DPM DCOM was unable to communicate with the computer <servername> using any of the configured protocols or A DPM agent failed to communicate with the DPM service on <servername> because of a communication error.

Windows 2008 R2

DCOM was unable to communicate with the computer <servername> using any of the configured protocols.

image

Windows 2003 R2

A DPM agent failed to communicate with the DPM service on <servername>because of a communication error. Make sure that <servername>  is remotely accessible from the computer running the DPM agent. If a firewall is enabled on <servername>, make sure that it is not blocking requests from the computer running the DPM agent (Error code: 0x800706ba, full name: <servername>).
image

DPM Server Warning
The DPM protection agent on <servername> could not be contacted. Subsequent protection activities for this computer may fail if the connection is not established. The attempted contact failed for the following reason: (ID 3122)

The protection agent operation on <servername> failed because the service did not respond. (ID 316 Details: Internal error code: 0x8099090E)

image

Solution:

On the Workgroup Server
SetDpmServer.exe –dpmservername <servername> -isnondomainserver –username <dpmuseraccount> –productionserverdnssuffix <fqdn>

On the DPM Server

Attach-NonDomainServer.ps1 –dpmservername <servername> –PSName <servername> –UserName <dpmuseraccount>

clip_image008

Don’t forget to set Password never Expires on the DPM User account

DPM Error 30126 DPM could not find find a valid recovery point on disk Or ‘Replica Inconsistent’ showing against System State and Bare Metal Recovery on Protected Server

This error normally occurs due to one of the following two possible causes:

  • Not enough disk space is available on the protected machine to store a backup of the system state files
  • The Windows Server Backup feature is not installed on the protected machine (Windows 2008 or Windows 2008 R2)

Solution:
Simply install the Windows Server Backup feature on to the protected machine from Server Manager. Installation of this feature doesn’t normally require a reboot.

If the protected machine doesn’t have enough disk space to store a backup of the system state files (you’ll need 10-12Gb free on the system drive by default to store these files) you’ll need to create some space on the system drive, or add another disk to the machine and modify the PSDataSourceConfig.xml file to allow DPM to use the new location.

The PSDataSourceConfig.xml file is normally located at %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\DataSources. Modify the <FilesToProtect> section of the xml file to point to the new drive added. Maybe that you may need to remove protection for the machine from the DPM 2010 console and then re-enable protection to get DPM to read the new location for backup files from the PSDataSourceConfig.xml file.

VMware Workstation 8

What’s New

This release of VMware Workstation adds the following new features and support.

Installation Changes and Enhanced Keyboards

The hardware requirements to install this version of Workstation have changed. Workstation now requires a relatively modern 64-bit CPU. See Installation Requirements for details.

The keyboard filter driver is no longer installed by default. When the driver is not installed, the enhanced keyboard functionality is unavailable and you must press Ctrl-Alt-Ins instead of Ctrl-Alt-Del to send a Ctrl-Alt-Del keystroke to the guest. To use the enhanced keyboard functionality, you must perform a custom installation and select the component. If you select the component, you must reboot whenever you install or uninstall Workstation.

Virtual Hardware Improvements

This version of Workstation includes many hardware improvements. To try new hardware features, you must upgrade the hardware version of your virtual machine or create a new virtual machine that uses the latest virtual hardware version.

  • The display technology has been changed to provide a better experience for Unity users and users who have multiple monitors. These changes also allow you to add a projector to your laptop without restarting your virtual machine.
  • Virtual machines can now support up to 64GB of memory. The host system should have more than 64GB of memory to use this feature.
  • An HD Audio device is available for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Windows 2008 R2 guests. The HD Audio device is compatible with the RealTek ALC888 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio Codec.
  • USB 3.0 support is available for Linux guests running kernel version 2.6.35 or later (Ubuntu 10.10) through a new virtual xHCI USB controller. To enable this feature, add the following line to the .vmx file: usb_xhci.present = “true”. Do not enable this feature for Windows guests. Because Windows does not currently have a generic xHCI driver, this feature will not work in Windows.
  • Bluetooth devices on the host can now be shared with Windows guests. With the latest hardware version, Bluetooth devices that are paired to the host system radio are available to Windows guests and can be paired from within the guest. You should not pair Bluetooth audio devices, such as headphones, or Bluetooth input devices, such as keyboards and mice, to a guest.
  • You can now enable Virtual VT-X/EPT or AMD-V/RVI in the processor settings interface. With this feature, applications running in a guest can take advantage of these virtualization technologies. You can also run 64-bit guest operating systems inside of vSphere running inside Workstation.
New User Interface

The Workstation user interface has been updated to include new menus, toolbars, and an improved preferences screen.

