Rich M's questions

This is a proper head-scratcher...

A customer has a domain with eight DCs. Two (including the PDC) are Hyper-V VMs in our datacentre, four are vSphere VMs at national site offices (not RODCs) and the other two are also vSphere VMs in a 3rd-party datacentre.

SYSVOL replication is all but instantaneous between the PDC (DC1001) and the site DCs, yet between DC1001 and the other Hyper-V DC (DC1002), replication is taking a couple of hours.

I've checked AD Sites and Services to ensure that all the links are in place and I can see direct connections between the two Hyper-V boxes.

We've put the two Hyper-V boxes on the same host to see if there was a Hyper-V networking problem, but slow replication is persisting.

I've run a DFS Replication heath check report and the results are a bit confusing to say the least... Of all eight DCs, none of them have any backlogged receiving transactions yet all of them except DC1002 have over 300 backlogged sending transactions. DC1002 has no backlog at all and this is the "slow" node in the web. How can this be?

DFSR Diag commands (with the backlog exception) report everything to be hunky-dory yet there must be an explanation as to why replication is taking hours to show on DC1002.

I'm no Hyper-V expert, so there may well be something I've missed there.

There appears to be no file replication taking place, just SYSVOL.

There are also associated entries in Event Viewer > Applications and Services Logs > DFS Replication

Log Name: DFS Replication
Source: DFSR
Date: 20/01/2022 11:42:06
Event ID: 5014
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: DC1002.domain.local
Description:
The DFS Replication service is stopping communication with partner Site1-001 for replication group Domain System Volume due to an error. The service will retry the connection periodically.

Additional Information:
Error: 1726 (The remote procedure call failed.)

I've looked up this error in relation to DFS replication, but there's a myriad of solutions for all kinds of problems so this seems like an unassailable minefield.

The RPC service is running on all hosts (Auto startup), there are not firewall rules blocking this and general network connectivity is fine throughout.

Any advice or experience with this problem would be greatly appreciated!!!

EDIT: As a note, the two Hyper-V DCs reside in the same site so inter-site replication does not take place for these two I would guess. Also, all inter-site intervals are set to 15 minutes.

We are using VMware vSphere and NetApp and are trying to troubleshoot some mind-melting space problems. Part of this problem is two colleagues disagreeing on how thick provisioned disks relate to used space on the storage. These are thin-provisioned iSCSI SAN volumes on the NetApp and Space Reservation is showing as 'Disabled' when I run the lun show -v <path> command.

• Person 1 is saying that a thick provisioned vmdk of 100 GB will show as 100 GB of used space on the storage regardless of how much data is on that disk.

• Person 2 is saying that a thick provisioned vmdk of 100 GB and lets
  say 10 GB of data on the disk will only show as 10 GB of used space
  on the storage.

Who is correct?

We're trying to figure out why the amount of free space shown in the vCentre datastore is less than the free space showing on the NetApp LUN. We have enabled space_alloc on the LUN and subsequently running the esxcli storage core device vaai status get -d <naa.id> shows the Delete Status as Supported.

We also have NetApp's Storage Efficiency configured to run on the volumes.

If there was less space free on the LUN, this would suggest something is up with the automatic space reclamation but the problem is the other way around.

On a Windows Server 2012 R2 system joined to a domain, the Task Manager is greyed out from the right-click menu from the task bar, but only for some users. Nothing is explicitly set in Group Policy and I cannot find anything in the Local Policy which may be causing this.
Internet searches are only showing this problem when it's affecting all users, I can't seem to find anything where only some users are affected.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

I have several hundred folders in a directory where somehow, the permissions have become all messed up. When I'm trying to take ownership with my domain admin account, I tick the box which says Replace owner on subcontainers and objects but the resulting changes do not apply to many of the sub-folders. I also want to use the Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object.
I then have to go to each one (and there are quite literally hundreds) and set the owner on each one. This is a daunting task and there must be some way of achieving this en-masse. Currently I'm having to click the Continue button for hundreds of failed 'take ownership' attempts.
I've looked at the ICACLS and takeown commands but I can't figure out what I can use to force ownership onto folders although I have been able to bypass prematurely wearing out my mouse button with the /C switch.
Can anyone help please?

Thanks in advance.

I have this scenario:

Server-A\Share-A\Folder

Folder permissions are:
Inheritance enabled
Domain Users (group) - Full Control - Inherited from Server-A\Share-A - Applies to This folder only

Server-A\Share-A

Domain Users group is not present.

