Andy's questions

I have a Server 2012 R2 Essentials server, which is the PDC in the domain. I also have another 2012 R2 server acting as a domain controller for times when the primary is down.

I have setup DHCP on the secondary server as a hot standby. Both servers are communicating fine, and I can see changes at one DHCP server reflected in the other.

From time to time though, the DHCP server on the Essentials server shuts down, and I see this in the system log:

The DHCP/BINL service on this Small Business Server has encountered another server on this network with IP Address A.B.C.D, belonging to the domain: .

The IP listed is the server acting as a hot standby. . is not the name of the domain though.

What is causing the DHCP service on the Essentials server to shutdown, and how do I correct it? Perhaps I mis-configured the fail over somehow?

I have a server where I will be updating the Adaptec RAID controllers firmware and drivers soon, and so I was arcconf to check a few things.

The four disks are all the same model configured as a RAID10 volume. In running the GETCONFIG of arcconf, I was a bit surprised that one of the drive is running at 3.0gb/s instead of 6, like the other drives.

What could be the reason for this, and is there a way to get it to run at 6gb/s?

Controllers found: 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Controller information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Controller Status                        : Optimal
   Channel description                      : SAS/SATA
   Controller Model                         : Adaptec 6805
   Controller Serial Number                 : 
   Controller World Wide Name               : 
   Controller Alarm                         : Enabled
   Physical Slot                            : 1
   Temperature                              : 54 C/ 129 F (Normal)
   Installed memory                         : 512 MB
   Global task priority                     : High
   Performance Mode                         : Default/Dynamic
   Host bus type                            : PCIe
   Host bus speed                           : 5000 MHz
   Host bus link width                      : 8 bit(s)/link(s)
   Stayawake period                         : Disabled
   Spinup limit internal drives             : 0
   Spinup limit external drives             : 0
   Defunct disk drive count                 : 0
   Logical devices/Failed/Degraded          : 1/0/0
   NCQ status                               : Enabled
   Statistics data collection mode          : Enabled
   --------------------------------------------------------
   RAID Properties
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Copyback                                 : Disabled
   Background consistency check             : Disabled
   Background consistency check period      : 30
   Automatic Failover                       : Enabled
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Controller Version Information
   --------------------------------------------------------
   BIOS                                     : 5.2-0 (19176)
   Firmware                                 : 5.2-0 (19176)
   Driver                                   : 7.5-0 (41013)
   Boot Flash                               : 5.2-0 (19176)
   SEEPROM (Load version/ Flash version)    : 2/ 8
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Controller ZMM Information
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Status                                   : ZMM not installed

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device number 0
   Logical device name                      : VMSTORAGE01
   Block Size of member drives              : 512 Bytes
   RAID level                               : 10
   Unique Identifier                        : 
   Status of logical device                 : Optimal
   Additional details                       : Quick initialized
   Size                                     : 3809270 MB
   Parity space                             : 3809280 MB
   Stripe-unit size                         : 256 KB
   Read-cache setting                       : Enabled
   Read-cache status                        : On
   Write-cache setting                      : Disabled
   Write-cache status                       : Off
   Partitioned                              : Yes
   Protected by Hot-Spare                   : No
   Bootable                                 : Yes
   Failed stripes                           : No
   Power settings                           : Disabled
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Logical device segment information
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Group 0, Segment 0                       : Present (Controller:1,Connector:1,Device:0)      WD-
   Group 0, Segment 1                       : Present (Controller:1,Connector:1,Device:1)      WD-
   Group 1, Segment 0                       : Present (Controller:1,Connector:1,Device:2)      WD-
   Group 1, Segment 1                       : Present (Controller:1,Connector:1,Device:3)      WD-


