Category: Microsoft

Unsurprisingly the Windows 10 Technical Preview (build 10130) was very unstable on my Surface Pro 3 128GB/i5/4GB – primarily I was plagued with Intel Video Driver crashes, plain grey/white screens and WiFi issues – hey it is a technical preview after-all! Restoring back to a previous version of Windows (i.e. Windows 8.1) requires recovery media, luckily Microsoft supply this for you, as outlined in the following location: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/downloadablerecoveryimage

Once you have download the image use the following instructions to create the media:

1. Insert your FAT32 USB drive into the USB port of your Surface or PC. For Surface Pro models and Surface 3, your USB drive should be at least 16 GB.
2. From the desktop, open File Explorer.
3. Tap and hold (or right-click) on the USB drive, and choose Format.
4. Select FAT32 as the file system and enter a Volume label (for example, Recovery) to name the USB drive, and tap or click Start.
5. Tap or click OK to erase the contents of the USB drive.
6. Tap or click OK when the format is complete.
7. Double click the recovery image that you downloaded to open and unzip (extract) the files.
8. Next, drag the files from the compressed folder to the USB drive you formatted.

Finally, follow instructions here to restore the device using the recovery media: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/usbrecovery

Let’s hope these kinks are worked out in the final release 🙂

Ran into some stability issues with a Lync 2013 environment recently with calls being dropped and content sharing not working. Restarting the Edge Servers, and less commonly the Front End servers, resolved the issue but only for a few days at most.

Working with MS support they identified high namespace handle count against an svchost.exe process – the process that was associated with WMI. To identify this, WMI was broken out into it’s own svchost process using the information in the following article: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2014/08/12/wmi-how-to-troubleshoot-high-cpu-usage-by-wmi-components.aspx

Once the cause was identified, the following hotfix resolved the stability issues: https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/kb/2889748/en-us

In my quest to automate Windows 2012 R2 deployment (along with SQL 2014 and SharePoint 2013) I wanted to simplify the static IP addressing of my deployed VMs. The following PowerShell commands below will configure the default Network Adapter – always named “Ethernet” in a standard windows 2012 R2 deployment – the script can be easily modified to suit your environment/IP addressing requirements:

$nic = Get-NetAdapter -Name Ethernet
$nic | Set-NetIPInterface -Dhcp Disabled
$nic | New-NetIPAddress -IPAddress 192.168.0.201 -PrefixLength 24 –DefaultGateway 192.168.0.1
Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias "Ethernet" -ServerAddresses "192.168.0.1"

I came across the following TechNet post recently which is useful for deploying Hyper-V machines and automating machine renaming to be in-line with the names given to you Hyper-V guests:https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Automate-Virtual-Machine-6c17929c

However, I ran into issues when testing on a Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V Server and Windows 2012 R2 guest, so modified the rename component as follows – ensure you run from within the guest Operating System:

$virtualmachinename= (Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\software\microsoft\virtual machine\guest\parameters').virtualmachinename 
Rename-Computer -NewName $virtualmachinename.ToUpper()
Restart-Computer

In automating the deployment of some Windows 2012 R2 servers on a lab I neglected to select the ‘with GUI’ option during Windows Setup, use the script below to restore the GUI:

Powershell
Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra, Server-Gui-Shell -Source:wim:D:\sources\install.wim:2
Restart-Computer

In automating a SharePoint 2013 SP1 deployment on Windows Server 2012 R2 I came across the following PowerShell script to facilitate offline deployment of all Shareoint 2013 SP1 pre-requisites: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/DownloadInstall-SharePoint-e6df9eb8

The only issue with this script is that it is for Windows 2012 / SharePoint 2013 RTM only.

The modified copy below facilitates all Windows 2012 R2 / SharePoint 2013 SP1 pre-requisite downloads – including naming of the downloads as required by the pre-requisite installer.

{code lang:text showtitle:false lines:false hidden:false}#***************************************************************************************
# Written by Craig Lussier - http://craiglussier.com
#
# Udated for Windows 2012 R2/SharePoint 2013 SP1 by Chris Bradford - http://www.cb-net.co.uk
#
# This script downloads SharePoint 2013 Prerequisites
#
# -Only run this script on Windows Server 2012 (RTM, either Standard or Datacenter)
# -Do not run this script on a Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Server!
# ---These are the Prerequisites for Windows Server 2012
# -Run this script as a local server Administrator
# -Run PowerShell as Administrator
#
# Don't forget to: Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
# If you have not done so already within you Windows Server 2012 server
#****************************************************************************************
param([string] $SharePoint2013Path = $(Read-Host -Prompt "Please enter the directory path to where you wish to save the SharePoint 2013 Prerequisite files."))

