Print Server feeling melancholy?

I had a client contact me the other day with a print server that was feeling a little melancholy.  They said the server rebooted and then the printers were no longer listed.  All clients showed the printers were offline.  I did no find any good documents on the interwebz that helped so I thought it would be a good idea to post how we finally cheered the server up.

Error that showed when the server boots:
"Spooler SubSystem App has encountered a problem and needs to close"

Problem:
The print spooler service would start then immediately shutdown.

Step 1:  Check to see if there are any hung print jobs

• Go to c:\%windir%\system32\spool\printers
• Delete any files in that folder
• If you want to do this from a CLI
• NET STOP SPOOLER
• DEL %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\SPOOL\PRINTERS\*.* 
• NET START SPOOLER

Step 2:  Backup then remove printers in the registry to find the culprit.

• Win+R to bring up the run window
• type regedit and press enter
• go to \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Drivers\Version-3
• Right Click on said key and click export.  This will create a backup of this information that can be restored with a simple double-click so be sure to safe this in a safe place.
• Now you can delete the subkey that you believe could be the culprit.  To test go to services and start the print spooler service.  If it shuts back down you can assume it was not the bad driver.  So back to the registry to delete another driver.
• Once we've found the problem driver we can try to download an updated driver from the vendors website.

This should cheer that server right up.

Mounting disks on a wim

Well another little bit changed in windows great is mounting wim files.  A wim (Windows Imaging File Format)  is the type of file that stores an entire hard disk.  Sometimes these need to be edited to insert files that will be copied to the hard disk during install.  Back in the day we used to use a program called imageX.  I don't think Malcolm had anything to do with it.  In 8 we will use the DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) utility.

basic syntax is:
dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:c:\users\cclose\desktop\image\factory.wim /index:1 /MountDir:c:\users\cclose\desktop\image\Mount
dism /Commit-Image /MountDir:c:\users\cclose\desktop\image\Mount

Here's a link to more information from Microsoft.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824814.aspx

MBR issues - Don't do this unless you know what you are doing!!!

Drive letters in WinPe will probably be different from what you see in windows - that is normal.

I would delete the bcd store and run the commands again. Yes you should be pointing them at the reserved system partition .

Otherwise, at cmd prompt, type:

diskpart

lis vol

( Look to see the drive letter for your main windows partition - if it is D then type as below, otherwise replace D with the letter diskpart gives for the main windows partition)

sel vol d

act

exi

bcdboot d:\windows /s d:

bootsect /nt60 all /mbr

restart the pc - you're good.

Need to know?

Want a quick way to see what ports are listening on your computer?

get to a cmd prompt and type
   netstat -ao |find /i "listening"

I had a customer accidentally turn on the server firewall.  I used this command to find what was listening and then I used the firewall log to see what was dropped.  Then you can open the ports you need to use for your clients to communicate.

Active Sync & Exchange 2010

Are you trying to setup a new ActiveSync device?  You may see Event ID 1053 in the event log that states
" Exchange ActiveSync doesn't have sufficient permissions to create the "CN=common name,OU=Staff,OU=Corp,DC=Domain,DC=local" container under Active Directory user "Active Directory operation failed on DC01.Domain.local. This error is not retriable. Additional information: Access is denied.

Active directory response: 00000005: SecErr: DSID-031521D0, problem 4003 (INSUFF_ACCESS_RIGHTS), data 0"

 

If so, please check the following in your active directory:

1. Open the Active Directory Users and Computers and go to “View” and select “Advanced Features”
2. After that, find the user who is not able to use the ActiveSync, Right Click, Click "Properties", and go to “Security” tab then click “Advanced”…
3. Then just check the ckeck-box “Include inheritable permissions from this object’s parent” and click OK to close all the other windows…
4. After this, the user should be able to connect to the server using ActuveSync with no problems…

Setting Server 2008r2 as authoritative time server

First, you need to locate the server with the PDC role. Open the command prompt and type:
netdom /query fsmo
   Look for the PDC line

Log in to your PDC server and open the command prompt.

Now Stop the W32Time service:
net stop w32time

Configure the external time sources, copy and paste:
w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:"0.pool.ntp.org, 1.pool.ntp.org, 2.pool.ntp.org"

If it does not work the first time you paste you may need to replace the " marks.  So just hit the up arrow from the command line and delete the marks and put them back.

Now it's time to make the PDC a reliable time source for the clients:
w32tm /config /reliable:yes

Start the w32time service:
net start w32time

Check the external time server configuration by typing:
w32tm /query /configuration

DHCP migration - Fast and easy!

A friend show me a fast and easy way to migrate a DHCP server with all scope options and settings.  Thanks KB!

Go to your existing DHCP Server and open a command prompt.
Copy and paste the following command.
   netsh dhcp server dump > DHCPsetting.txt

This will dump all your settings into a text document.  You can now copy the document over to the new server.

Now go to your new DHCP server and add the DHCP server role to the server.  Open the text document and use the replace feature to replace the old ip address with the new one.  (don't forget about changing your ip helpers)  Once the find and replace is finished select all the text and copy it to the clipboard.

Finally open a command prompt and type netsh
Now all you need to do is paste all the text from the clipboard and voila your server is up and running.

Now is the time to confirm your new server is authorized and your old server deauthorized.

But wait, there are a bunch of devices out there with ip addresses.  Never fear captain reboot is here.  I prefer to bounce (reboot) the network switches.  So this is also a good time to make sure your ip helper addresses are correct in those switches.  Make sure the configuration is saved!!!  It shouldn't take very long and this is something you probably should be doing after hours anyhow.