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Physical Device information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
      Device #0
         Device is a Hard drive
         State                              : Online
         Block Size                         : 512 Bytes
         Supported                          : Yes
         Transfer Speed                     : SATA 6.0 Gb/s
         Reported Channel,Device(T:L)       : 0,4(4:0)
         Reported Location                  : Connector 1, Device 0
         Vendor                             : WDC
         Model                              : WD20EFRX-68EUZN0
         Firmware                           : 80.00A80
         Serial number                      : 
         World-wide name                    : 
         Reserved Size                      : 3163160 KB
         Used Size                          : 1904640 MB
         Unused Size                        : 64 KB
         Total Size                         : 1907729 MB
         Write Cache                        : Disabled (write-through)
         FRU                                : None
         S.M.A.R.T.                         : No
         S.M.A.R.T. warnings                : 0
         Power State                        : Full rpm
         Supported Power States             : Full rpm,Powered off
         SSD                                : No
         Temperature                        : Not Supported
         NCQ status                         : Enabled
      Device #1
         Device is a Hard drive
         State                              : Online
         Block Size                         : 512 Bytes
         Supported                          : Yes
         Transfer Speed                     : SATA 6.0 Gb/s
         Reported Channel,Device(T:L)       : 0,5(5:0)
         Reported Location                  : Connector 1, Device 1
         Vendor                             : WDC
         Model                              : WD20EFRX-68EUZN0
         Firmware                           : 80.00A80
         Serial number                      : 
         World-wide name                    : 
         Reserved Size                      : 3163160 KB
         Used Size                          : 1904640 MB
         Unused Size                        : 64 KB
         Total Size                         : 1907729 MB
         Write Cache                        : Disabled (write-through)
         FRU                                : None
         S.M.A.R.T.                         : No
         S.M.A.R.T. warnings                : 0
         Power State                        : Full rpm
         Supported Power States             : Full rpm,Powered off
         SSD                                : No
         Temperature                        : Not Supported
         NCQ status                         : Enabled
      Device #2
         Device is a Hard drive
         State                              : Online
         Block Size                         : 512 Bytes
         Supported                          : Yes
         Transfer Speed                     : SATA 3.0 Gb/s
         Reported Channel,Device(T:L)       : 0,6(6:0)
         Reported Location                  : Connector 1, Device 2
         Vendor                             : WDC
         Model                              : WD20EFRX-68EUZN0
         Firmware                           : 80.00A80
         Serial number                      : 
         World-wide name                    : 
         Reserved Size                      : 3163160 KB
         Used Size                          : 1904640 MB
         Unused Size                        : 64 KB
         Total Size                         : 1907729 MB
         Write Cache                        : Disabled (write-through)
         FRU                                : None
         S.M.A.R.T.                         : No
         S.M.A.R.T. warnings                : 0
         Power State                        : Full rpm
         Supported Power States             : Full rpm,Powered off
         SSD                                : No
         Temperature                        : Not Supported
         NCQ status                         : Enabled
      Device #3
         Device is a Hard drive
         State                              : Online
         Block Size                         : 512 Bytes
         Supported                          : Yes
         Transfer Speed                     : SATA 6.0 Gb/s
         Reported Channel,Device(T:L)       : 0,7(7:0)
         Reported Location                  : Connector 1, Device 3
         Vendor                             : WDC
         Model                              : WD20EFRX-68EUZN0
         Firmware                           : 80.00A80
         Serial number                      : 
         World-wide name                    : 
         Reserved Size                      : 3163160 KB
         Used Size                          : 1904640 MB
         Unused Size                        : 64 KB
         Total Size                         : 1907729 MB
         Write Cache                        : Disabled (write-through)
         FRU                                : None
         S.M.A.R.T.                         : No
         S.M.A.R.T. warnings                : 0
         Power State                        : Full rpm
         Supported Power States             : Full rpm,Powered off
         SSD                                : No
         Temperature                        : Not Supported
         NCQ status                         : Enabled

I've been reading up on transitioning my SBS 2011 server to a 2012 R2 Essentials server. I found one article that suggests that in a virtualized AD server, one should not store the Active Directory database (NTDS) onto the system drive. The article doesn't site any reason why.

