leedesmond’s blog

All you want to know about Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2 in a visual component architecture poster highlighting:

• Remote Desktop Session Host
• Remote Desktop Virtualization Host
• Remote Desktop Connection Broker
• Remote Desktop Web Access
• Remote Desktop Gateway
• Remote Desktop Licensing
• RemoteFX

Use this in conjuction with the other visual references to complete the big picture around Windows Server 2008 R2.

• Windows Server 2008 and R2 Feature component posters (here and here)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Component Architecture poster (here)

Technorati tags: Windows Server 2008 R2 , Remote Desktop Services/Terminal Services

No Comments »

The following error may appear if you restore a virtual hard disk (VHD) and attempt to attach it to a new guest virtual machine (or child partition) in Hyper-V R2:

[Window Title]
New Virtual Machine Wizard

[Main Instruction]
The server encountered an error while configuring hard disk on virtualMachineName.

[Content]
Failed to add device ‘Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk’.

User Account does not have permission to open attachment.

Cannot get information for attachment ‘C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\virtualMachineName\virtualMachineName_disk_1.vhd’

Account does not have permission to open attachment.

[Expanded Information]
‘virtualMachineName’ failed to add device ‘Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk’. (Virtual machine ID  - - - - )

‘virtualMachineName’: User account does not have permission required to open attachment ‘C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\virtualMachineName\virtualMachineName_disk_1.vhd’. Error: ‘General access denied error’ (0×80070005). (Virtual machine ID  - - - - )

‘virtualMachineName’: Cannot get information for attachment ‘C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\virtualMachineName\virtualMachineName_disk_1.vhd’. (Virtual machine ID  - - - - )

‘virtualMachineName:  account does not have permission required to open attachment ‘C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\virtualMachineName\virtualMachineName_disk_1.vhd’. Error: ‘General access denied error’ (0×80070005). (Virtual machine ID  - - - - )

[^] Hide details  [Close]

This error is caused by the file level NTFS permissions that were restored together with the VHD. The resolution is simple: navigate to the folder containing the affected VHDs, call out the VHD’s properties, go to the Security tab and change permissions to inherit from the parent folder.

Technorati tags: Hyper-V, Windows Server 2008 R2

No Comments »

To have the ability to recover individual files and folders in a guest virtual machine hosted on Hyper-V RTM / R2, the protection group must specify Disk as the backup media (short term).

The DPM agent only needs to be installed on the physical Hyper-V host. It is not a prerequisite to setup the DPM Agent in each and every VM. Doing so, however, enables the administrator to define separate and complementary backup schedules with added flexibility in recovery, both at the VM (as seen from Hyper-V) and application (child partition’s viewpoint) levels.

Additionally, the Hyper-V server role must be installed on the DPM 2010 Server. This requires Windows Server 2008 RTM / R2, which in any case is the only supported x64 operating system for DPM 2010. It is not sufficient to just install the Hyper-V Manager.

Technorati tags: System Center, Data Protection Manager, Windows Server 2008 R2

No Comments »

If you deploy SCVMM to manage your virtual infrastructure, navigating to DPM / Protection Group and expanding the <clusterName> on the “Select Group Members” page will present you with the opportunity to pick from a list of virtual machines prefixed with <SCVMM> for backup.

Assuming that you have a clustered VM resource named Exchange, it will read “SCVMM Exchange Resources” below “<clusterName> (Cluster)”. Drill down to “HyperV” and put a check against “Backup Using Child Partition Snapshot\Exchange”. Complete the remaining steps to finalize your backup requirements (backup media, goals, schedule, etc.).

For the reverse procedure (data restore), click on the Recovery tab and move to the Browse tab. On the left hand pane, expand “Recoverable data” and choose the node representing the Active Directory domain name. Instead of the <clusterName> name, you will find “SCVMM Exchange Resources (<clusterNameFQDN>)” along with other protected servers and resources (SQL, SharePoint, etc.).

In order to recover the entire VM - virtual hard disks (vhd), Virtual Machines folders, XML/bin/vsv files, etc. - it is imperative to first select “All Protected HyperV Data” in the tree view (Protected Data) on the left hand side. Be aware that these files do not show up as individual items for selection.