I cannot remove the Domain Users group from the folder level as it is inheriting from the share. How is the group appearing at the folder level when it isn't present in the level above?

I've seen you can manage NTFS permissions on a share using a Windows GPO. Searching around I've come across this article and have followed it but had no joy getting it to work.
I've run gpupdate /force on the target Windows Server but the permissions on the folders have not updated.

Is anyone managing share permissions via GPO successfully?

It seems that NTFS rules take precedence over Robocopy when copying folders from one volume to another. Is there a way around this?

Example: Copying a folder from one volume to another using the Robocopy /COPYALL switch should copy across all of the file info. This is equivalent to /COPY:DATSOU with the S being NTFS ACL's (SS64 Robocopy). However, when I execute the Robocopy command, the resulting ACL on the destination folder represents the parent, which is in line with the NTFS rule of moving files between volumes results in the destination inheriting permissions from its parent (GlobalScape.com).

Folder structure of the source is: \Sector\Customer\Project with each project folder having (amongst others) a Data In and Data Out folder. Each project folder will have slightly differing permissions based on which groups are working on the project.
Folder structure of the destination is similar but as the destination is an archive location for the source, some of the project folders are not there.

We want to copy the project Data In and Data Out folders which are in the source but not the destination across, maintaining the permissions and creating the project folder itself if it doesn't exist, and then copy all of the files in the Data In and Data Out folders which are older than 'x' maintaining permissions on the files too.

Is this a case of creating the destination folder structure first, setting the correct permissions and then copying the data?

We have an Avocent Autoview 3100 KVM which we're going to upgrade soon as it's been outgrown. We're looking at a 32-port unit but I cannot find anything by Avocent which has 32 ports.
If we buy something from another manufacturer, would the Avocent USB-to-Ethernet dongles work?

2019-04 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-based Systems (KB4493473)
2018-09 Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-based Systems (KB4091664)

Four failures to install on one particular server but have installed all of them on another 2016 box.
ESET File Security installed.
Server has been rebooted multiple times.
I've also tried purging the %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore folder to no avail.

Is anyone else having these problems? I can't seem to find much info online.

I'm trying to achieve a load-balanced NIC team on a Windows Server 2016 machine. This is a ProLiant using a 4x 1Gb 311FLR interface card which as of yesterday has the latest driver installed (100.20.0.64). The NIC team has been created in Windows Server. All four NICs have been added to the team and the following settings have been applied:

• Teaming Mode - LACP
• Load Balancing Mode - Dynamic

The server has been connected to a HP 5406Rzl2 which has the following config for the ports:

• Mode - Auto
• Flow Control - Enabled
• LACP Status - Disabled
• Trunk Type - LACP

We also have a NetApp connected to the switch using a 4x 1Gb trunked connection with the same config as the server ports.

The Windows server is running Backup Exec, when I run a backup and monitor the stats for the ports on the switch, only one of the server NICs is being used and this is only 0.5%
The backup job is extremely slow, even when tweaking the settings in BE.
The NetApp, which is configured the same on the switch end, is showing utilisation of all four NICs as I would expect.
I know I'm not going to get the full 4Gb but I would expect a lot more than 0.5%

Reading through a description of the Server teaming settings (https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/windows-server-2016-nic-teaming-functionality) makes me think I have the correct configuration on the server end but clearly, something is not working as it should be.

So, my question is: How do I get load balancing to work at the server end?

Can anyone clearly define the difference between the Mini-SAS HD SFF-8644 and SFF-8614 connectors please? The SFF-8644 seems to be the more widely recognised 'male' connector but SFF-8614 seems also to be in use. I cannot find if there is any discernible difference between the two but I don't want to order cables with the wrong type of connector.
The one possibility I have come across is that the 8614 is the 4-lane version and the 8644 is the 8-lane version although it does specify "8-lane with dual connector" which muddies the water somewhat. I would appreciate confirmation of this if anyone knows for sure as this is from Wikipedia (Serial-Attached SCSI).
Thanks

We're using Veritas Backup Exec 16.0 to run backups of our servers. We've upgraded from Backup Exec 2010 and have been firefighting problems since then trying to get the schedules to run smoothly. Veritas Support have generally be utterly useless but have resolved some problems. One of the ongoing problems is backups failing on certain servers.
We've created a Active Directory service account called backupexec and set this as the sole Backup Exec 'System Logon Account' for running backups. This account is part of the AD 'Domain Admins' and 'Backup Operators' groups.
We have two email servers; we'll call them MAIL1 and MAIL2. MAIL1 is the main email server and MAIL2 is for email archiving. There are directories on both servers which we want to back up. All of the archives have read/write permissions set for the backupexec account but we have tried with full control set as well.
Jobs in Backup Exec are failing with errors such as "The directory or file was not found, or could not be accessed." I have checked both servers and the directories are indeed there and can be accessed by the backupexec account.