Warning: If you are deploying this server as a virtual machine, it is recommended that you store the AD database & SYSVOL files on a non-system volume (e.g. E:\ instead of C:). 1

Is this in fact the recommendation? If it was at some point is it relevant today? My Hyper-V host is Hyper-V Server 2012 R2, and SBS 2011 is already running as a virtual.

I have a VM, which was originally running on Windows Server 2008 R2 with the Hyper-V role. The guest was a Server 2012 which was just serving as a domain controller (a backup one to the SBS 2011 server running on another physical machine).

I moved the VM by shutting it down, copying the files to a new Hyper-V Server 2016 host, and used Hyper V manage to Import the VM. The Altaro backup succeeds but with a warning "Backup snapshot is not application consistent. Backup will proceed in crash-consistent mode."

On the VM's event logs, I have these messages:

ESENT: lsass (592) An attempt to open the file "\\?\Volume{b0cbe895-ed69-11e6-80b0-806e6f6e6963}\Windows\NTDS\ntds.dit" for read only access failed with system error 32 (0x00000020): "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. ". The open file operation will fail with error -1032 (0xfffffbf8).

VSS: A VSS writer has rejected an event with error 0x800423f4, The writer experienced a non-transient error. If the backup process is retried, the error is likely to reoccur. . Changes that the writer made to the writer components while handling the event will not be available to the requester. Check the event log for related events from the application hosting the VSS writer.

vmicvss: The VSS writer NTDS failed with status 11 and writer specific failure code 0x800423F4.

I thought it was a problem with the move from a 2008 R2 host to 2016, so I demoted the domain controller, removed the AD & DNS roles, and then did a clean install of Server 2012 R2, re-added the roles and promoted the server back to a DC, but the problem persists.

Any ideas? It seems like something on the VM is causing the snapshot to fail, but I'm not sure how I'd fix a file access issue for something related to the directory service.

According to this blog post, https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/wsus/2016/01/22/for-those-on-wsus-3-0-sp2-or-sbs-2011/ it should be possible to migrate the WSUS services from the SBS 2011 server to another member server, so that the latest WSUS can be used and allow servicing for Windows 10 domain members. Another TechNet article (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh852339.aspx) details how to do the migration, but what additional steps are needed in the case of SBS? For example, the SBS console application has an area to review / approve updates. Would that simply be ignored moving forward, or is there additional configuration needed so SBS knows it is no longer the WSUS server.

I have a domain joined HyperV Server Core 2012 R2 machine, and a domain joined service is enabled and allows access from this computer. By default, the WinRM firewall exception for public profiles limits access to remote computers within workstation which was in-place upgraded from Windows Pro 8.1 to Windows 10 Pro. Prior to the update I was able to use Hyper-V Manager to connect to the 2012 R2 server to manage the VMs on that machine. After the update I get this error:

[Window Title]
Hyper-V Manager

[Main Instruction]
An error occurred while attempting to connect to server "HYPERV01". Check that the Virtual Machine Management service is running and that you are authorized to connect to the server.

[Content]
The operation on computer 'HYPERV01' failed: WinRM cannot complete the operation. Verify that the specified computer name is valid, that the computer is accessible over the network, and that a firewall exception for the WinRM the same local subnet.

[Close]

The workstation and server are on the same subnet, and I checked that Remote Management and some other Hyper-V exceptions are enabled in the firewall. How to I correct this?

EDIT: I'm not sure anymore if the Win10 update had anything to do with it. By entering the first command on the accepted answer on the hyperv server, i was able to connect again via the Hyper-V manager in Windows 10 with no other changes (not even the winrm set command was needed). So it could be that a recent Windows Update on the server reset the firewall rules, as enter-psssession hyperv01 was also failing, I later discovered.

