user1330287's questions

Domain environment

My environment is seeing a spike in an issue where users cannot log into their profiles, while being met with error: "The User Profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded."

After this the user, after entering correct password, will have a profile that will not load.

Also, Windows will not create new profiles and will spit out the same error at log on screen.

However, local admin account and profile will work.

After looking online I found suggested registry fixes. But these did not work for me. The only fix that would work for me is creating a new default folder under c:\users and copying over a working good ntuser.dat file from another default folder on another good machine.

I have a fix already in place (by rebuilding default profile with good ntuser.dat file) but these issues are popping up more and more frequently, so I'm trying to find out what is causing this corruption of the default folder and/or its ntuser.dat file.

I have an suspicion that it could be the permissions of the default folder being set to non-readable for user accounts that attempt to log on but why would this matter if the profile is already created? Regardless, perhaps something is forcing these permissions to be non-readable? I need more computers to test this theory.

So I'm trying to narrow it down and see if it's the ntuser.dat file becoming corrupted in default folder or the permissions of default folder are being changed to non-readable for user accounts.

Your thoughts? Any ideas on what could be causing a sudden occurrence of this issue?

Thanks.

I set up a Server 2012 R2 instance as a WSUS server and went through initial set up. But now, from another computer on LAN, when I type explore to the server via UNC path I see Wsuscontent and WSUSTemp shared out to the whole network. The odd thing is when I look at properties of these folders on the server itself it says the folder is not shared. Yet when I load up Server Manager->File And Storage Services->Shares I see these folders as being shared.

Why are they being shared in this way and why is the shared state not being reflected in properties?

Also, is this a security risk? If so, how would I go about locking this down? What is recommended best practice here?

I appreciate any insight. Thanks.

I created a task scheduler task, via the MMC GUI to run powershell.exe with some conditions that follow (starting a service).

I notice that this is different than running a .ps1 file or powershell script file. What's the difference between running powershell.exe in the former manner versus running a .ps1 file? It also seemed odd that I was able to get powershell to run by just providing admin credentials, but when running .ps1s, they have to be enabled so as to prevent masquarading .ps1s from causing damage.

Is there a security vulnerability in this?

What is really the difference between running powershell.exe + conditions via say task scheduler and running .ps1 files.

I appreciate your thoughts!

What is the purpose of DHCP option 67? I thought the PXE client will look for a boot.wim file. Does the boot file located in 67 (like boot\x64\wdsnbp.com) go out and search for the boot.wim?

What does DHCP scope option 67 actually do and why do we need it? Thanks.

I’m having an issue with getting Windows PE 3.0 to recognize hard drive. At least I think this is the problem. I’m attempting to boot a Dell Latitude E7470 Solid State Drive, Windows 7 64-bit machine from a WINPE3.0 USB thumb drive. Initially, before I dug into injecting drivers, I would plug in USB and boot from USB and the Windows PE grey splash screen would show and attempt to load system files and then it would fail and restart and load Windows partition normally.

I try to boot from WINPE again and I press f8 quickly to access a command prompt, and run diskpart to see what drives are being detected. It turns out that WINPE3.0 is not detecting my solid state drive.

I then search out the right drivers for this model and I find out that I need these two: Picture: https://sli.mg/5pV7nu

I run 7zip to extract out these files/folders and then I run DISM to mount my boot.wim (from WinPE) and run the DISM command to inject the drivers into the unmounted .wim file.

I try two different ways of injecting drivers:

1) The first way is I use the DISM command to add in the drivers with the recurse switch option. I put all driver files above in one folder and run recurse. Picture: https://sli.mg/H9InCw

This inject works and takes a few minutes. I then unmount and commit and copy over my newly injected WINPE package and copy it over to my USB and attempt to boot and it gives me an error pointing to a .sys file. I tried deleting the .sys file but I realize that this won’t work because the .sys is unpackaged and has many dependencies tied to it.

2) Next, I narrow my focus inject only relevant drivers. I inject each driver and point to an .inf file and no success. I then point to the folder containing the driver files and no success. This time I get the same problem with WINPE just failing to detect driver and restarting.

