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If you have created an export of a virtual machine on a windows 2008 R2 server and try to import the export on a windows server 2012 R2 Hyper-V host, you get the following error:

“Hyper-V did not find virtual machines to import from location”

The Problem: After some searches I found this article “Windows Hyper-V 2012 & 8.1 Hyper-V Did Not Find Virtual Machine to Import” which describes the problem I ran into.

The problem is “WMI root\virtualization namespace v1 (used in Hyper-V)” has been removed in Windows Server 2012 R2, it was deprecated in Windows Server 2012 but still exist so you could import the export in Server 2012, but it is removed in Server 2012 R2. Since Server 2012 they introduced WMI namespace (version 2 or root\virtualization\v2.

Solution: There are a couple of workarounds possible,

• First you can just copy the VHD files and just built a new Virtual machine with the existing VHD files.
• Second if you have a windows Server 2012 server you can import the machine on this server and make an export and then copy that export to the 2012 R2 server.
• Last option if the existing Virtual Machine is still on the windows 2008 R2 server, stop the Virtual Machine, copy the complete directory with VHD and configuration to the 2012 R2 server and on then choose import on the 2012 R2 and point to the copied folder.

Because virtualization becomes more and more common use and with Microsoft Hyper-V included in Windows Server at no additional costs and most server hardware nowadays is more than capable of running a physical Small Business Server (SBS) 2008 or 2011 installation and never get the full benefits of the hardware. It is worth considering to virtualize the SBS 2008 or 2011 server and run one or maybe two or more virtual servers beside it on the same hardware.

In this blog post I will put together some facts, tips and considerations you should look after before you start virtualizing a SBS 2008 or 2011 server. Of course a lot of this information can also be used for virtualizing non SBS servers.

Enable Hyper-V role on a SBS 2008 or 2011 server
So if you just want to add just one other server, why not install SBS 2008 or 2011 on the physical hardware and just enable the Hyper-V role?

The answer is really simple, because it is not supported!! Enabling the Hyper-V role on a SBS 2008 or 2011 server will break stuff, for some additional information read here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2009/08/07/you-cannot-install-the-hyper-v-role-on-the-sbs-2008-primary-server.aspx

Hyper-V Host
So as we cannot enable the Hyper-V role on a SBS 2008 or 2011 server we need to install a Windows Server version on the physical hardware to function as a Host for the Virtual Machines. It is recommended that the Hyper-V Host will only hold the Hyper-V role and not to include any other roles or tasks. Only exception maybe for some management or backup tasks.

The Windows Server version we will choose is a real important decision, so let’s see what choices we have:
Hyper-V is included within Windows Server since version 2008 this was a version 1.0 and has a lot of limitations. I would not recommend using Windows Server 2008 to host the virtual machines. So I will limit to choice between the different server versions based on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012.

SBS 2011 Premium Add-on
When you already bought SBS 2011, you might have bought the SBS 2011 Premium Add-on (PAO) in addition. The SBS 2011 PAO includes a Windows Server 2008 R2 standard and SQL 2008 R2 license. With Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard you have the right to install the software on a physical machine and install one Virtual Machine with the same license. This is called virtualization rights (1+1), you may do this only when you do not install any other role on the Host installation other than the Hyper-V role. When you install another role you will lose this right and need to buy a separate license for the virtual installation.

This said the SBS 2011 PAO will be a perfect consideration to use for your Host installation and run SBS 2011 and a second Virtual Machine for SQL server and / or a LOB application or even a Remote Desktop Session Host (Terminal) Server.

Memory
So the SBS 2011 PAO looks like an ideal solution, but one limitation is worth naming. Windows Server 2008 R2 standard has a 32GB memory limitation, this might be a problem when running SBS 2011 standard and also have a memory consuming SQL / LOB application. SBS 2011 standard itself with especially Exchange 2010 is a very memory consuming product, if you also need to run a loaded SQL / LOB application server beside this 32 GB might not be enough.
The Windows Server 2008 R2 Host installation needs about 2 – 4 GB, a SBS 2011 Standard for 25 – 50 users will need at least 20 – 24 GB, so this only leaves 6 – 10 GB for your SQL / LOB application server, this might be a problem. So keep this in mind if you are a growing organization and see the limit coming it is not possible to just insert more memory in your server, Windows Server 2008 R2 standard has a hard limit of 32 GB memory.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise or Datacenter
If memory could be an issue you might consider Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise or Datacenter, they both have a memory limit of 2 TB, this is a significant improvement. Also if you need to run more than one additional Virtual Machine you might consider both, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise has an 1 to 4 virtualization right and Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter even 1 to unlimited. So with both version you will be far more flexible, but will cost considerably more than a standard or PAO version. Because also Windows Server 2012 is available at this moment I would not recommend these option only if you already own a license for these products it might be worth considering.

