Archive for the ‘server 2012’ Tag

Disable UAC on Windows 2012

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014

I had a need to disable User Account Control on a server 2012 installation.

I had set UAC to “Never notify” but still ran into issues. I learned that UAC is not really disabled with server 2012.

I should note this goes against Microsoft’s best practices but sometimes you need to do that to get things done when a customer won’t give you time to research a better way.

You need to use Regedit and follow this steps.

  1. From a CMD or poweredit; type Regedit then hit enter
  2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system
  3. Double click on EnableLUA
  4. Change the Value data to a 0
  5. Click OK, then reboot the server

After that the error went away.

Normally, I would list the error but I had lost the message(this blog entry was on my todo).

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Posted in 8 2012 setup, Security, UAC | Tagged | Leave a comment

The remote session was disconnected because there are no Remote Desktop LIcense Servers

Monday, November 3rd, 2014

Remote Desktop is one of things administrators use throughout their day. It’s very useful and greatly missed when it does not work.

A user reported he had lost access to a 2012 server running remote desktop services. The server pinged and I was able to get to the hidden share.  However, when I attempted a Remote Desktop Connection; I received:

The remote session was disconnected because there are no Remote Desktop License Servers available to provide a license.  Please contact the server administrator.

Most likely the Remote Desktop Service had been running in trial mode and the grace period had expired. This server was located in another building and I was not interested in driving over.

Many people don’t know or simply forget there is a command line ability for remote desktop. You can by pass the licensing problem and get access by running the following from the Run command:

mstsc /admin

This will disable licensing for the session.  Basically; you are accessing the server through administrative mode only.

For more command line information, you can look at this.

Server 2012 changed many things.  It changed the way you manage Remote Desktop Services. Previously, you would simply go to administrative tools and bring up the services manager or session host configuration.  Now, you only get RD Licensing Diagnoser.

I ran it and a message which caught my attention was about licensing not being configuration for either Device or User.  There were also messages about license servers not getting accessed but I was interested in the configuration used during setup. The problem was where to configure this?  Especially since, Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration no longer exists.

Server 2012 is an attempt to be more virtual and cloud like so the management tools are geared for that. If you simply want a server to run Remote Desktop Service and use your license servers, you may configure the needed options through the local computer policy.  Start the editor:

gpedit.msc

Work your way through:

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host -> Licensing

There you will find your two needed options:

Use the specified RD license servers

Set the Remote Desktop licensing mode

Enable them and enter your license server(s) and the user or device mode.

Close out and give the server a reboot and you should have access to the server.

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How to extend a Windows Server trial period.

Tuesday, October 14th, 2014

Every so often I will get the “emergency” request for a Windows Server machine and either it will take too long to purchase a license or it’s only a trial to check something.  Of course, the server is established and all is forgotten.

One hundred and eighty days later; an issue is raised over the server being offline.  A quick check and of course the license has expired so the machine will start regularly shutting itself down.

The test of course is not over so do we extend it or get a license? The license idea is rejected to we can only extend the trial period.

Microsoft understands these issues and gave a simple way to extend a trial:

  1. Start a command prompt as administrator
  2. enter : slmgr.vbs /rearm
  3. The system will need a reboot for the extension to begin.

A new period of 180 days will be displayed and you can do this 2 more times.

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Windows Certification time

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

I dragged my feet for years on renewing MCSE. I wondered if it was really worth it? I have several training books and certification books which for all purposes are taking shelf space and gather dust.

I did ask around and found there are two basic arguments.

1) The main argument for getting MCSE for windows 2003 is HR and resume filtering. HR departments tend to be behind or simply don’t understand the IT field. Therefore, they look for catch phrases such as MSCE. It is also the last instance of Microsoft Certified Server Engineer.

The HR resume filtering argument is something to consider if you are starting your career.

If you like having the engineer label and it’s good for you to have a constant line of OS certs on your resume then by all means, get it.  Especially, if you are not worried about the cost and can pass it pretty quickly.

I am told however, the 2003 tests will retire this July.

2) The main argument against is the simple fact it’s old.  People are converting to 2008 so why bother?

A very valid consideration.  Especially, if you see your 2003 installs disappearing.  I learned long ago there is little value for being a master of a dead or dying Operating system.

Get an idea for how much 2003 is being used. Microsoft will keep the tests and certification around if the base is large. They tend to start retiring the tests and certifications about 10 or so years after the certification is introduced.

I am not concerned about 2003 anymore. I passed on obtaining the windows 2000 MSCE and found people weren’t bothered.  Probably, because I had converted a company from NT domains to Active Directory.

I have decided to “trail blaze” and go after the new certs for 2012.  Training material is limited and at this point in time. I have only found items for installing server 2012.

Some useful pages:

2008 or 2012

MCITP

Retired

 

 

 

Posted in 2003, 2012, Certification, Windows | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Add a new product key to Windows 8 or Server 2012

Friday, March 15th, 2013

I had a request to add a purchased product key to a server running a trial version of server 2012.  We are still learning the new layout so of course the question was how?

A quick check found we could change it via a GUI.  There is the command line; but, I wanted to use the GUI.

To change the license simply enter:

slui 3

This will bring up the following window:

activation

Simply cut and paste the new license, click Activate and the change will happen.

Posted in 2012, Windows | Tagged , | Leave a comment

System error 2148073478 has occurred.

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

As we start to play with Windows 8 in our environment; we run into many new things. One such issue was trying to mount a network drive from a Netapp Filer.

We issued the command and received the following error:

System error 2148073478 has occurred.

A quick check at Microsoft showed this was due to Windows 8 and Server 2012 now using “secure negotiate” in their use of SMBv3. This requires servers using SMBv2 (which the filer in question uses) to use a signed response for all error messages which some filers don’t use and it causes the connection to fail.

The suggested resolution was to get the third party vendor to provide an update which in this case was not possible as it’s a “Release Candidate” at this time. This is not always the best thing to run in a production environment. Especially, for only a couple clients that are being used to test the new operating system versus having a genuine need.

The other option was to perform a registry edit via PowerShell to disable the “secure negotiate” on Windows 8.

I opened the PowerShell window and pasted:

Set-ItemProperty -Path “HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters” RequireSecureNegotiate -Value 0 -Force

But, it didn’t work.  I received this nice little message:

> Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Serv
ces\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters" RequireSecureNegotiate -Value 0 -Force
Set-ItemProperty : Requested registry access is not allowed.
At line:1 char:1
+ Set-ItemProperty -Path
"HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstatio ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : PermissionDenied: (HKEY_LOCAL_MACH...tion\Parame
   ters:String) [Set-ItemProperty], SecurityException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Security.SecurityException,Microsoft.Powe
   rShell.Commands.SetItemPropertyCommand

One of the things to remember is Microsoft is trying to be more secure with such things. Being a local administrator isn’t what is used to be.

The way around this was to right-click the tile for powershell (I have the administrative tools displayed on the desktop).  This made a check appear on the tile and a menu appear at the bottom of the screen.  On that menu was the option to “run as administrator”

I clicked the option and was able to run the command.

After that; I was able to mount shares from the filer.

Posted in 2012, 8, PowerShell, Windows | Tagged , , | Leave a comment