On the list pane to the right, highlight “Backup Using Child Partition Snapshot\Exchange” and locate the desired recovery point, date, time and backup media using the calendar. Click on Recover where you have a choice on the “Recovery Type” page to perform restore using one of the options:

Recover to original instance
Recover as virtual machine to any host
Copy to a network folder
Copy to tape

For restoration of just the associated vhd files of the VM, double click “Backup Using Child Partition Snapshot\Exchange”. You can only pick a single vhd for recovery one at a time. The recovery target in this case is limited to “Copy to a network folder”. Should you attempt to replace the vhds using this approach, VMM may fail to start the VM and complain with the error:

Error (12711)
VMM cannot complete the WMI operation on server <clusterNodeNameFQDN> because of error: [MSCluster_Resource.Name=”SCVMM Exchange”] The group or resource is not in the correct state to perform the requested operation.

(The group or resource is not in the correct state to perform the requested operation (0×139F))

To learn more about a cluster and its nodes under DPM, simply hover and pause the mouse over the entity to see the corresponding tool tip:

<clusterName> consists of multiple servers, which may have unclustered resources. Unclustered resources are listed separately under server names. Since this list is sorted alphabetically, server names may appear somewhere else in this tree view.

<clusterNodeName> is part of a cluster. Unclustered resources on this server are listed here. Clustered resources belonging to the same cluster are listed under cluster name separately. Since this list is sorted alphabetically, cluster name may appear somewhere else in this tree view.

Environment
Hyper-V R2 in a 2-node Fail-over Cluster with Cluster Shared Volume, CSV*
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, v2.0.4273.0
Data Protection Manager 2010 RTM*

*  Windows Server 2008 R2

See also:
Restore of hyper-v VM’s on DPM 2010 in Data Protection Manager

Technorati tags: System Center, Data Protection Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, Windows Server 2008 R2

No Comments »

- Risk and Health Assessment Program for Active Directory - Scoping Tool v1.3
- Infrastructure Planning and Design v1.0
- Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) 2010 Evaluation Version
- Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) Documentation
- Getting to Know Hyper-V: A Walkthrough from Initial Setup to Common Scenarios v1.0
- Code Name Dublin Tutorials (November 2009)

Technorati tags: Windows Server 2008 R2, Forefront, Security, Hyper-V R2

No Comments »

On many Microsoft download sites, it it likely that you have to use the Microsoft File Transfer Manager in order to transfer large files, typically over 2GB in size, with Internet Explorer. First time users will see the gold information bar prompting:

This website wants to install the following add-on: ‘Microsoft File Transfer Manager (Build 5.0.0.32)’ from ‘Microsoft Corporation’. If you trust the website and the add-on and want to install it, click here…

Clicking on the gold bar and selecting “Install This Add-on for All Users on This Computer…” will cause the User Account Control (UAC) security prompt to appear. Once you acknowledge it, you may encounter the error message:

—————————
VBScript: Microsoft File Transfer Manager
—————————
There was an error launching File Transfer Manager.

If you are running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1, this installation may have been blocked.  If the gold IE Information Bar is present above, please click the bar and select the option to ‘Install ActiveX’.

For additional assistance, please visit the web site https://transfers.ds.microsoft.com, or contact your help provider.
—————————
OK
—————————

To resolve this, make sure that you are running the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer 8 and not the 64-bit Edition that is separately available as part of the Windows Seven or Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 operating system.

Technorati tags: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

No Comments »

Running Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 in a Virtualized Topology:
Best Practices and Performance Considerations (link)

This is an update of the Microsoft white paper describing the virtualization support policy for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. In a nutshell, the supported workloads remain unchanged i.e. Instant Messaging, Presence and Group Chat. The product is not designed to support virtualized real-time traffic as there is no guarantee of stable performance and scalability for production use nor consistent, acceptable user experience at this point in time.

To quote …

Enterprise Voice, Remote Call Control (RCC), Response Group Service, dial-In conferencing, audio/video conferencing, Web conferencing, and Communicator Web Access desktop sharing workloads are not supported in a virtualized Office Communications Server 2007 R2 deployment. This occurs because of several factors, including packet loss, delay, jitter, and clock skew.

Further …

Desktop virtualization is not supported. The client should be installed on physical client computers.

Depending on your strategic goals, environment and user base, this may not necessarily be of any relevance, importance or concern from a usability or (official Microsoft) supportability perspective. Obviously your mileage may vary and the risks associated with deploying a virtualized topology may be tolerable for a limited number of concurrent users running any form of time sensitive traffic.