Hyper-V Server
If you do not have the SBS 2011 PAO or already have a Windows Server 2008 R2 license the free Hyper-V server might be worth considering. The free Hyper-V Server is a stripped Windows Server version with only the Hyper-V role included, there aren’t any other roles included.
The Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 has a memory limit of 1 TB and the Hyper-V Server 2012 has even a memory limit of 4 TB. There are no limitations between the Hyper-V server and the full blown versions of Windows Server, only thing is there is no graphical user interface (gui) on the Hyper-V Server. There is a small configuration menu to do some basic tasks but furthermore you need to configure and administer the server via a command window or via a remote management console.

For additional information about the Hyper-V Server look here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh923062.aspx

Windows Server 2012
If you are not comfortable with a non gui server or have no ability to remotely manage the server and also not have any license available the best option would be to go for a Windows Server 2012 edition. There are only 2 version applicable, the Standard and the Datacenter version, only difference between both versions are the Virtualization rights. Windows Server 2012 Standard has an 1 to 2 virtualization right and Datacenter even 1 to unlimited. Both version have a memory limit of 4 TB so no limitation anymore on the standard version.

Client Access Licenses
If you need one or two Virtual Machines beside the SBS 2008 or 2011 the Windows Server 2012 Standard is an ideal solution.
One thing to keep in mind is that when the Virtual Machines also are installed with Windows Server 2012, the SBS 2011 client access license (CALs) are not covered. SBS CALs cover for all servers in your SBS domain but up to the same version as is the base operating system (OS) of your SBS version. So with SBS 2008 this is Windows Server 2008 and for SBS 2011 this is Windows Server 2008 R2, if you install a newer version of Windows Server you need to buy separate CALs.

Overview
Enough considerations on which OS you could install on the physical hardware as Hyper-V Host. You have to keep in mind there is not one best choice available it all depends on your situation, do you already have licenses that can be used, are you comfortable using a server installation without a gui, how many Virtual Machines do you need to run, etc, etc. To make some choices easier here a little table with the different versions:

 
Because licensing is complex material I would recommend you contact your distributor or reseller if you have any doubt about the solution you would like to choose and verify if it fits your company.
If you want to read more about virtualization and licensing I would suggest reading this excellent post: http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=13090

 
Let’s continue with some other considerations if you could or could not virtualize the SBS 2008 or 2011 server.

SBS Backup
With SBS 2008 Microsoft introduced a wizard for configuring a backup, SBS Backup it is based on the Windows Backup but has its own configuration and monitoring options via the SBS console. It is easy to use and has no additional costs, you can configure backup to multiple disks, only thing is it only uses USB disks.

Problem is Hyper-V does not support USB redirection so you cannot attach the USB disks to a Virtual Machine and use them for SBS Backup. Of course there are some workarounds possible to attach an USB disk to a Virtual Machine, see this blog post http://blog.ronnypot.nl/?p=721 for some information, but this is probably not a supported workaround.
You can also create VHD files and attach them to the Virtual Machine and use them for SBS backup, but these VHD files are not attached and detached automatic and are not stored offline by default. You have to consider if this is a good alternative for you. Another option would be not using the wizards and interface but create command scripts using the command version (wbadmin.exe) of Windows Backup.

So if you want to use SBS Backup the way it is intended with USB disks, virtualization is not a good option.

USB redirection
As said there is no USB redirection with Hyper-V, this is for USB hard disks, but also for all other USB hardware, so no USB printers, scanners, drivers, dongles or what so ever.

Hardware
As there is no USB redirection it also is not possible to redirect some other hardware like, Fax boards, other pci cards, hardware dongles, etc.

So if you have any specific hardware that needs to be connected to a Virtual Machine you have to make sure this is possible, but in most cases this might be a configuration where virtualization is not an option.

Conclusion
The question to virtualize or not to virtualize cannot be simply answered with just a true or false, it all depends on many factors, decisions and considerations. Hope the information given in this blog will help you making the decision if you would virtualize your SBS 2008 or 2011 server or not.

 

After finishing a successful server migration from SBS 2003 to multiple Windows Server 2008 R2 servers there were some DNS issues. After a restart of the domain controller it looked like DNS is not working as it should the servers are also signaling they don’t have an internet connection. Restarting the DNS service fixes all problems for that time, but after a new restart same problem comes back every time.

Looking at the system event log there are a lot warnings and error events from the Source: NETLOGON

Event ID: 5774

ADDITIONAL DATA
Error Value: DNS name does not exist.

And:

Event ID: 5781

‘DomainDnsZones.domain.local.’
‘ForestDnsZones.domain.local.’

