Windows 2008

Build

Best practice for VMware VMs (take with a pinch of salt, one man's best practice can be another man's gotcha)

• http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/12309-102-4-13348/vFiltered-windows2008best%20practices.pdf

Disable ASLR

Address space layout randomisation is a feature which involves randomly arranging the positions of key data areas, in order to mitigate memory snapshot image vulnerabilities (which is generally not a problem). There are suggestions that this can reduce reduce VMware's page sharing between VM's, increasing overall physical memory usage. However, its probably true that whilst memory page locations will be randomised, the VMkernel will still be able to match up identical pages between different OS instances.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\"MoveImages"=dword:00000000

Procedures

Sysprep

1. Start sysprep from C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\sysprep.exe
2. Leave action as Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) and tick the poorly spelt Generalize tick-box, then hit OK
3. Sysprep will run and reboot the OS
   • You'll need to provide a new password, and any hostname and IP details will need updating

NTP Client

Machines that are part of a domain will synchronise their time with the domain controllers, but standalone machines (or domain controllers) need to be configured to behave as NTP clients.

The server's NTP config in the registry hive HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time needs to be updated as follows to enable the server's system clock to update via NTP. Restart the NTP service to apply.

Key	Name	Value	Notes
Parameters	Type	NTP
	NtpServer	192.168.206.25,0x1 192.168.206.26,0x1	Space separated list, each name/IP must have ,0x1 appended to the end
TimeProviders \ NtpServer	Enabled	1	Only required if you wish other servers to be able to poll your server for time
TimeProviders \ NtpClient	SpecialPollInterval	1800	Secs. Interval between successive NTP polls
Config	AnnounceFlags	5
	MaxAllowedPhaseOffset	30	Secs. If clock if off by more, its' abruptly set rather than incremented
	MaxPosPhaseCorrection	5400	Secs. Maximum positive phase correction allowed (if greater, no change occurs)
	MaxNegPhaseCorrection	5400	Secs. Maximum negative phase correction allowed (if greater, no change occurs)

Once completed, restart the Win32 Time service

• net stop w32time
• net start w32time

To locate suitable NTP servers to use, see http://www.pool.ntp.org/

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816042 for further info on setting the above parameters

Network Connectivity Status Indicator (NCSI)

NCSI is the feature that causes the "No Internet Access" alert pop-up that can appear over your network connection.

• An HTTP request for http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt
  • Which returns a single line Microsoft NCSI
• A DNS request for dns.msftncsi.com
  • Which is expected to resolve to 131.107.255.255

To disable NCSI checks

1. Start the relevant Group Policy editor (gpmc.msc or GPEdit.msc)
2. Browse through to Internet Communication settings
   • Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Internet Communication Management > Internet Communication settings
3. Set Turn off Windows Network Connectivity Status Indicator active tests to Enabled
4. Run gpupdate to apply

To disable the "No Internet Access" pop-up

1. Start the relevant Group Policy editor (gpmc.msc or GPEdit.msc)
2. Browse through to Network Connections
   • Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Network Connections
3. Set Do not show the “local access only” network icon to Enabled
4. Run gpupdate to apply

The underlying settings that govern how NCSI operates can be found in the following registry key

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NlaSvc\Parameters\Internet

Further reading... http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee126135%28WS.10%29.aspx http://defaultreasoning.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/disable-%E2%80%9Cno-internet-access%E2%80%9D-notification-on-windows-server-2008-r2/

Troubleshooting

Default Gateway Loss

Known bug in Windows 2008 SP2 causes the default gateway of a machine to disappear on reboot. Resolved by resetting the IP stack and re-entering the IP config

1. Record IP details
   • ipconfig/all > C:\ipconfig.txt
2. Reset the IP stack
   • netsh int ip reset
3. Restart server
4. Re-enter IP config
5. Reboot to confirm its held

There's a bugfix available from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973243

Scheduled Tasks

More common scheduled task error codes...