I had thought this may be a Backup Exec problem, given all the other problems we're having with the software but I have since run a Windows Server Backup of the same directories. Both have failed with "Backup failed to complete - The device is not ready" errors. I suspect that this may be related to Volume Shadow copy Service problems but do not know why this would be failing.
Inspection of the Event Viewer (Application and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > Backup > Operational) shows an error event with ID 5 "The backup operation that started at '‎2018‎-‎05‎-‎15T13:06:43.666836500Z' has failed with following error code '2155348238'. Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved." Searching the web for this error code does not reveal too much so I'm posting here to see if anyone has had anything similar or can offer any advice.

Checking the VSS writers and providers does not show any problems:

MAIL1

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\*****>vssadmin list providers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Provider name: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
   Provider type: System
   Provider Id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
   Version: 1.0.0.7

Provider name: 'Acronis VSS SW Provider'
   Provider type: Software
   Provider Id: {f782463b-33bb-4043-ad8d-60b728d26a6c}
   Version: 1.0


C:\Users\*****>vssadmin list writers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer'
   Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124}
   Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer'
   Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06}
   Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer'
   Writer Id: {0bada1de-01a9-4625-8278-69e735f39dd2}
   Writer Instance Id: {f0086dda-9efc-47c5-8eb6-a944c3d09381}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'System Writer'
   Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
   Writer Instance Id: {38a136f6-947f-4cc1-858d-7da11af035b1}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
   Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
   Writer Instance Id: {775938d0-040d-439e-b23c-470caa2f4c84}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Instance Id: {8dd82e55-494f-4a0a-85d0-feda8087da0e}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
   Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}
   Writer Instance Id: {062648bc-5c63-4480-95c7-060c7ffa81ff}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
   Writer Instance Id: {7f98ce15-383e-45d0-8882-e40ae9d573a9}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'BITS Writer'
   Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0}
   Writer Instance Id: {546b3f33-5754-45e8-aa35-199fb87e5239}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
   Writer Instance Id: {e282e3a3-cc1e-4848-831c-fc90bb230a6a}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

MAIL2

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\*****>vssadmin list writers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer'
   Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124}
   Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer'
   Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06}
   Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer'
   Writer Id: {0bada1de-01a9-4625-8278-69e735f39dd2}
   Writer Instance Id: {f0086dda-9efc-47c5-8eb6-a944c3d09381}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'
   Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
   Writer Instance Id: {53545b61-ebbb-46b9-8e4d-0bf0e3b542f6}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
   Writer Instance Id: {24a63d31-b3e2-42a9-9406-8ee5199d5155}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'System Writer'
   Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
   Writer Instance Id: {a39861ce-cd1f-48f3-a5f7-1f64030e6c49}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'
   Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}
   Writer Instance Id: {2860109e-f5e6-483c-b3be-74610f7d33f2}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
   Writer Instance Id: {2335da7a-8a8d-4cc1-b9fb-5330228379cb}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Instance Id: {54bb9048-bb0e-4fca-bd13-c336add2d72a}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error


C:\Users\*****>vssadmin list providers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Provider name: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
   Provider type: System
   Provider Id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
   Version: 1.0.0.7

Provider name: 'Acronis VSS SW Provider'
   Provider type: Software
   Provider Id: {f782463b-33bb-4043-ad8d-60b728d26a6c}
   Version: 1.0

I'm not sure what else could be preventing access.

I'm currently running another backup on MAIL2 using my admin account (also a member of Domain Admins) instead of the backupexec account to see if this makes any difference. I'll post the results when they're in.

Thanks in advance.

I've noticed that the WX081 airflow baffle in the PowerEdge 1950 III obscures two of the three internal USB ports. Does anyone know if there's an alternative which does not obscure the ports?

