Category: Windows Server 2012 R2
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KB4103723: DO NOT APPLY!
Hey folks, if you know what is good for you, do not apply this patch yet. KB4103723 protects against a CredSSP vulnerability that has not yet been compromised. However, it will break lots of things in your system, including RDP and Hyper-V connections. Errors will include CredSSP errors when trying to connect via RDP (or…
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Automated Virtual Machine Activation
Let’s face it… Microsoft wants you to use Microsoft, so when it can, it creates technologies that make it easier for you to do so. Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA) is one of those tools. I remember when Microsoft got into the server virtualization game, it really had very little to compete with VMware, other…
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DCPromo No More… PowerShell!
I needed to build a new domain controller for a friend’s company recently. It is something that I have done so many times over the past two decades that some things are just instinctive… like typing dcpromo to create a domain controller. Right… I had forgotten about that. dcpromo has been deprecated. You could go…
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Server Core on VMware
When I was a Virtual Technical Evangelist for Microsoft Canada I spent a lot of time telling you why you should use Server Core… especially if you were on Hyper-V. Why? You save resources. It is now over two years since I turned in my Purple Badge, and I still think Server Core rocks. In…
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How To Cheat With PowerShell
Admit it… you are a crappy coder. You may be a pretty fair IT Professional, but you cannot script your way out of a paper bag. There’s a support group for you. Hi, my name is Mitch, and I’m a lousy scripter. Admittedly I have never been to an AA or NA meeting; I have…
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iSCSI Virtual Disks: If you have to make a bunch… Use PowerShell!
I don’t mean to sound like a broken record but when you have to do things over and over again, it simply doesn’t make sense to do it manually. Sure, the GUI (Graphical User Interface) in Windows is great… but if you have to click through the same wizard ten times to create ten of…
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Server Core: Every bit the Full Server as the GUI is!
Microsoft introduced Server Core with Windows Server 2008, which means that it was the same kernel as Windows Vista. Now, nobody is going to stand up and sing the praises of Vista, but Server 2008 was a very solid OS. You may (or may not) remember that there was a campaign around Vista called ‘The WOW starts…
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Where am I? HELP!
My colleague created a virtual machine for me in our datacentre a few weeks ago. (Thanks Michael!) Earlier this week I needed to create a second virtual machine to cluster with it, and I felt that the best way to maximize my resources completely would be to create another virtual machine identical to the first. …
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Let’s Spread the Action Around… With NLB! (Part 1)
**AUTHOR’S NOTE: I have written hundreds of articles on this blog over the past decade. Until recently I spent a lot of time taking screen shots of GUI consoles for my how-to articles. For the time being, as I try to force myself into the habit, I will be using Windows PowerShell as much as…
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Help! My Servers Aren’t Being Monitored!
This isn’t right… I have System Center Operations Manager monitoring all of my servers for me, but this morning I noticed that several of my servers are in a warning state, but they are greyed out (which implies that they aren’t reporting in properly). What do I do? This is not uncommon, especially in smaller…
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Insanity Is…
We have all heard this quote before… and it is exactly true. However in your server environment, when you want things identical, then we would turn this phrase around: Insanity: Doing things manually over and over and expecting identical results. I have not spent a great deal of time learning PowerShell… but whenever I have…
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Broken Cluster? Clear it up.
Three years ago I wrote an article about cleaning up nodes of clusters that had been corrupted and destroyed (See Cluster Issues… how to clean out cluster nodes from destroyed clusters). Unfortunately the cluster command has been deprecated in Windows Server 2012 R2, so we need to go to PowerShell… which frankly is where we…
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Cluster-Aware Updates: Be Aware!
When I started evangelizing Windows Server 2012 for Microsoft, there was a long list of features that I was always happy to point to. There are a few of them that I have never really gone into detail on, that I am currently working with. Hopefully these articles will help you. Cluster Aware Updates (CAU)…
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Keep Up: How to configure SCOM to monitor the running state of services and restart them when they stop
Windows runs on services. Don’t believe me? Open your Services console and count just how many are running at any given time. Of course, some of them are more important than others… especially when you are talking about servers that are critical to your organization. A new customer recently called me for a DEAR Call…
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End Of Days 2003: The End is Nigh!
In a couple of days we will be saying goodbye to 2014 and ringing in the New Year 2015. Simple math should show you that if you are still running Windows Server 2003, it is long since time to upgrade. However here’s more: When I was a Microsoft MVP, and then when I was a…
The World According to Mitch 