Reset Windows MMC snap-in

 Windows 10  5 Responses »
May 222019
 
Microsoft Windows Logo

You may find yourself in a situation where an MMC snap-in errors out, and doesn’t allow you to reconfigure, fix, or use it. It becomes unusable.

In my case, this occurred on a system where I was trying to use the WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) snap-in, and it was configured for an old server that didn’t exist anymore.

When opening the WSUS MMC snap-in, it would report an error, give me the option to unload (which didn’t work), and do nothing else. There was no way to use or reconfigure it.

The Fix

To resolve this, you need to clear your local configuration for the snap-in. Your user profile contains all MMC snap-in information and configuration in the following directory:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\MMC

When browsing, here’s what it looks like on my system:

Picture of MMC user cache in appdata
User MMC config/cache folder

In my case, deleting the “wsus” file, reset the MMC snap-in, and allowed me to use it again and configure it for a new server.

Let me know if this helped you!

Windows 10 May 2019 Update (1903) is available to download!

 Microsoft, Windows 10  No Responses »
May 212019
 
Microsoft Windows Logo

You can now download the Windows 10 May 2019 – 1903 update!

You can use the Microsoft “Update Assistant” available at
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10. Or you can use the Windows 10 Media Creation tool to make an ISO or upgrade an installation (available at the same link).

Windows 10 1903 is also available on VLSC.

Remember, if you need to install the Windows 10 RSAT tools, check out
https://www.stephenwagner.com/2018/10/05/windows-10-1809-october-update-rsat/ as this link has the instructions to install them on the May 2019 1903 update.

Successful installations

In case you’re worried about bugs, I’ve listed some of the machines I’ve successfully upgraded below:

  • Lenovo X1 Carbon, 1809 to 1903 – No issues
  • Windows 10 VM on VMware ESXi 6.5 (VDI with GRID sVGA) – No issues

VDI 3D Graphics and Game Demo – Horizon, GRID, vGPU

 HPE, NVIDIA, Omnissa Horizon, VMware  4 Responses »
May 182019
 
VMware Horizon View Mobile Client Android Windows 10 VDI Desktop

Since I’ve installed and configured my Nvidia GRID K1, I’ve been wanting to do a graphics quality demo video. I finally had some time to put a demo together.

I wanted to highlight what type of graphics can be achieved in a VDI environment. Even using an old Nvidia GRID K1 card, we can still achieve amazing graphical performance in a virtual desktop environment.

This demo outlines 3D accelerated graphics provided by vGPU.

Demo Video

Please see below for the video:

Information

Demo Specifications

  • VMware Horizon View 7.8
  • NVidia GRID K1
  • GRID vGPU Profile: GRID K180q
  • HPE ML310e Gen8 V2
  • ESXi 6.5 U2
  • Virtual Desktop: Windows 10 Enterprise
  • Game: Steam – Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO)

Please Note

  • Resolution of the Virtual Desktop is set to 1024×768
  • Blast Extreme is the protocol used
  • Graphics on game are set to max
  • Motion is smooth in person, screen recorder caused some jitter
  • This video was then edited on that VM using CyberLink PowerDirector
  • vGPU is being used on the VM

HPE MSA 2040 – Management NIC on Controller Unresponsive

 HPE, MSA  No Responses »
May 172019
 
Right side of MSA 2040

You may encounter a situation where you’re unable to connect to the management interface or NIC on your HPE MSA array. When this condition occurs, you are not able to ping the NIC, and the SMU (web interface) will not load.

When you visibly look at the array, the AMBER warning light may or may not be flashing.

If you have a dual controller setup, and connect to the SMU on the other controller, you may see numerous log entries where the management NIC port status changes repeatedly from up to down.

What’s happening

I’ve witnessed this issue occur on 2 separate HPE MSA 2040 storage arrays (both with dual controllers).

When you physically look at the management NICs on the controller in question, you’ll notice that the port status LED indicator turns on, and turns off repeatedly. The link status keeps changing from up to down (as reflected in the logs).

The Fix

Restarting the unit will have no effect. Changing the network cable will have no effect.

To resolve this issue, you must play with the network cable and re-seat it a few times (possibly half-way if possible a couple times as sketchy as that sounds).

If you can get the link status up, and disconnect/reconnect the cable before the light turns off, the connection will stay up. It will continue to function and survive restarts until sometime in the future when you disconnect it and reconnect it.

Replacing the controller may also fix it, however in the first instance I observed this, the replacement controller exhibited the same behavior months later in the future.

Howto Reinstall WSUS from Scratch

 Microsoft, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server Core, WSUS  32 Responses »
May 162019
 

There may be a situation where you wish to completely reinstall WSUS from scratch. This can occur for a number of reasons, but most commonly is due to database corruption, or performance issues due to a WSUS database that hasn’t been maintained properly with the normal maintenance.