I have an SBS 2011 domain at a single site. I had previously added a second domain controller for redundancy (including DNS) so that when the SBS server needs rebooting the network is uninterrupted. SBS is a virtual on a hyperv host, and the secondary DC was also a hyperv guest on another physical hyperv host.

The secondary died however and while I was able to restore it still caused issues in the domain. I was able to demote it using normal means eventually, and dcdiag reports things are fine on the SBS server.

I'd like to re-promote the server now, and I'm wondering if it avoid issues like this in the future if it would be better to make this a read only domain controller (RODC). The site is very small, just one location, and only rarely are changes to AD made. Also given how SBS works (the SBS server must hold the FSMO roles) it seems like it would simplify things while still allowing some redundancy.

Does this sound like a reasonable approach or is there a reason I should have a second RW domain controller?

I have two HyperV hosts, hv01 and hv02. hv01, a HyperV 2012 R2 server, hosts an SBS 2011 server and two other member servers, 2k8 R2 and Server 2012 R2, but neither are DCs. hv02 is Win 2k8r2 with only hyperv role, hosting a virtual Server 2012 which has the AD role as well. Both hyperv hosts are also domain members, and all the servers are backed up to a NAS using Altaro HyperV backup.

The DCs were not set to sync their time from the hyperv hosts; the SBS server is set to sync its time from a reliable US eastern time server and the DC on hv02 synced its time from the SBS server.

There was a power failure and hv02 lost its raid. Since the raid was built on WD green disks I order some RAID disks to replace them and rebuilt the server after about a week. I restored the backup DC and everything seemed to run fine with it, but a few days I had some problem with users redirected folders which lived on the SBS server. The error indicated there was a date / time sync problem between the workstation and the domain controller and couldn't authenticate. Everything on the SBS server looked fine, and it looked like the time between the server and work station were perfectly in sync. When I checked the DC on hv02, I couldn't remote desktop (again for time sync reasons) but on the console I was able to launch HyperV virtual console. Here I could see that the server date was the same date as it was when I originally restored the machine two days earlier. I could not get the virtual CTRL ALT DEL to show the logon screen (clicking the button on the toolbar did nothing). I attempted to shut down the DC however it did not respond so I used the HyperV manager to power the machine off. As soon as I did that things on the domain began functioning correctly again.

I powered the machine back on and again things seemed fine. Two days later, the same issues appeared, and the DC on hv02 was again two days behind. I again had to "hard" power off the machine and restart it.

I attempted to demote the DC however it failed stating that the date / time was out of sync although I could not see any difference between the SBS server and the DC causing issues. Everything matched down to the second as far as I could tell. Also during the demotion process I got a warning that the DC is hosting DNS and Global Catalog roles, which I assume means I should move them back to the SBS server (although SBS is also running DNS as well). The domain hasn't changed at all while the DC has been offline (no GPO changes, no adding / removing servers, no new users, etc.) So that's where I'm at, and I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm ok with blowing away the DC on hv02 and starting over, its only purpose is to be a backup AD / DNS server for when the SBS server (or its host) need to be rebooted for maintenance. How can I get my domain healthy again?

I currently have a HyperV Server 2012 R2 running on a motherboard that supports two processors, but currently has only one. It has 64GB of memory. I'd like to now add a second processor, moving half of the existing memory to the new processor, giving each 32GB. I'll add more memory later.

The two VMs which use the most memory are both allocated 16GB. There are other VMs that use at most 4GB.

Is there anything I need to be aware of to do this, or any reason I shouldn't? Will HyperV choose the processor that has the adequate amount of free memory when starting the VMs? Also, is it possible to assign more vCPUs than a single processor has? What would be the effect?

The board is an ASUS KGPE-D16 and the processor is an AMD Opteron 6320 OS6320WKT8GHKWOF, if that makes a difference.

I'm following the advice given in this article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/virtual_active_directory_domain_controller_virtualization_hyperv(WS.10).aspx#deployment_considerations_for_virtualized_domain_controllers

However my domain is slowly losing time, its about 7 minute behind what the time servers indicate is the current time.