  • The favorites sidebar has been replaced with a virtual machine library. Instead of identifying every virtual machine created in Workstation as a favorite, the library is a comprehensive list of all of the virtual machines that Workstation users create, open, or access.
  • A new folder summary page helps you to better manage a group of related virtual machines. Live thumbnails make it easy to see what is happening in running virtual machines.
  • The full screen toolbar has been updated so that you can do more without having to leave full screen mode. Quick switch mode is no longer needed.
What Happened to Teams?

Although at first it might appear that the teams feature has been removed, you can add team attributes to any virtual machine in this version of Workstation.

  • The team structure has been converted to a simple folder of virtual machines.
  • A new advanced settings dialog box has been added for network adapters to let you throttle the bandwidth of incoming and outgoing transmissions and simulate packet loss.
  • You can perform power operations on several virtual machines at the same time by selecting virtual machines on the folder tab and pressing the power button on the toolbar. If all of the virtual machines in a folder are in the same power state, you can select the folder to perform a power operation on all of the virtual machines in the folder.
  • You use a global Workstation preference to configure the delay between powering on virtual machines.
  • To implement LAN segments, you can use traditional VMnets or put all of the virtual machines that you want to communicate on the same custom VMnet.
Shared Virtual Machines and AutoStart

You can share virtual machines with remote users in this version of Workstation. A shared virtual machine can be accessed remotely by other instances of Workstation. Workstation moves virtual machines to the shared virtual machines folder, where the VMware Host Agent service manages them. The VMware Host Agent service is used by other VMware products, including VMware Server and vSphere, and provides additional capabilities required by professional users. An extensive permissions interface lets you control the users who can access and use shared virtual machines.

You can use the new AutoStart feature to configure shared virtual machines to start with the host system. You can also configure AutoStart for shared virtual machines on remote hosts running Workstation and ESX 4.x and later.

Remote Connections

In this version of Workstation, you are no longer constrained to working only with virtual machines that your computer has enough power to run. You can use the new Connect to Server feature to connect to remote hosts running Workstation, ESX 4.x and later, and VMware vCenter Server. After connecting to a remote host, all of the virtual machines that you have permission to access are displayed in the virtual machine library.

Upload to ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server

VMware OVF Tool is now integrated with Workstation so that you can upload a virtual machine from Workstation to a remote server running ESX, ESXi, or vCenter Server. After connecting to a remote server, you drag the virtual machine from the local My Computer section of the virtual machine library to the remote server. A wizard walks you through the process.

Documentation Changes

This version of Workstation includes several important documentation changes.

(NEW) Getting Started with VMware Workstation
Describes how to install and upgrade Workstation, create a typical virtual machine, and perform common virtual machine operations.

Using VMware Workstation
(previously VMware Workstation User’s Guide)
Describes how to create typical, custom, and shared virtual machines, add virtual devices, configure network connections, connect to remote servers and use remote virtual machines, upload virtual machines to remote servers, and perform all virtual machine operations.

Getting Started with VMware Player
(previously VMware Player Getting Started Guide)
Now contains complete information on installing and using Player.

Online help
Has been redesigned to provide context-sensitive help and information on performing common tasks. For complete information on using Workstation and Player, see the guides.

(NEW) Installing and Configuring VMware Tools
Contains comprehensive information on installing, upgrading, and configuring VMware Tools.

Top of Page

Installation Requirements

When you install Workstation, the installer performs checks to make sure the host system has a processor that meets the following requirements. You cannot install Workstation if the host system does not meet these requirements.

  • 64-bit x86 CPU
  • LAHF/SAHF support in long mode

You can use CPU-Z or a similar utility to determine if the host system CPU is 64-bit capable. CPU-Z shows EM64T (Intel) or AMD64 (AMD) if the processor is 64-bit capable.

If you plan to install a 64-bit guest operating system in a virtual machine, the host system must have one of the following processors. Workstation will not allow you to install a 64-bit guest operating system if the host system does not have one of these processors.

  • AMD CPU that has segment-limit support in long mode.
  • Intel CPU that has VT-x support. VT-x support must be enabled in the host system BIOS. The BIOS settings that must be enabled for VT-x support vary depending on the system vendor. See VMware KB article 1003944 for information on how to determine if VT-x support is enabled.