What am I doing wrong here? Is this some problem with WinPE3.0 and SSDs because I tried this same WINPE3.0 environment on a different model Dell laptop (Win 7 64-bit) with a HDD and it works fine.

I appreciate any guidance here. Is there anything I’m missing? Thank you.

What is the difference between "Preferred Life Time" and "Valid Life Time" lease. What is the point of preferred and why not just use valid life time lease? Thanks.

Server 2012 R2, DNS Service:

In DNS Manager, what is the functional difference between "Scavenge Stale Resource Records" and "Clear Cache."?

This is for learning purposes:

I'm running a Server r2 machine and I'm trying to remove feature WINS. I run uninstall-windowsfeature WINS -restart -remove, I then restart, and then run get-windowsfeature | where installstate -eq removed and I see that the WINS binaries are removed from the role store.

I then run install-windowsfeature WINS locally and the role is then installed.. So why did this happen? I thought the binaries were removed--apparantly not. Any ideas on why this is? Thank you.

This is for learning/lab purposes.

-Two 2012 R2 servers. Server 1 is Standard GUI and server 2 is Server core. -Server 1 is updated, Server 2 is not updated at all with any windows updates -Workgroup environment, both static IPs in same subnet

I'm trying to create a feature file store for 2012 R2 roles/feature files so I can offload the installation files off of Server 2 (core install) until I actually need them. -The file store will sit on Server 1.

-So I copy roles/feature folder off of my 2012 R2 optical disk Sources\SxS folder to server 1's c: drive and I then share the folder with "Everyone" with read attributes and click share. -I verify the folder is actually being shared on the network via Network (file explorer) and net view/use on other machines.

I then go to server 2 and use this command to remove the binaries of a Role, for example: "Uninstall -WindowsFeature WINS -restart -remove" -Restart happens, then I verify that the binaries are no longer on the machine: Get-WindowsFeature WINS | where InstallState -eq removed

-I now attempt to Install the same role off of the features share folder on Server 1, which is shared with Everyone w/ read attrib. -I use command: "Install-WindowsFeature WINS -Source \server1\SxS -restart" and I get this error: http://i.imgur.com/AxUYP19.png

-do I need to pass credentials? It's shared with everyone.. I can even open the folder remotely via file explorer on a workstation on same LAN. -I disabled firewall but no change

I appreciate any help on how to get this to work.. Thank you!

I'm studying for MCSA using Server 2012 R2. I'm running a Dell r610 rack server with a perc6/i controller for hardware raid. Hardware raid is set up with a virtual array in a RAID 10 configuration.

For learning purposes, can I go ahead and play around with Storage Spaces (which I understand is Server 2012 R2's software RAID solution) on top of the hardware RAID or do I have to disable and wipe out the Perc/6i hardware RAID for this to work? Beyond educational purposes, can software and hardware RAID be combined in general and what is the advantage of doing so?

I appreciate any insight. Thanks.

This is a scenario set up for MCSA training in my homelab, not an enterprise environment.

I'm trying to make changes to add roles to a virtual machine (VM workstation) Server 2012 R2 (running in bridged mode, meaning it gets dynamic IP from physical default gateway dhcp server) from my main Server 2012 R2 physical server from Server Manager, All Servers.

I add the remote server, TESTSERVER1, via manage->add servers and it shows up as such in "All Servers": http://i.imgur.com/aeowNn6.png

Here are the error messages produced: http://i.imgur.com/TogIzn5.png

The main physical server, APOLLO has a static IP but the VM server is dynamic. This is a 255.255.255.0 subnet. This is a workgroup environment.

How can I gain access to TESTSERVER1 so I can make changes to it remotely. When I right click it, "add roles and features" and "restart server" are greyed out. I appreciate any insight, thank you.

Quick question. I'm trying to understand the NIC functionality of this server. NIC specs from manual:

My question is, do the two broadcom controller chips provide fail-over redundancy? For example, is it design intention that if a controller chip dies then the other takes over (with only 2 ports?). Thanks.