Code	Constant	Cause / meaning
0x0		Success / no error
0x1		Incorrect function called or unknown function called. Can also be caused by file permission problems.
0x2		File not found
0xa		The environment is incorrect
0x41300	SCHED_S_TASK_READY	Task is ready to run at its next scheduled time
0x41301	SCHED_S_TASK_RUNNING	Task is currently running
0x41302	SCHED_S_TASK_DISABLED	Task is disabled
0x41303	SCHED_S_TASK_HAS_NOT_RUN	Task has not yet run
0x41304	SCHED_S_TASK_NO_MORE_RUNS	No more scheduled runs for the task
0x41305	SCHED_S_TASK_NOT_SCHEDULED	One or more of the config properties needed to run the task on a schedule have not been set
0x41306	SCHED_S_TASK_TERMINATED	Task was terminated by user
0x41307	SCHED_S_TASK_NO_VALID_TRIGGERS	Task either has no triggers or the existing triggers are disabled or not set
0x41308	SCHED_S_EVENT_TRIGGER	Event triggers do not have set run times
0x4131B	SCHED_S_SOME_TRIGGERS_FAILED	Task is registered, but not all specified triggers will start the task
0x4131C	SCHED_S_BATCH_LOGON_PROBLEM	Task is registered, but may fail to start. Batch logon privilege needs to be enabled for the task principal.
0x41325	SCHED_S_TASK_QUEUED	Task Scheduler service has asked the task to run
0x80041309	SCHED_E_TRIGGER_NOT_FOUND	Task's trigger is not found
0x8004130A	SCHED_E_TASK_NOT_READY	One or more of the properties required to run this task have not been set
0x8004130B	SCHED_E_TASK_NOT_RUNNING	There is no running instance of the task
0x8004130C	SCHED_E_SERVICE_NOT_INSTALLED	Task Scheduler service is not installed
0x8004130D	SCHED_E_CANNOT_OPEN_TASK	Task object could not be opened
0x8004130E	SCHED_E_INVALID_TASK	The object is either an invalid task object or is not a task object
0x8004130F	SCHED_E_ACCOUNT_INFORMATION_NOT_SET	No account information could be found in the Task Scheduler security database for the task
0x80041310	SCHED_E_ACCOUNT_NAME_NOT_FOUND	Unable to establish existence of the account specified
0x80041311	SCHED_E_ACCOUNT_DBASE_CORRUPT	Task Scheduler security database has been reset due to detected corruption
0x80041312	SCHED_E_NO_SECURITY_SERVICES	Task Scheduler security services are available only on Windows NT
0x80041313	SCHED_E_UNKNOWN_OBJECT_VERSION	Task object version is unsupported or invalid
0x80041314	SCHED_E_UNSUPPORTED_ACCOUNT_OPTION	Task has unsupported/conflicting combination of account settings and run time options
0x80041315	SCHED_E_SERVICE_NOT_RUNNING	Task Scheduler Service is not running
0x80041316	SCHED_E_UNEXPECTEDNODE	Task's XML contains an unexpected node (corruption?)
0x80041317	SCHED_E_NAMESPACE	Task's XML contains an element or attribute from an unexpected namespace
0x80041318	SCHED_E_INVALIDVALUE	Task's XML contains a value which is incorrectly formatted or out of range
0x80041319	SCHED_E_MISSINGNODE	Task's XML is missing a required element or attribute
0x8004131A	SCHED_E_MALFORMEDXML	Task's XML is malformed
0x8004131D	SCHED_E_TOO_MANY_NODES	Task's XML contains too many nodes of the same type
0x8004131E	SCHED_E_PAST_END_BOUNDARY	Task cannot be started after the trigger end boundary
0x8004131F	SCHED_E_ALREADY_RUNNING	An instance of this task is already running
0x80041320	SCHED_E_USER_NOT_LOGGED_ON	Task will not run because the user is not logged on
0x80041321	SCHED_E_INVALID_TASK_HASH	Task image is corrupt or has been tampered with
0x80041322	SCHED_E_SERVICE_NOT_AVAILABLE	Task Scheduler service is not available
0x80041323	SCHED_E_SERVICE_TOO_BUSY	Task Scheduler service is too busy to handle request
0x80041324	SCHED_E_TASK_ATTEMPTED	Task Scheduler service attempted to run the task, but it did not run due to one of the constraints in the task definition
0x80041326	SCHED_E_TASK_DISABLED	Task is disabled
0x80041327	SCHED_E_TASK_NOT_V1_COMPAT	Task has properties that are not compatible with earlier versions of Windows
0x80041328	SCHED_E_START_ON_DEMAND	Task's settings do not allow the task to start on demand
0x8007010B		The start in folder path is invalid. Note that quotation marks around paths with spaces in are not required, and will cause this error if used.
0x800704DD		The service is not available (is Run only when an user is logged on checked?)
0xC000013A		The task was terminated, user pressed Ctrl+C
0xC06D007E		Unknown software exception

The above was sourced from...

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383604
• http://ict.ken.be/scheduled-task-exit-result-and-error-codes.aspx

Other scheduler errors...

• Error 2147943712
  • You're trying to save a task that wants to save credentials (maybe because you want the task to run even when the user is logged off), but credential saving has been disabled by a GPO.
• Error 2147943785
  • Logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type at this computer. Grant the user log on as a batch job rights in Local Security Policy, User Rights Assignment

Extend Partition Fails

Disk looks to have extended in disk manager, but file manager/windows explorer still show the old size

1. Start diskpart from a command line
2. List the volumes, then select the appropriate one
   • list volume
   • select volume 2
3. Extend the volume
   • extend filesystem
4. If this fails, select the partition and extend
   • list partition
   • select partition 1
   • extend filesystem
5. This can sometimes throw up disk errors, in which case you'll need to a check disk on the affected partition (if there are open file handles you'll either need to stop the applications or schedule after a reboot, and reboot)
   • EG chkdisk d: /f
6. Then re-attempt the partition extension

Re-Add Server to Domain

Sometimes the domain membership of a server becomes broken, needing the server to be re-added to the domain. In order to perform you need...

• A domain administrator account
  • Or at least a domain account with permissions to add/remove machines from the domain
• A local administrator account
  • Or a domain account that has recently logged into the server, that has admin rights over it

If you don't have any account that can be a local administrator of the server, you'll need to break into your server. There are utilities on the web that let you boot to a recovery CD/ISO, and overwrite the admin password. I haven't used any of these since NT4 days, so can't comment how capable they are today.

1. Log into the server as a local admin
   • If you don't have the password, but have logged on previously with a domain account that has admin rights over the server
     1. Disconnect the server from the network
     2. Login with the domain account that has admin rights (this forces the server to use locally cached credentials, rather than validating with the domain)
     3. Reconnect to network
     4. Change the local admin password to something you'll remember (you must do this otherwise you'll lose access once the machine is off the domain!)
2. Go to System Properties and record the name of the current domain
3. Then change the domain membership to Workgroup (provide a dummy workgroup name, WORKGROUP is the defalt for new machines)
4. Provide a domain account that has rights to remove a server from the domain
5. If successful you should get a pop-up stating Welcome to the WORKGROUP workgroup, and then a prompt to restart
6. Go back into System Properties and change the domain membership to Domain, supplying the original domain name
7. Provide a domain account that has rights to add a server to the domain
8. If successful you should get a pop-up stating Welcome to the <domain> domain, and then a prompt to restart