data box, type ShowModalDialog_EffectiveUntil20150430, and then click OK.
  7. Exit Registry Editor.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3001145/en-us?sd=rss&spid=16662

Microsoft Exchange 2013 Public Folder Directory Sync Support Scripts

Microsoft has recently updated the Microsoft Exchange 2013 Public Folders Directory Sync Support Scripts to version 15.00.1017.003.

Brief Description
Scripts to enable creation of public folder related objects in the O365 Active Directory and synchronization of public folder related Active Directory objects between on-premise and O365 directories.

Overview
Use this scripts if you need to do one of the following – – Initial creation of mail enabled public folder objects in the destination Active Directory for public folder migration from Exchange 2007 or 2010 to Exchange 2013 – Synchronization of mail enabled public folder objects from cloud to on-premise Active Directory – Synchronization of mail enabled public folder objects from on-premise to cloud Active Directory – Synchronization of public folder mailbox objects from cloud to on-premise Active Directory

Posterpedia is now a Universal App!

PosterPedia is a very handy application that allows you to access electronic versions of our detailed Windows Server Architectural posters.  Well, the authors have released an updated version of it which is a Universal App.  This means you can have it on your phone and your desktop!

Other updates include:

  • Featured posters  Find out the latest posters that are available in Posterpedia.
  • Recently viewed  Quickly jump to the last poster you looked at from the hub screen.
  • Download  Download a PDF version of the poster straight to your device.
  • New appbar buttons Quickly go back to the Posterpedia hub page with the home button or get help by using the help button.

You can download the app from the Windows Store, or go directly here:  http://aka.ms/sposterpedia

You can download the app for Windows Phone, or go directly here:  http://aka.ms/Audwjw

You can also view a video of the new features in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYWSBSzfzZI

Hyper-V Configuration Toolkit

Mark Scholman has been working on a new script project to configure Hyper-V hosts.

This tool allows you to configure hyper-v hosts. It is using the converged network setup as described in this blog post. What it does is the following:

  • Rename Adapters
  • Create Teams
  • Create Tnics
  • Set Network Config (MGT,LM,CSV)
  • Join Server to the Domain
  • Create a server-local administrators group in the domain
  • Allows you to create a new or join an existing cluster
  • Configure Cluster network names
  • Configure Cluster Live migration subnet

On the to-do list is the following and will be added with upcoming releases:

  • Configure Storage network (iSCSI & SMB3)
  • Use of different topologies for converged networking as described here
  • Using Jea or PSCustomSessionConfiguration for deployment of Hyper-V hosts

How to use the tool:

On the newly provisioned Hyper-V Server start the Deploy-HyperVHost.ps1. On the Configure Nic’s tab select the adapters you want to use for Management (MGT / LM / CSV) and click “Set Management Adapters”:

Notice the list box will refresh with the new names for the adapters. Next select the adapters you want to use for VM Network and click “Set VMNet Adapters”

Finally configure Storage adapters:

Result is that we have configured all adapters now with a logical name we can use in the rest of the deployment:

Side note: I used 2 adapters for each team configuration, but you can use for example 3 adapters or 4 adapters for Management and 2 or 3 for the VMNet. The script is intelligent on using the logical names and reusing them in the Team setup.

Next part is to setup the host parameters and start the deployment of the host. Go to the tab “Configure host”

We need to specify the next parameters:
Host Name
The name of the server.
Domain Name
The domain to join the server to.
Management IP
The ip address for the management interface.
Management VLAN
If you’re using vlans specify the vlan id. Untagged is vlan 1.
Management gateway
The gateway for the management network.
Live Migration IP
The ip address for live migration (LM) communication
Live Migration VLAN
The VLAN id used for the LM network.
CSV IP
Cluster IP Address.
CSV VLAN
Cluster VLAN ID.
Primary DNS
The Primary DNS server to use for management network.
Secondary DNS (optional)
If applicable: The second DNS server for the management network.
Domain Controller Name
The Name of a Domain Controller. (needs remote Powershell enabled)
Local Admin Group Name (optional)
Name of a Domain group what is configured to be Local Administrator on the host
Group OU Path (optional)
The OU DN where the group needs to be created.
LAB: Build HyperV on HyperV

Used for demo purposes when you want to run this tool in a Hyper-V Virtual Machine. (Team settings and Hyper-V Role modification in the VM)

Next click on the “Deploy Host” button and enter domain admin credentials

Now wait until the server automatically reboots. While server is rebooting you can verify that the computer is in the domain and the local group is created:

When the server is rebooted login as the domain admin and start the Deployment tool again.