I have two HyperV hosts, with a DC on each one. The hosts are domain members as well.

The first HyperV host is HyperV Server 2012 R2, the DC is SBS 2011. The second HyperV host is Windows Server 2008 R2, the DC is Server 2012 (not R2).

How can I keep the domain time correct?

EDIT:

Output of w32tm /query /status /verbose

PS C:\Windows\system32> w32tm /query /status /verbose
Leap Indicator: 0(no warning)
Stratum: 2 (secondary reference - syncd by (S)NTP)
Precision: -6 (15.625ms per tick)
Root Delay: 0.0621217s
Root Dispersion: 0.0288198s
ReferenceId: 0xA6468829 (source IP:  166.70.136.41)
Last Successful Sync Time: 12/16/2014 2:18:12 PM
Source: 2.us.pool.ntp.org
Poll Interval: 10 (1024s)

Phase Offset: -0.0000639s
ClockRate: 0.0156250s
State Machine: 2 (Sync)
Time Source Flags: 0 (None)
Server Role: 576 (Reliable Time Service)
Last Sync Error: 0 (The command completed successfully.)
Time since Last Good Sync Time: 637.4983578s

I found this:

Q. I want to have additional servers running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 in my SBS 2011 Standard domain. Do I need additional CALs to access those servers? A. No. As long as those servers are within the Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard domain, your Windows Small Business Server 2011 CAL Suites grant you access rights to the other Windows Servers. Note however, the use of some functionality in Windows Server require additional licenses (e.g., Remote Desktop Services/Rights Management Services).

Here. I'm looking to find out if the CAL would also cover a Server 2012 or Server 2012 R2 member server of the SBS domain as well. Has anyone found anything from Microsoft one way or the other?

I'm seeing this error in my Active Directory log. The error is on my primary dc which is an SBS 2008 box. The computer performing the request is my secondary dc running server 2008 r2.

Active Directory Certificate Services could not process request ## due to an error: The request's current status does not allow this operation. 0x80094003 (-2146877437). The request was for domain\server2008r2$.

I have these errors in the r2 servers logs:

Automatic certificate enrollment for local system failed (0x800b0101) A required certificate is not within its validity period when verifying against the current system clock or the timestamp in the signed file. .

Certificate for local system with Thumbprint ###################### is about to expire or already expired.

How can I resolve these?

Edit: Just wanted to add that the CA snap-in reports that the request failed due to a parsing error.

Edit 2: In my primary domain controller (the sbs 2008 server) it looks like the root cert has expired. Ive tried both renewing and requesting a new one, but it says no templates are valid.

I have a disk that I need to connect as a pass thru for one of my guest OSes, sbs 2011. The guests internal backup program will backup to the disk, which I'm planning to attach to the VMS SCSI controller. Since its a backup disk I also want to swap it.

I think what ill need to do, using powershell, is script the command to remove the pass thru from the VM, then use diskpart to take the disk offline m which will then allow me to remove the drive and add the other drive, and then reverse the steps I've outlined so the VM can backup again.

Does this sound correct? If not, how should I go about this?

I have a hyperv 2012 r2 server, and the case has two bays where you can open a drawer and slide in a bare SATA drive. Theres a data and power connector at the back of the bay with cables to connect to sata card or motherboard inside the case, as well as power from the power supply.

I'm pretty sure SATA is hot pluggable so I can insert the drive with the system running. My question is how do I safely remove the drive? I assume hardware wise this is part of being hot swappable, but how will Windows respond and how can I be sure nothing is in cache waiting to be written?

I'm hoping to be able to swap drives so the SBS 2011 guest VM can use the drives for backup.

The Mb is an Asus kgpe-d16, the drive bays are called xdock bays as part of a cooler master cosmos 2 case. The drives I am planning on using are wd 2tb red naps.