# Import Required Modules
Import-Module BitsTransfer

# Specify download url's for SharePoint 2013 prerequisites
$DownloadUrls = (
         "http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/1/3/9138773A-505D-43E2-AC08-9A77E1E0490B/1033/x64/sqlncli.msi", # Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Native Client
         "http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/0/0/E0060D8F-2354-4871-9596-DC78538799CC/Synchronization.msi", # Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64)
         "http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/6/7/A678AB47-496B-4907-B3D4-0A2D280A13C0/WindowsServerAppFabricSetup_x64.exe", # Windows Server App Fabric
         "http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/B/5/7B51D8D1-20FD-4BF0-87C7-4714F5A1C313/AppFabric1.1-RTM-KB2671763-x64-ENU.exe", # CU 1 for AppFabric 1.1 (KB2671763)
         "http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/B/5/7B51D8D1-20FD-4BF0-87C7-4714F5A1C313/AppFabric1.1-RTM-KB2671763-x64-ENU.exe", # Cumulative Update Package 1 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server (KB2671763)
         "http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/7/2/D72FD747-69B6-40B7-875B-C2B40A6B2BDD/Windows6.1-KB974405-x64.msu", #Windows Identity Foundation (KB974405)
         "http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/1/D/01D06854-CA0C-46F1-ADBA-EBF86010DCC6/rtm/MicrosoftIdentityExtensions-64.msi", # Microsoft Identity Extensions
         "http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/1/D/91DA8796-BE1D-46AF-8489-663AB7811517/setup_msipc_x64.msi", # Microsoft Information Protection and Control Client
         "http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/F/9/8F93DBBD-896B-4760-AC81-646F61363A6D/WcfDataServices.exe", # Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.0
         "http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/C/A/1CAA41C7-88B9-42D6-9E11-3C655656DAB1/WcfDataServices.exe" # Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.6 (rename this download to WcfDataServices56.exe)
	)

function DownLoadPreRequisites() {
	Write-Host ""
	Write-Host "====================================================================="
	Write-Host " Downloading SharePoint 2013 Prerequisites Please wait..."
	Write-Host "====================================================================="
	$ReturnCode = 0

	foreach ($DownLoadUrl in $DownloadUrls) {
		## Get the file name based on the portion of the URL after the last slash
		If ($DownloadUrl -eq "http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/C/A/1CAA41C7-88B9-42D6-9E11-3C655656DAB1/WcfDataServices.exe") {$filename = "WcfDataServices56.exe"}
    Else {$FileName = $DownLoadUrl.Split('/')[-1]}

	Try {
		## Check if destination file already exists
		If (!(Test-Path "$SharePoint2013Path\$FileName")){
			## Begin download
			Start-BitsTransfer -Source $DownLoadUrl -Destination $SharePoint2013Path\$fileName -DisplayName "Downloading `'$FileName`' to $SharePoint2013Path" -Priority High -Description "From $DownLoadUrl..." -ErrorVariable err
		If ($err) {Throw ""}}
		Else {
			Write-Host " - File $FileName already exists, skipping..."
			}
		}
		Catch {
			$ReturnCode = -1
			Write-Warning " - An error occurred downloading `'$FileName`'"
			Write-Error $_
			break
			}
		}
	Write-Host " - Done downloading Prerequisites required for SharePoint 2013"
	return $ReturnCode
	}

function CheckProvidedDownloadPath() {
	$ReturnCode = 0
	Try {
		# Check if destination path exists
		If (Test-Path $SharePoint2013Path) {
			# Remove trailing slash if it is present
			$script:SharePoint2013Path = $SharePoint2013Path.TrimEnd('\')
			$ReturnCode = 0
		}
	Else {
		$ReturnCode = -1
		Write-Host ""
		Write-Warning "Your specified download path does not exist. Please verify your download path then run this script again."
		Write-Host ""
		}
	}
	Catch {
		$ReturnCode = -1
		Write-Warning "An error has occurred when checking your specified download path"
		Write-Error $_
		break
		}
	return $ReturnCode
	}

function DownloadPreReqs() {
	$rc = 0
	$rc = CheckProvidedDownloadPath
	# Download Pre-Reqs
	if($rc -ne -1) {
		$rc = DownLoadPreRequisites
		}
	if($rc -ne -1) {
		Write-Host ""
		Write-Host "Script execution is now complete!"
		Write-Host ""
		}
	}

DownloadPreReqs

I’ve been testing the AutoSPinstaller recently and ran into an issue where I’d set the “Use SSL” flag on the Central Admin configuration, but had no certificate/didn’t actually want it to use SSL.

I figured I’d just run Set-SPCentralAdministration -Port <PortNumber> to resolve this issue – however this doesn’t change any of the AAMs, notably the default AAM for Central Admin.

Using the PowerShell script I found in the following blog post, the issue was resolved: http://tom-dw.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/removing-ssl-from-sharepoint-central.html

Be sure to change the URL and port number to suit your requirements.

#Load the SharePoint assembly
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")

#Get the central admin webapp
$cAdmApp = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication]::Local

#Create a new alternate url
$altUrl = New-Object "Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAlternateUrl" -ArgumentList "http://sp2013:8010", "Default"

#Set this alternate url as response url
$cAdmApp.AlternateUrls.SetResponseUrl( $altUrl )
$cAdmApp.AlternateUrls.Update()

#Get the alternate urls definition, this should only list our //http://server:10000 url
$cAdmApp.AlternateUrls