The last tab is for Configure the Cluster. You can create a new cluster:

Or add the node to an existing cluster:

Download the script http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Hyper-V-Deployment-Tool-419679d3

Issues with Exchange 2013 CU6

On August 26 Microsoft released Exchange 2013 CU6, the sixth Cumulative Update since the new servicing model of Exchange.

Unfortunately this Update in is facing issues. Some customers found two issues with Exchange 2013 CU6:

Both issues were quickly identified by Microsoft and a fix is already available.

Performance issues or delays when you connect to Exchange Server 2013 that is running in Windows Server

Microsoft released a new KB article about a performance issue with Exchange 2013

When you connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 server that is installed in Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2008 in which Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 is included, you may experience delays to access email messages or disconnections to the Exchange server. When this issue occurs, the CPU or memory usage on the server is high for some services that include one or more of the W3wp.exe processes.

This issue occurs because too many objects are pinned on the .NET Framework 4.5 garbage collector heap. It causes heap fragmentation in addition to an increase in CPU and memory usage by the garbage collector.

Important Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

For Exchange Server 2013 that is installed in Windows Server 2012

Apply hotfix 2803755 that needs a restart, and then use one of the following methods to enable the hotfix:

  • Create the COMPLUS_DisableRetStructPinning environment variable, and set the value of the variable to 1.
  • Create a DWORDvalue of the DisableRetStructPinning entry at the following registry subkey, and set the DWORD value to 1:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\.NETFramework

Then, restart the computer.

For Exchange Server 2013 that is installed in Windows Server 2012 R2

Create a DWORDvalue of the DisableRetStructPinning entry at the following registry subkey, and set the DWORD value to1:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\.NETFramework

Then, restart the computer.

For Exchange Server 2013 that is installed in Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008

Apply hotfix 2803754 that needs a restart, and then use one of the following methods to enable the hotfix:

  • Create the COMPLUS_DisableRetStructPinning environment variable, and set the value of the variable to 1.
  • Create a DWORDvalue of the DisableRetStructPinning entry at the following registry subkey, and set the DWORD value to 1:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\.NETFramework

Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 6

The Exchange Team released Cumulative Update 6 for Exchange Server 2013 (KB2936880). This update raises Exchange 2013 build number to 15.0.995.29.

This Cumulative Update increases the Public Folder for Exchange On-Premises to 100,000. It also fixes the ‘Hybrid Configuration Wizard ‘Subtask Checkprereqs Execution Failed’ issue (2988229).

This Cumulative Update contains the following fixes:

2991934 Duplicate mailbox folders after migration to Exchange Server 2013
2983512 RPC Client Access service crashes on an on-premises Mailbox server in an Exchange Server 2013 hybrid environment
2983426 AutodiscoverSelfTestProbe fails when external URL is not set for EWS virtual directory in Exchange Server 2013
2983423 AutodiscoverSelfTestProbe fails when external URL is not set for ECP virtual directory in Exchange Server 2013
2983422 The ServerWideOffline component is set to Inactive after Exchange Server 2013 prerequisite check fails
2983207 “532 5.3.2″ NDR when you send an email message to a hidden mailbox in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2983066 Removed Default or Anonymous permission for Outlook folders cannot be restored in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2982769 “Topology service cannot find the OWA service” when you perform an eDiscovery search in Exchange Server 2013
2982763 Mail-enabled public folder accepts email messages from unauthorized users in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2982762 OAB generation arbitration mailbox can be removed or disabled in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2982760 The Enter key submits duplicate sign-in forms to Outlook Web App in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2982759 You cannot access the archive mailbox of a delegated user after enabling MAPI over HTTP
2982017 Incorrect voice mail message duration in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2981835 You cannot add attachments, delete or move many email messages in bulk in Outlook Web App
2981466 MAPI/CDO client cannot connect to Exchange Server 2013
2977279 You cannot disable journaling for protected voice mail in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2975599 Exchange Server 2010 public folder replication fails in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2975003 Calendar item body disappears in Outlook online mode in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2974339 OAB generation fails if FIPS is used in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2971270 Blank page after you sign in to Exchange Server 2013 EAC (formerly ECP)
2970040 Folder Assistant rule does not work correctly in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2965689 EAS device cannot sync free/busy status if an item is created by EWS in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2963590 Message routing latency if IPv6 is enabled in Exchange Server 2013
2961715 “Something went wrong” error in Outlook Web App may show an incorrect date
2958434 Users cannot access mailboxes in OWA or EAS when mailbox database is removed

Download Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 6 here; UM Language Packs download here.

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