The manual for the Mb and raid controller both say they support hot swap, so my question is mainly how do I ensure windows is no longer using the drive, similar to the safely remove hardware icon you'd have in a full windows install.

I have HyperV Server 2012 R2 installed and I've opened ports in the firewall to allow remote snapins to connect. They mostly work, but, for example, the logical disk manager connects and shows information, but refreshing doesn't work. I get no errors from the snap-in but I can only see updates by closing and reopening the console.

I see this error in the event log of the server.

Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceOperationEvent WITHIN 10 WHERE (TargetInstance ISA 'Msvm_ExternalEthernetPort') OR (TargetInstance ISA 'Msvm_VmLANEndpoint') OR (TargetInstance ISA 'Msvm_SyntheticEthernetPort') OR (TargetInstance ISA 'Msvm_ComputerSystem') OR (TargetInstance ISA 'Msvm_VLANEndpointSettingData')" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/virtualization" because of error 0x80041010. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.

Any ideas?

I'm trying to test my SBS 2008 backup by restoring to a vm on a Hyper-V server. The SBS is a physical machine.

I created two vhdx each at 1TB in (fixed) size, which is larger than the actual disks which are 233 and 466 GB each. The restore fails almost immediately with this message:

The physical server has two other disks which are not backed up if that matters. I'm starting the restore by booting the vm from the SBS 2008 CD and going to the complete system restore option.

Any ideas?

Ive read that when running svc 2008 as a guest on hyperv 2008 that the host should not be joined to the domain because on restart if the host it presents a chicken and egg problem. I have been reading about hyperv 2012 and its recommended that it should be part of the domain but nothing is mentioned about SBS 2011.

If I will be running SBS 2011 as a guest on hyperv server 2012 should the host be joined to the svc domain? Does the answer change if there will be another physical server which is also a dc and part of the sbs domain?

I need to setup several Hyper-V VMs, all with the same base OS configuration. This is for a web site testing lab, so I'll need to start with Windows XP and then each one will have a different version of IE (6-8). I may need to do the same for other OSes as well.

It would be nice to install the base OS I need, then clone it and selectively apply the software installations I want. Is there any easy way to do this?

My business develops software, and as such I have setup Virtual PC servers on my Windows 7 work station. I've now upgraded to Windows 8, and didn't realize VPC was replaced with Hyper-V. Is there a way to get my existing virtual PCs running under Hyper V? I still have access to another Windows 7 machine if I need to use that for some of the steps.

I'd like to convert a physical machine to a virtual. Its an SBS2008 server. The catch is I have just the one server hardware to use. Is it possible to create VHDs for the system drive as well as a volume on the RAID drive saving the images to a network share, reformat the server and install hyper-v then bring the images in as part of the guest OS?

EDIT: Many answers have also asked why. These are my goals:

One goal is to get more than one server going, so that I can leave the SBS as it is, and install other services on a non-sbs running server. Also, I think it would make migration to sbs2011 easier, since I can install that into a clean virtual and migrate, then shut down the sbs2008 server (while leaving the services on the second server alone). In short, I think running virtuals will give me more options... one long term one includes moving to new hardware. I imagine it'd be easier to move to new hardware if you just transfer virtuals.

I'm currently running this out of my home office, so space is at a premium, and since I'm very small, price is as well. That's why only one server, and why when I do get a new server it'd be a replacement. However as my business grows I'd like to make it as easy as possible to expand out, and it seems like virtuals are a great way to make transitions easier.

Another goal is that I'm looking to have the option to run multiple servers (many are servers I'll setup to mimic client environments, but most of those won't be running until I'm actively doing development. I'll stop and start as needed).

I appreciate all the answers, and someone telling me this is a bad idea is fine as well. A virtual SBS2008 IS a supported MS configuration though, I've found documents telling you how to acomplish just that. Sadly I didn't come across these until recently, while I built the server a few years ago.