Commonly, when regular maintenance hasn’t occurred on a WSUS database, when an admin finally performs it, it can take days and weeks to re-index the database, clean up the database, and run the cleanup wizards.

Also, due to timeouts on IIS, the cleanup wizard may fail which could ultimately cause database corruption.

Administrators often want or choose to blast away their WSUS install, and completely start from scratch. I’ve done this numerous times in my own environment as well as numerous customer environments.

In this guide, we are going to assume that you’re running WSUS on a Windows Server that is dedicated to WSUS and is using the WID (Windows Internal Database) which is essentially a built-in version of SQL Express.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are using Microsoft SQL, these instructions will not apply to you and will require modification. Only use these instructions if the above applies to you.

What’s involved

WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) relies on numerous Windows roles and features to function. As part of the instructions we’ll need to completely clear out:

  • WSUS Role, Configuration, and Folders/Files
  • IIS Role, Configuration, and Folders/Files
  • WID Feature, Configuration, and Database Files

Since we are completely removing IIS (Role, Configuration, and Folders/Files), only proceed if the server is dedicated to WSUS. If you are using IIS for anything else, this will completely clear the configuration and files. You also do not want to run this on a domain controller as Active Directory also uses WID.

Let’s get to it!

Instructions

  1. Open “Server Manager” either on the host, or remotely and connect to the host you’d like to reinstall on.
  2. Open “Remove Roles and Features” wizard.
  3. Click “Next”, and select the Server, and click “Next” again.
  4. On the “Remove server roles” screen, under “Roles”, we want to de-select the following: “Web Server (IIS)” and “Windows Server Update Services” as shown below. Selecting WSUS and IIS Roles to be Removed
  5. Click “Next”
  6. On the “Remove features” screen, under “Features”, we want to de-select the following: “Windows Internal Database” and “Windows Process Activation Service” as shown below. Selecting WID and WPAS Features for Removal
  7. Click “Next” and follow the wizard to completion and remove the roles and features.
  8. Restart the Server.
  9. Open an administrative command prompt on the server, and run the command “powershell” or open powershell directly.
  10. Run the following command in powershell to remove any bits and pieces: 
    Remove-WindowsFeature -Name UpdateServices,UpdateServices-DB,UpdateServices-RSAT,UpdateServices-API
  11. Restart the Server.
  12. We now must delete the WSUS folders and files. Delete the following folders:
    C:\WSUS
C:\Program Files\Update Services

    Note: You may have stored the WSUS content directory somewhere else, please delete this as well.
  13. We now must delete the IIS folders and files (and configuration, including the WsusPool application pool, bindings, etc.). Delete the following folders:
    C:\inetpub
C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv

    Note: You may have issues deleting the “inetsrv” directory. If this occurs, simply rename it to “inetsrv.bad”.
  14. We now must delete the WID (Windows Internal Database) folders and files (including the WSUS SQL Express database). Delete the following folder:
    C:\Windows\WID
  15. While we removed the IIS folders and files, we deleted a needed system file. Run the following command to restore the file:
    sfc /scannow
  16. Restart the Server.

WSUS, IIS, and WID have at this point been completely removed. We will now proceed to install, apply a memory fix, and configure WSUS.

For instructions on installing WSUS on Server Core, please click here: https://www.stephenwagner.com/2019/05/15/guide-using-installing-wsus-windows-server-core-2019/

  1. Open “powershell” (by typing powershell) and Install the WSUS Role with the following command:
    Install-WindowsFeature UpdateServices -Restart
  2. (Optional) If you want to install the WSUS MMC Snap-In/GUI, run the following command in the powershell window: 
    Install-WindowsFeature UpdateServices-RSAT, UpdateServices-UI
  3. Run the post installation task command in command prompt to configure WSUS:
    "C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools\wsusutil.exe" postinstall CONTENT_DIR=C:\WSUS
  4. AT THIS POINT DO NOT CONTINUE CONFIGURING WSUS AS YOU MUST APPLY A MEMORY FIX TO IIS.
  5. Apply the “Private Memory Limit (KB)” fix as provided here: https://www.stephenwagner.com/2019/05/14/wsus-iis-memory-issue-error-connection-error/
  6. Restart the Server.
  7. Open the WSUS MMC on the server or remotely from a workstation on the network and connect it to the WSUS instance on your Server Core install.
  8. Run through the wizard as you would normally and perform an synchronization.
  9. WSUS has been re-installed.

And that’s it. You’ve completely reinstalled WSUS from scratch on your Windows Server.

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