As we run DCDIAG /C before this didn’t give any error, but when we now run DCDIAG /test:dns we see the following result:

Running enterprise tests on : domain.local
Starting test: DNS
Test results for domain controllers:

TEST: Delegations (Del)
Error: DNS server: OLDSERVERNAME. domain.local.
IP: [Missing glue A record]

As you can see the test is trying to resolve the old servername at the Delegations test.

Solution:

At the end the problem was when looking in DNS manager and going to the domain.local – _msdcs subzone, the NS record had still the old servername entered.

Just change the record and change the data to the new server information. This resolved the first error, but the second stayed.

This error occures because there are one or more DNS zones are not correctly saved within Active Directory. You can easy see this by using the Registry editor regedit.exe and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ DNS Server \ Zones. All you dns zones should be located over here.

When you select a zone it would look like this:

As you can see there isn’t a REG_SZ value DirectoryPartition DomainDnsZones.domain.local or ForestDnsZones.domain.local these are the problem zones. I had to delete these zones (both were manual made zones in the past on the old DC) and recreate them. After recreation the REG_SZ value DirectoryPartition value was set and the event warnings didn’t come back as after restarts no problems have raised anymore.

Last week microsoft released Windows Management Framework (WMF) 3.0 which includes Powershell 3.0 (KB2506146 for Windows 2008 SP2 and KB2506143 for Windows Server 2008 R2) as an optional Windows update. So everyone can approve and install the update via Windows update, WSUS or any other updating mechanism you are using.

But installing this update on a Small Business Server (SBS) 2008 and 2011 or on an Exchange Server 2007 and 2010 will give all kind of trouble.

Symptoms for an Exchange Server:
Installation of Exchange update rollups will fail one of the errors is: error code of 80070643.

The Exchange Team wrote this blog about this issue. It states: “Windows Management Framework 3.0 (specifically PowerShell 3.0) is not yet supported on any version of Exchange except Exchange Server 2013. If you install Windows Management Framework 3.0 on a server running Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010, you will encounter problems, such as Rollups that will not install, or the Exchange Management Shell may not run properly.”

Symptoms for a Small Business Server:
When running some SBS wizards like the Fix My Network wizard it will end up with errors about access denied for the Exchange Management Shell.
Also other kind of problems may occur with the Exchange and / or SharePoint 2010 Management Shell and as written for Exchange Servers installation of Exchange update rollups may fail.

On the Small Business Server Blog there is a post on these issues.

Recommendation for both Exchange and Small Business Servers is to NOT install the Windows Management Framework 3.0 update at this time. If you already installed the update and encoutered the previously described problems, uninstall the update. Your server should be fine when it comes back online after a restart.

Update:
There is another problem reported in the Small Business Technet forum uninstallation of the also removes a registry key that gives problems to the event log. This is the key that is deleted: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ WINEVT \ Channels \ ForwardedEvents”

Anytime later in the same post there is a mention that the updates are removed from Microsoft Update:

As a result of these regressions and feedback from customers and experts like you, we have expired the WMF 3.0 Update for all platforms (Windows 7, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2) as of 5:07 pm PDT.

doug neal
Microsoft Update (MU)

When you start the add printer wizard on windows 7 or windows server 2008 R2 (and probably windows 8 and windows server 2012) not all your printers are displayed in the list. But all printers are configured to be listed in Active Directory.

Solution:
It seems there is a default limit set to only show 20 directory printers in this list. You can change this amount with a Group Policy:

• Open Group Policy Management
• Add a new policy or edit an existing policy
• Browse Computer Configuration – Administrative Templates – Printers Add Printer wizard and edit Network scan page (Managed network)
• Enable the policy and change the value for Directory printers to a higher number. This is the amount of printers you will see in the list.

I ran into this problem on a Terminal Server configuration where the Adobe Reader X (AcroRd32.exe) process keeps using high if not all cpu capacity even after you close the program. After some searches I found this could be because the welcome screen that is opened when you start Acrobat Reader isn’t closed at all, the session stays active and keeps using a lot of cpu capacity.

Solution:
I could not found a fix for the problem at this time , but there is a workaround that solves the problem. You can disable the welcome screen from starting with a registry key.

1. Open the regedit and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\10.0\FeatureLockDown

2. Add a new key with the name: cWelcomeScreen

3. Add a DWORD value to the key: bShowWelcomeScreen with value 0

Now when starting Adobe Reader it will not start the welcome screen but also does not uses the high cpu.

I have posted about this issue before, this was about this CLSID {61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1}, click here to read.

Beside that error, probably after a recent update I have seen this similar error:

The machine-default permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{000C101C-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
and APPID
{000C101C-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
to the user domain\spfarm SID (S-1-5-21-1813126608-4190571182-3204100927-3160) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

The big difference with the other error is when you go to the Dcom config, security the option are all greyed out. So you need to do some additional steps:

Open registry editor (run regedit.exe), browse to Hkey_classes_root\AppID\{000C101C-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} right click and choose permissions.