Top of Page

Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows:

Remote Connection and Remote Virtual Machine Issues
  • When Workstation is installed on a Linux host, VMware Workstation Server writes the core file to /usr/bin instead of to /var/core or /var/log/vmware.
  • You cannot use Workstation to create a remote virtual machine on an ESX or ESXi 4.1 host if the virtual machine name contains non-ASCII characters.
  • When you upload a virtual machine to a remote server (VM > Manage > Upload), Workstation modifies the MAC address and PCI slot number of the virtual Ethernet device in the newly created remote virtual machine. Network errors can occur in the remote virtual machine if the network settings in the guest operating system require the original network hardware configuration.
    Workaround: Change the network settings in the guest operating system in the remote virtual machine to match the new network hardware configuration.
  • VMware Workstation Server occasionally crashes on a 32-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x host.
Role and Permission Issues
  • On a Windows host, if you edit a permission, assign the Administrator role, and then immediately click Remove to delete the permission, the original permission still exists when you reopen the Permissions dialog box.
Shared Virtual Machine Issues
  • On Windows hosts, if a shared virtual machine has a floppy drive that is configured to connect at power on, and a remote user powers on the virtual machine, a dialog box appears on the host system asking whether to connect the device every time the virtual machine powers on. If you click Yes to close the dialog box on the host system after the virtual machine is completely up and running on the host system, Workstation crashes on the host system.
  • On a 32 or 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 2008 R2, or 32-bit Windows XP Professional SP3 host, if you uninstall Workstation, preserve the configuration, and then reinstall Workstation to a different path, the Shared VMs item is unavailable in the virtual machine library.
  • On a Windows host, if you create a virtual machine with a name that contains non-ASCII characters in the New Virtual Machine wizard, you cannot share the virtual machine with the Move the virtual machine option if the destination path is other than the system operating system location. The sharing process stops with the error message Failed to move VM to destination path.
    Workaround: If you want to share the virtual machine, you must use only ASCII characters in the virtual machine name when you create the virtual machine in the New Virtual Machine wizard.
Display and Input Issues
  • On an Ubuntu 11.04 host, the virtual machine icon does not appear on the system tray when you set the Show tray icon setting (Edit > Preferences > Workspace) to Always or When a virtual machine is powered on.
    Workaround: Whitelist vmware-tray as an application that can show system tray icons in Ubuntu 11.04. Alternatively, enable Notification Area (Systray) for all applications, for example:
    gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"
    After you run the command, log out and log back in. The command can take several minutes to take effect.
  • On a Fedora 15 host, powering on a virtual machine that has DirectX 9 accelerated graphics enabled might fail with the error "Unable to change virtual machine power state: Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to."
    Workaround: Deselect the Accelerate 3D graphics setting (VM > Settings > Hardware > Display) to disable DirectX 9 accelerated graphics in the virtual machine.
  • When you enter Unity mode in an Ubuntu 11.04 guest, application menus do not appear for applications that were opened before entering Unity mode. Application menus do appear for applications that are opened from the Unity launch menu after entering Unity mode.
    Workaround: Disable the APPMENU (Global menu) in the Ubuntu 11.04 guest. See the Ubuntu documentation for more information.
  • After you upload a Windows XP virtual machine from the local host to a remote server, you cannot autofit the guest in full screen mode. This problem occurs because VRAM is reduced to 4 MB when the virtual machine is uploaded to the remote server.
Folder and Team Conversion Issues
  • When you select a newly created folder in the Workstation library, the toolbar power option button is dimmed and you cannot perform batch power operations on the virtual machines in the folder.
    Workaround: If you select a virtual machine in the folder, move the selection off the virtual machine (for example, click anywhere on the folder tab), and then select the folder in the library again, the toolbar power option button becomes available.
Device Issues
  • On Windows hosts, Player crashes if you click Connect or Disconnect in the Removable Devices menu before the console appears.
  • An Ubuntu 11.04 host might crash when you try to connect a USB device to a running virtual machine from the status bar icon’s context menu. This problem typically occurs after Workstation is freshly installed, the host is rebooted, and the first time the device is connected to the virtual machine.
Physical Machine Virtualization Issues
  • When simple file sharing or UAC is enabled on the physical machine, the Virtualize a Physical Machine wizard returns an "incorrect user credentials" error instead of an error message that indicates simple file sharing or UAC must be disabled before virtualizing the physical machine. See the online help or Using VMware Workstation for information on preparing a physical machine for virtualization.
  • You cannot use the Virtualize a Physical Machine wizard if the Workstation installation path contains non-ASCII characters.

DPM 2010 System State of Bare Metal Recovery Fail on Windows 2008 R2 or Windows 7

When you check the event log of de server you see a event 517.

