Articles by James Blakeley

Microsoft June 11, 2019

Windows Server 2016 Core – Allow ICMP Through Firewall

This post will show you the steps to allow ICMP through the Firewall The following command will help show the different groups Get-NetFirewallRule | Where { $_.DisplayGroup –Eq “firewall group”} | Format-Table Replace firewall group with with the appropriate management group. The ones that relate to remote management are: group=”File and Printer Sharing” group=”Remote Service Management” group=”Performance Logs and Alerts” group=”Remote Event Log Management” group=”Remote Scheduled Tasks Management” group=”Remote Volume Management” group=”Remote Desktop” group=”Windows Firewall Remote Management” group=”windows management instrumentation (wmi)” From here i will enter the following Set-NetFirewallRule -Name “FPS-ICMP4-ERQ-In” -Enabled true Set-NetFirewallRule -Name “FPS-ICMP6-ERQ-In” -Enabled true and voila

Microsoft, WSUS April 19, 2019

Windows Update Error 80070659 – Server 2012 RDS host

Environment Windows Server 2012 R2 Roles installed File and Storage Services IIS Print Services Remote Desktop Services Problem I was trying to install a bunch of pending Security Updates to a Windows Server 2012 RDS Host, Windows patches were successful but when trying to install the Microsoft Office patches i received a failure code 80070659 Solution You will find the following registry keys set to 1 changing them to 0 allowed me to install the patches successfully HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Install\DisableMSI HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Install\DisablePatch

Microsoft March 28, 2019

Windows Server 2016 – Disable Updates Are Available Popup

Environment Server: Windows Server 2016 GUI and Core Microsoft Updates provided by an on premises WSUS Server Problem On Login to a Server 2016 with pending updates you are prompted with a full screen pop up that you can’t get around until you click the View Updates. Various attempts were made to suppress the alerts using Group Policies but nothing seems to work. Solution / Workaround After using some google-fu I came across the following article for the same issue with Windows 10. This will change the permissions on the following files, which basically stops the full screen pop ups from happening. Just what i was looking for! musnotification.exe musnotificationux.exe […]

Dell March 27, 2019

Dell R610/R710 iDRAC Virtual Console not connecting

Environment: Workstation: Windows 7 Professional Internet Explorer 11 Java 1.8 Update 201 Server: Dell Poweredge R610 iDRAC 6 Firmware: 2.92 (Build 05) Lifecycle Controller Firmware: 1.7.5.4 Problem When trying to connect to the Virtual Console on a Dell R610 (or any 11th generation Dell Server at this point) i have ran into multiple challenges getting the JAVA or ActiveX to work. After many hours of trying to find a working solution here is what has worked for launching the JAVA console Solution Ensure you have a working copy of Java installed. On my system i am running Java 8 Update 201 Note: If you are running the default Dell signed […]

Microsoft, WSUS March 20, 2019

WSUS Installation on Server 2016 Core or Server 2019 Core

Install Server 2016 Core Deploy Windows Server 2016/2019 Core from Template To add a 2nd Data drive DISKPART> list disk DISKPART> select disk (id) DISKPART> online disk (if the disk is not online) DISKPART> attributes disk clear readonly DISKPART> clean DISKPART> convert gpt DISKPART> create partition primary DISKPART> select part 1 DISKPART> active (if this is the boot partition) DISKPART> format fs=ntfs label=WSUSData quick DISKPART> assign letter D DISKPART> list volume Install WSUS/WID Role From the console of your newly deployed Windows Server 2016/2019 Core System Login with your Administrator Account Open PowerShell Install-WindowsFeature -Name UpdateServices -IncludeManagementTools New–Item –Path D: –Name WSUS –ItemType Directory CD “C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools” .\wsusutil.exe postinstall content_dir=D:\WSUS Get-WSUSServer […]

Veeam, VMware February 26, 2019

Veeam Error – The Specified item was already backed up or backup was not completed

Environment: Veeam 9.5 Update 4 Virtual Machines: Windows Server 2012 R2 Problem Hopefully this will help others. I received the following error when performing a backup of two VM’s. At this point nothing had changed and typically a retry or active full will resolve the issue. Not in this case Processing <vm> Error: the specified item was already backed up or backup was not completed. Failed to download disk. Reconnectable protocol device was closed. Failed to upload disk. Agent failed to process method {DataTransfer.SyncDisk} Error: the specified item was already backed up or backup was not completed. Failed to download disk. Reconnectable protocol device was closed. Failed to upload disk. Agent failed […]

Microsoft, VMware February 18, 2019

Windows Server 2016 Core Build Notes

Lasted Updated: March.29.2019 This post will document my settings for a fresh Windows Server 2016 Core Build These notes will hopefully serve as the basis for complete automation in the future Building a new Windows Server 2016 Virtual Template Begin the installation process by creating a new virtual machine instance using vCenter Web Client and booting into the Windows Server 2016 installation media. Login to the vCenter Client or Web Client – Select Home\Inventory\VMs and Templates view Expand and select <vCenter>\<datacenter>\<Folder>\1.Templates\ folder Right-click, select New Virtual Machine, select Custom, and click Next Type Virtual Machine Name: TMPL-Windows 2016 STD Core, click Next Select Host\Cluster location: CLUSTER01, click Next Select Root of […]

Microsoft, VMware February 5, 2019

Windows 2016 – GISvc service not starting

Problem After deploying some new Virtual Machines based on Microsoft Windows 2016 i noticed the following error in the Server Manager Dashboard Resolution This turned out to the new VMware AppDefense that is found within VMware Tools 10.3.2 Since i am not using AppDefense i simply uninstalled that module

Microsoft January 1, 2017

Install Hyper-V on Windows 10

Requirements Windows 10 Enterprise, Professional, or Education 64-bit Processor with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). CPU support for VM Monitor Mode Extension (VT-c on Intel CPU’s). Minimum of 4 GB memory. Install using PowerShell Open a PowerShell Console as Administrator Run the following command: Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All Reboot the computer to complete the installation Install using DISM Open a PowerShell Console as Administrator Run the following command: DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /All /FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V When prompted restart the computer

VMware September 7, 2015

A general system occured: PBM error occurred during PreMigrateCheckCallback: Connection refused

Good day! I recently received multiple errors within my home lab when trying to vMotion Machines. A general system occured: PBM error occurred during PreMigrateCheckCallback: Connection refused This is the first time i have seen this error in 6 years of Administrating a vSphere environment! Resolution: Various community posts pointed in the direction of a failed or not running service. in this case Profile-Drive Storage Service (I am using the VCSA 6.0) ssh into the VCSA Run the following command to check the status sure enough the service was not running service vmware-sps status To start the service: service vmware-sps start Once again all VM’s are happily vmotioning around! EDIT […]