Choose Advanced

Go to the Owner tab, select the Administrators (Domain\Administrators) group under Change owner to and select the replace owner on subcontainers and objects. Choose OK to close the window. You will return to the permissions window.

Select Administrators (Domain\Administrators) and set Allow Full Control permissions.

After you have done the above settings you go to Administrative Tools – Component Services. Expand Component Services, Computers, My Computer, DCOM Config. Scroll way down till you find the {000C101C-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} icon, right click and choose properties.

Go to the security tab, select customize at Launch and Activation Permissions and choose Edit…

Select the SharePoint Farm Account and set the Local Activation right.

After a migration to a SBS 2011 server I got the following event error message:

Event ID: 11, Source: Kerberos-Key-Distribution-Center
The KDC encountered duplicate names while processing a Kerberos authentication request. The duplicate name is RPCSS/Pc.domain.local (of type DS_SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_NAME). This may result in authentication failures or downgrades to NTLM. In order to prevent this from occuring remove the duplicate entries for RPCSS/Pc.domain.local in Active Directory.

This will occur when two or more computer accounts have the same service principal name registered.

Solution:
Run the following command from a command prompt:

ldifde -f check_SPN.txt -t 3268 -d “” -l servicePrincipalName -r “(servicePrincipalName=HOST/pc.domain.local*)” -p subtree

Change the pc.domain.local with the name given in the event log.

The outcome will give you two or more entries like this:

dn: CN=PC1,OU=SBSComputers,OU=Computers,OU=MyBusiness,DC= domain,DC=local
changetype: add
servicePrincipalName: HOST/PC1
servicePrincipalName: HOST/Pc1.domain.local

dn: CN=PC2,OU=SBSComputers,OU=Computers,OU=MyBusiness,DC=domain,DC=local
changetype: add
servicePrincipalName: HOST/PC2
servicePrincipalName: HOST/Pc1.hessingnl.local

As you see both (or all) will have the same Service principal name.

In my case the additional computers with the wrong service principal name didn’t exist anymore only in Active directory users and computers, so I could just delete those computer accounts.
If the computers still exist you can remove the affected computers from your domain and re join them or use adsiedit and change the service principal name to the right value.

Additional information can be found here: kb 321044

When you logon to a Windows Server 2008 (R2) server with a Administrator account, Server Manager is started automatically. If you don’t want the server manager to start automatic you can prevent this by setting the following registry key:

Create a new Dword value “DoNotOpenServerManagerAtLogon” in the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER – Software – Microsoft – Servermanager and set the value to 1

Next time you logon the Server Manager will not be started at logon. You have to set this key for every user you want to prevent automatic startup, because it is a user setting.

When doing a migration from Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 to SBS 2008, SBS 2011 or Windows server standard version, one of the first things you should do is run the SBS 2003 Best Practices Analyzer and of course check your event log for known problems.

One of the issues I see often is the sysvol, journal wrap Event ID 13568, Source NtFrs in the File Replication Eventlog.

———————————————————————————————————————————–
The File Replication Service has detected that the replica set “DOMAIN SYSTEM VOLUME (SYSVOL SHARE)” is in JRNL_WRAP_ERROR.

If the value name is not present you may add it with the New->DWORD Value function under the Edit Menu item. Type the value name exactly as shown above.———————————————————————————————————————————–

Fixing this issue is in most cases relative simple just add the “Enable Journal Wrap Automatic Restore” registry key noted in the event log and change the value to “1” and restart the “File Replication Service” service.

Before changing the registry key I would recommend to make a backup from the C:\Windows\Sysvol folder.

But after doing that there appeared a new warning message in the File Replication Eventlog, Event ID 13566, Source Ntfrs.

———————————————————————————————————————————–
File Replication Service is scanning the data in the system volume. computer <domain name> cannot become a domain controller until this process is complete. The system volume will then be shared as SYSVOL.

The initialization of the system volume can take some time. The time is dependent on the amount of data in the system volume.———————————————————————————————————————————–

As stated you have to wait a while, but I could wait as long as I want but the sysvol share doesn’t appear.

Solution: At the end the solution seems to be that the ntfrs jet database was corrupted. To solve the problem:

Stop the “File Replication Service” service

Rename the “C:\windows\ntfrs\jet” folder

Start the “File Replication Service” service

One other thing that could happen is the folders under Windows\Sysvol are moved to a subfolder called “NtFrs_PreExisting_See_EventLog”. If you have more than one domain controller this is no problem and the folders will be replicated from another domain controller, but if you only have one domain controller which is mostly the case when using SBS. You can copy the right folders back from the backup you made before, or just move them out of the “NtFrs_PreExisting_See_EventLog” folder to one level up.

Solve these problems before you are starting your migration otherwise you will run into replication errors.