Name: Microsoft-Windows-Backup
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Backup
Date: date
Event ID: 5
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: username
Computer: computer name
Description:
The backup operation that started at time has failed with following error code ‘2155347997’ (The operation ended before completion.). Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved

evenit517 

This a now Bug check KB2182466 you can download the hotfix here KBHotfix

System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 Doesn’t Detect Tape Drives In Library

I’ve used System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) since the 2007 beta, primarily for SharePoint and SQL backups & Exchange Backups.  At a customer they have one  DPM server which backs up to disk and additionally to a HP MSL2024 Tape Library for long term protection. The runs Windows Server 2008 R2 with DPM 2010 since its release.

After updating de DPM Server with SP1 for Windows 2008 R2 en updated the drivers. I had some issues with DPM. What I found was that although DPM installed correctly it couldn’t see  all the tape drives in the VTL. All the tape drives were visible in Device Manager and none were showing errors. I use the RECOMMENDED * HP StorageWorks Tape Drivers for Windows

In the DPM console under Management -> Libraries, the library was listed, but Total Drives was 0, rather than the expected 2. The DPM console showed the following error:

image

I followed the instructions to remap the drives here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb795782.aspx. The DPMLA.xml file produced by the tool was correct, showing the correct SCSI IDs, serial numbers etc. but DPM still couldn’t see the drives.

I found the solution to the problem on the DPM forum here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/dpmtapebackuprecovery/thread/1d599443-7bf6-437a-bf12-52847fa7c8e5/ What I did is update the tape drive driver to the Inbox LTO driver as described on the forum and below:

1) Open device manager
2) Locate the tape drive
3) Right-click and look at the properties.
3) Under the DRIVER tab, select UPDATE DRIVER
a) Select the Install from list or specific location (Advanvced) – next.
b) Select Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install. – next.
c) Uncheck the Show comtabile hardware checkbox.
d) Highlight LTO under the manufacturer.
e) Highlight the LTO tape drive under model – then next.
f) This should install the Microsoft ltotape.sys driver.
4) Rescan the tape library in the DPM console – try to take another backup.

After following the above steps, all the two tape drives were visible in the DPM console.

Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 en Exchange

The following versions of Exchange are supported to run on Windows 2008 R2 SP1 (the RTM version of SP1):

  • Exchange 2010 SP1
  • Exchange 2010 RTM
  • Exchange 2007 SP3

Please note that Exchange 2007 was not supported to run on Windows 2008 R2 at all before Exchange 2007 SP3 release.

Windows 2008 R2 SP1 includes the hotfixes required to install Exchange 2010 SP1 (listed in Exchange 2010 SP1 FAQ and Known Issues — 979744, 983440, 979099, 982867 and 977020). If you’re installing Exchange 2010 SP1 on a server running Windows 2008 R2 SP1, you don’t need to install these hotfixes separately Smile

Microsoft Lync Error: "Microsoft.Rtc.Management.Deployment.DeploymentException" "Cannot determine where to install database files because Windows Management Instrumentation on the database server is unavailable from your computer or user account. To continue, you can resolve this issue, or you can specify where you want to install the files."

Lync

When Installing Lync I get the following error:

Error:
An error occurred: "Microsoft.Rtc.Management.Deployment.DeploymentException" "Cannot determine where to install database files because Windows Management Instrumentation on the database server is unavailable from your computer or user account. To continue, you can resolve this issue, or you can specify where you want to install the files."

Solution: Make Sure that Windows Firewall is Enabled on Windows 2008 R2

Step 1:

  1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Open the Windows Firewall program.
  3. Click Change Settings to view the Windows Firewall Settings dialog box. 
  4. Verify that Windows Firewall is turned on, and then click the Exceptions tab. 
  5. In the To enable an exception, select its check box window, scroll to locate the Remote Administration Program or Port exception.
  6. Make sure that the Remote Administration Program or Port exception is selected.
  7. Click OK to close the Windows Firewall Settings dialog box.

image

Step 2: I had named the pool different than the server name, so I needed to add an A record or CNAME Record to DNS to get past.

Exchange 2010 Client Access Throttling

Environment:
Windows 2008 R2 – Exchange 2010 RTM 
Later  I installed SP1 & Rollup 2 for SP1

Outlook 2003 Service Pack 3 Clients
Issue:
During normal working hours users randomly was unable to access their mailboxes when they launched their Outlook client.