We have two VMware virtualised DCs which have just undergone a scheduled Windows Update round and reboot. The secondary DC completed with no problems but the primary failed to reboot and ultimately the VM had to be rebuilt using the virtual hard disks from the original VM. Now, DHCP on the primary is not working.
The ESXi host is on 6.5.0, virtual hardware is v13 and VMware Tools is 10.1.15. DC OS is Server 2008 R2 Std. SP2.
DHCP is working on the secondary DC but this is located at another site and on a different subnet so as a workaround, we've had to enable the DHCP server on the firewall. Everything looks okay on the primary and there is nothing to indicate what has gone wrong. We've re-created the DHCP scope and rebooted the server but this has had no effect.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

I have a HP V1910-16G (JE005A) switch which I decided to update the firmware on. I've downloaded the latest software package from the HP website (https://h10145.www1.hp.com/downloads/SoftwareReleases.aspx?ProductNumber=JE006A&lang=&cc=&prodSeriesId=&SoftwareReleaseUId=22014&SerialNumber=&PurchaseDate=) which gave me version 5.20 R1519P03. After rebooting the switch I could log in but after choosing two menu items I would be kicked out and have to log in again, no matter which menu items I clicked on, the same thing would happen. I then tried to reset to factory settings by powering off, connecting port 1 to port 2 with a patch lead and powering back on. Now I can no longer access the switch at all via the web console. I've also tried the console port but just get unintelligible characters on the screen.
Does anyone know how to rescue dead HP switches?

I have a HP 2530-8G on the network which we cannot log in to as we do not know the management IP address. The MAC address does not appear in any of the DHCP leases so I would assume it is using a static IP. Nor does it appear in any IP scans (e.g. Angry IP) and from another switch of the same model, I cannot see any way to hide it from ICMP requests. Attempts to connect via the management ports have also resulted in failure. The Micro USB connection requires the use of a terminal emulator (such as KiTTY) but all attempts have failed and I do not have a laptop with a serial port.

So, I cannot find its MAC address anywhere I look nor can I find the IP address. How do I connect to the management interface to find out how this switch is configured?

Thanks is advance.

I have an administration account which is a member of the Domain Admins group. This group has Full Control to the root of a drive on a file server, however, when I log into the server with my admin account and try to access the drive, I'm told I do not have permission.
Other people in the Domain Admins group can access the drive with no problem. Other accounts set on the drive root are the domain administrator account and the standard user accounts of a couple of the IT team.
There are also sub-folders which are set to inherit permissions from the parent directory and include the Domain Admins group, but I have again had to add my admin account in explicitly to give me access.
My admin account works fine everywhere else so the problem seems limited to the file server and it seems that permissions are not inheriting correctly.
The server is running 2016 Standard.

I need to reconfigure the cabling between some LTO tape drives and a server. Are they plug and play or do I need to do any configuration?
From what I've read so far, it seems that recycling the power on the server and the drives should be enough.
We have an HP 1/8 G2 Autoloader, 2x LTO-6 drives, a SAS fanout cable and a ProLiant with an LSI Adapter SAS 3000 8-port with 1068E card. Curently the fanout cable is being used to connect the two LTO-6 drives to another server but I want to repurpose it to connect the Autoloader AND the the two LTO's to the ProLiant.
Any advice please?

We have an HP StorageWorks 1/8 G2 Autoloader using LTO-6 tapes working with Symantec Backup Exec 15.
I've set the backups which are going to tape to use hardware compresison "if available, otherwise software" compression.
When I look at the Autoloader web console, it says "No" next to the data compression option.
Can I force the software/autoloader to use the full LTO-6 compression rate of 2.5:1?
Currently, the compression ratios I'm getting are around 1.05:1

We have a Dell PowerEdge R420 with a PERC H710 mini RAID controller card. The server has six physical disks split over two arrays; one RAID-1 array for the OS and one RAID-10 array for the data. This server is a Hyper-V host running Server 2012 R2. The RAID-10 array contains all the files for the VMs but this array is running out of space. We have populated the remaining two empty drive bays with two new drives but have since found out that you cannot simply expand a RAID-10 array into the newly available space. A full backup of the host is taken every night using Windows Server Backup onto an external USB3 drive.

The advised method seems to be to delete the array and rebuild to include the new space, then restore the latest backup to the new array. This sounds quite simple on paper so I'm wondering if there are any 'gotchas' anyone may have come across or know about when performing this kind of action.