Category: Windows Server

Installing applications on terminal server

Published on in Terminal server, Windows Server by Elvis

In many cases I still see, that administrators don’t install applications for publishing on terminal servers correctly.
I want to tell you once again, that the right installation of those applications is a crucial point for good working in Remote application mode. Here is the right way how to prepare the environment to install those applications from command prompt:

  • Before the installation, you must enable the “installation mode” with the command change user /install. This has to be executed from elevated command prompt.
  • Install the application (from command prompt …).
  • After you installed the applications successfully, you have to return into “running mode” with the command change user /execute.

Of course, you can also install applications true Control Panel and Add programs. This is also a right way to install applications..

Problems Upgrading DPM 2012 to SP1

Published on in DPM, Windows Server by Elvis

SP1 for DPM 2012 is available, so this is the best practice to upgrading your software.
I upgraded my software and I had some problems, or mismatches in some cases. We always talk about agents, not about DPM server as itself.
Upgrading server is easy. You have to download System Center 2012 with SP1 ISO image and launch the installation (before this step backup your SQL database!!!). Just follow the steps that are described and at the end you will have to restart the DPM server.
Until there everything is OK and easy. After this you will need some attention with agents. In addition the agents needs to be updated to SP1 version and it will be possible to upgrade them from DPM console, but DON’T DO THAT! If you protect Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012, it will not work. No replicas will be synchronized and agents will not start. Here you have almost three types of problems:

1. On Windows 8 or Windows server 2012 the agent won’t start and in event log you will have two errors:

Error 10005 – Distributed COM
DCOM got error “1053” attempting to start the service DPMRA with arguments “Unavailable” in order to run the server:
{DA6AA17A-D61C-4E9C-8CEA-DB25DEA52A95}

Error 7009 – Service control manager
A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the DPMRA service to connect.

Also, if you try to start manually DPMRA.EXE from command prompt, you will receive a more accurate error as it is shown in picture (VSSRequestor.dll is missing)


2. If your DPM 2012 is installed on Windows Server 2012 (I know, that this solution is not supported by Microsoft …), you will not be able to synchronize replicas. After a close look to the event viewer, you will find the same situation as in the first issue.

3. On the workgroup protected hosts with Windows Server 2012 system, the issue is similar. Here you have to upgrade agents manually, but this is not necessary enough. In this case you may receive error in DPM that agents are not reachable. You have to reregister your host as I wrote in one of my previous posts, but you will receive the second error:

Configuring dpm server settings and firewall settings for dpm server =[DPM_ServerName]
Failed! SetDpmServer failed with errorcode =0x8007041d, error says: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

To further troubleshoot failures with SetDpmServer, go to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169142

To solve the first and the second issue, you have two possibilities:

1. The best is to upgrade agents manually on protected hosts by coping installation files from [Program FilesDPM INSTALTION FOLDER]DPMProtectionAgentsRA4.1.3313.0 and launch DPMAgentInstaller from elevated command prompt. This will work.

2. Copy VssRequestor.dll from another computer to [Program FilesDPM INSTALTION FOLDER]DPMbin folder.

To solve the third problem, you have to uninstall the agent from the protected host in Control Panel – Uninstall a program. After this, perform the clean installation and configure the agent as I’ve mentioned in my previous post. This will work.

I hope, that I helped someone with this post.

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Migrate RDP License server to Server 2012

Published on in Terminal server, Windows Server by Elvis

One of the things we have to do when we upgrade our server environment, is to migrate licenses for the RDP clients. This job is done by the RDP Licensing server. I want to explain the process of migrating licenses from Windows Server 2008R2 to Server 2012.

The process is easy, but before you start the migration, is necessary to have the documentation for all licenses (you need authorization numbers or keys during the migration process).
The first step is the installation of the RDP Licensing role in Server Manager true Add Roles and Features Wizard.

Here you have to select Role-based or Feature-based installation and in the Server Role step you have to check Remote Desktop Services.

Later, on Remote Desktop Services, on the step Role Services, you have to check Remote Desktop Licensing (of course you can check also other functionalities if you need them).

Complete the wizard.
In the Server Manager menu Tools, Terminal Services, open the Remote Desktop Licensing Manager, right click on the installed server and select Activate server.

Add your data and complete the activation wizard.
The next step is transferring the licenses from the old server to the new one. To do this, you have to right click on the newly installed server and select Manage Licenses.

This will open the Manage licenses wizard. As the first step, select Migrate licenses form another server to this license server and select the reason (in most cases is The source server is begin replaced by this license server). Click Next.

In the next step, you have to identify the old, decommissioned server, by typing his name or IP address. Click Next.

At this point, you need to type your keys or agreement number and confirm the licenses with the Add button. When you have added all your licenses click Next.

The wizard will transfer your licenses to the new server. At this point you are ready to unauthorize and uninstall the old server..

Controlling the Hyper-V replica

Published on in Virtualization, Windows Server by Elvis

For many of us will be Hyper-V replica in Windows Server 2012 very useful. The technique permits to small companies or datacenters to have a system online very quickly and with minimum investments. There are a lot of blogs and documents where it is explained how Hyper-V replica works, but at the same time I could not find any document how to implement monitoring.
This is why I wrote the script for sending the mail, if something goes wrong. This script (you can download it for free) sends a mail if there is any replication out of normal state. Of course, you can change the expression at your own choice and use it in your environment.

 Hyper-V Replica SendMail.zip (1.09 kb).

ImagePathcher.ps1: You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression

Published on in Deployment, Windows Server by Elvis

In my environments, I use MDT and/or WDS in many cases. Here is always the problem of updating images, because it takes a lot of time. For this reason, I was looking for a script, which would do the same work as I, but without losing my time.
Imagepatcher PowerShell script from CodePlex (http://imagepatcher.codeplex.com) was the perfect solution for me, but not in the last months. I think that the problem occurred after I upgraded my environment to Windows Server 2012, but I am not sure. Anyway, when I tried to execute the script, I received the error that there is something wrong with the saving of downloaded files. I analyzed the script and found that something is not working properly when combining the name from few variables.
I repaired the issue and you can download the new imagepatcher.ps1 from here.

imagepatcher.zip (36.63 kb).