The users were receiving the following Outlook message:
Outlook error

“Unable to open your default e-mail folders. The Microsoft Exchange Server computer is not available. Either there are network problems or the Microsoft Exchange Server computer is down for maintenance.”
It was also reported that some users had issues expanding additional mailboxes. (Delegate Mailboxes )
The following Outlook message appeared.

set of folders

Or users have issues opening Shared Calendars.

Solution:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2299468

With Get-ThrottlingPolicy you can see the value of RCAMaxConcurrency

(Exchange 2010 RTM default value 20) (Exchange 2010 SP1 default value 214748364)

I changed RCAMaxConcurrency to 214748364 and the problem is fixt:

Get-ThrottlingPolicy | set-ThrottlingPolicy -RCAMaxConcurrency 214748364

Exchange 2010 SP1 Prerequisites

Some day’s ago Microsoft Releases Exchange 2010 SP1. When you install Exchange 2010 SP1 you need to install some hotfixes. The Exchange Team have made a nice over view witch hotfixes you need for the OS.

Hotfix Download Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows 7 & Windows Vista
979744
A .NET Framework 2.0-based Multi-AppDomain application stops responding when you run the application
MSDN
or Microsoft Connect
Windows6.0-KB979744-x64.msu (CBS: Vista/Win2K8) Windows6.1-KB979744-x64.msu (CBS: Win7/Win2K8 R2) N. A.
983440
An ASP.NET 2.0 hotfix rollup package is available for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2
Request from CSS Yes Yes N.A.
977624
AD RMS clients do not authenticate federated identity providers in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Vista. Without this update, Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) features may stop working
Request from CSS using the “View and request hotfix downloads” link in the KBA | US-English Select the download for Windows Vista for the x64 platform. N.A. N.A.
979917
Two issues occur when you deploy an ASP.NET 2.0-based application on a server that is running IIS 7.0 or IIS 7.5 in Integrated mode
Request from CSS using the Hotfix Request Web Submission Form or by phone (no charge) Yes N. A. N. A.
973136,
FIX: ArgumentNullException exception error message when a .NET Framework 2.0 SP2-based application tries to process a response with zero-length content to an asynchronous ASP.NET Web service request: “Value cannot be null”.
Microsoft Connect Windows6.0-KB973136-x64.msu N.A. N. A.
977592
RPC over HTTP clients cannot connect to the Windows Server 2008 RPC over HTTP servers that have RPC load balancing enabled.
Request from CSS Select the download for Windows Vista (x64) N.A. N. A.
979099
An update is available to remove the application manifest expiry feature from AD RMS clients.
Download Center N. A. Windows6.1-KB979099-x64.msu N. A.
982867

WCF services that are hosted by computers together with a NLB fail in .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

MSDN N. A. Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x64.msu (Win7) X86: Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x86.msu (Win7)
x64: Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x64.msu (Win7)
977020
FIX: An application that is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 and that invokes a Web service call asynchronously throws an exception on a computer that is running Windows 7.
Microsoft Connect N. A. N. A. x64: Windows6.1-KB977020-v2-x64.msu

X86: Windows6.1-KB977020-v2-x86.msu

Some of the hotfixes would have been rolled up in a Windows update or service pack. Given that the Exchange team released SP1 earlier than what was planned and announced earlier, it did not align with some of the work with the Windows platform. As a result, some hotfixes are available from MSDN/Connect, and some require that you request them online using the links in the corresponding KBs. All these updates may become available on the Download Center, and also through Windows Update.

These hotfixes have been tested extensively as part of Exchange 2010 SP1 deployments within Microsoft and by our TAP customers. They are fully supported by Microsoft.

The TechNet article Exchange 2010 Prerequisites is updated with the hotfixes and install the prerequisites required for your server version (the hotfixes are linked to in the above table).

You can use the Install the Windows Server 2008 SP2 operating system prerequisites on a Windows 2008 R2 server. Only you have to run the following powershell command: Import-Module ServerManager

Installed Exchange 2010 SP1 on a Windows 2008 R2 Server with problems. I feels that the MMC is faster. Tomorrow upgrading a DAG/NLB cluster to Exchange 2010 SP1.

Exchange 2007/2010 Performance settings on vSphere.

When install a Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010 Server on vSphere there are some settings that will increase de performance.

Use de VMXNET 3 Adapter
– Use per Disk a SCSI Controller
– Store the Log & Database files on physical Lun on a SAN
– Use the LSI LOGIC SAS controller for Windows 2008 & 2008 R2
Use the VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) Controller for Every physical Raw Device Mapping (RDM).

Another TIP.  Exchange 2007 & Exchange 2010 needs a lots of Memory. When choosing the size for the OS partition, swap file need also al lot of space.

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