Technorati tags: LCS/OCS, OCS 2007, Virtualization

No Comments »

Die Swiss Windows 7 Launch Party wird am Di. 27.10.09 in Zürich stattfinden. Ab 1930 Uhr treffen wir uns bei Bohemia (Kreuzplatz) an den gratis Event zusammen zu feiern. Alle Teilnehmer haben sich die Chance mit IT Pros zu vernetzen und tolle Preise von Windows 7 Ultimate bis special edition Windows 7 USB sticks zu gewinnen. Finger food und Getränke sind on the house solange vorrätig. Beschränkte Plätze auf first-come-first-serve Basis.

Anmeldung und Informationen können Sie hier erleben.

The Swiss Windows 7 Launch Party will take place on Tu 27.10.09. Celebrate with us at this free event at Bohemia (Kreuzplatz) from 1930 hrs. All registered delegates will have the opportunity to network with IT Pros community volunteers and stand a chance to win exciting lucky prize draws from Windows 7 Ultimate to special edition Windows 7 memory sticks. Finger food and drinks on the house while stocks last. Limited seats on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Registration and more information can be found here.

Sponsors:
 

Update (6 Nov 2008)
Event 27 Oct 2009 Zurich - Swiss Windows 7 Launch Party Photo Highlights

Technorati tags: Windows 7, Community/User Group, Events

No Comments »

Es ist so weit. Offizieller wird Windows 7 am 22.Okt 2009 auf dem Markt weltweit erscheinen. In der Schweiz wird eine sogenannte Windows 7 Launch Party von Swiss IT Pro User Group mit Support von Microsoft unter dem Thema “Windows 7 for You and Me” geplant. Diese spezielle Party wird an einen Abend zwischen 22. und 29. Okt 2009 in Zürich stattfinden (Datum noch nicht bestimmit).

Falls Sie Windows 7 in der Praxis erleben und die Gelegenheit bei einer lockenden Umgebung neue Leute, Kollege und die IT Pro Community kennen lernen, verzögern Sie sich nicht anzumelden. Ein Kommentar mit Ihren Vor-, Nach- name, Firma und gültigen E-mail Adresse gilt als eine Anmeldung (wird nicht veröffentlichen). Details über die Party folgt. Teilnahme ist gratis.

Sponsor gesucht - bitte kontaktieren Sie uns, falls Sie zu diesem Community Event beitragen und unterstützen können z.B. Veranstaltungsort, Verpflegung, Door gifts, lucky prize draws, usw.

Technorati tags: Windows 7, Community/User Group, Events

No Comments »

- Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Application Compatibility Update (KB974332)

- BranchCache Security Guide

- Automated Installation To Upgrade Windows 7 Step-by-Step Guide

- Manual Installation of Windows 7 Overview

- Upgrading to Windows 7 with a Standard Image Overview

- Automated Installation of Windows 7 Overview

- Windows XP to Windows 7 Hard-Link Migration of User Files and Settings
Guide to move users’ files and settings from Windows XP to Windows 7 or Vista covering the User State Migration Tool (USMT) 4.0.

- Choosing a Deployment Strategy (Windows 7; Windows Server 2008)

- Resources for Top Areas of Support for Windows Server 2008 R2

- Step By Step Guide: Demonstrate DirectAccess in a Test Lab

- System Update Readiness Tool (KB947821 - x64, ia64, x86)
Resolves inconsistency issue in the Windows servicing store necessary to successfully install future updates, service packs and software on Windows Server 2008 RTM/SP2 and Vista RTM/SP1/SP2.

- Deploying Personal Virtual Desktops by Using Remote Desktop Web Access Step-by-Step Guide (Windows Server 2008 R2)
Check out related series of documents under “What Others Are Downloading”.

- Active Directory Management Gateway Service (AD Web Service for Windows Server 2008 and 2003)
ADMGS provides a Web Service interface* to AD DS or AD LDS on Windows Server 2008 RTM/SP2 and Windows Server 2003 (R2) SP2 running as member servers** or domain controllers (WS03, WS08 full or RODC). Requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and software updates (Window Server 2003 SP2 - KB969166 and KB969429 or Windows Server 2008 RTM - KB967574). Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell and the Active Directory Administrative Center (ADAC) running on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 can then be used to manage directory service instances on the former list of OS.

- WS08 Whitepapers

- Update for Windows Vista SP1 or above to enable RemoteApp
Install this update package in the Windows Vista SP1/SP2 virtual machine running in Windows Virtual PC under Windows 7 host machine to enable RemoteApp.

* the Active Directory Management Gateway Service runs as the Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory Web Services (ADWS) service; more here and here

** running AD LDS or ADAM instance

Technorati tags: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, PowerShell

No Comments »