Michael Phillips Blog

HyperV Integration Services: Fatal error during installation

I managed to convince the “powers that be” that we didn’t need to have a dual quad-core server with the capacity for 32GB of RAM to and connectivity to our SAN sitting around doing nothing until they occasionally use it for upgrade testing…  So I did a P2V (Physical to Virtual conversion) and shut down the physical machine.  But when I tried to install the Integration components…  I got “An error has occurred: Fatal error during installation.”  A quick google gave me the below post, and believe it or not.. it worked.  (I didn’t reboot before I installed.)

HyperV Integration Services: Fatal error during installation

Problem:
Installing Integration Services on HyperV I got the following problem:
"An error has occured: Fatal error during installation."
Solution:
Delete (or rename) two file on the guest machine
C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\wdf01000.sys
C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\wdfldr.sys
Reboot and reinstall the integration services.

Vittorio Pavesi: HyperV Integration Services: Fatal error during installation

Replica disk threshold exceeded, or Recovery Point Volume threshold exceeded

Great!   Now what?

Well, if you have a new DPM server and not a lot of protection groups created, and you haven’t been protecting anything much, you can just click on the link in the warning message that says “Allocate more disk space for replica…”  That pulls up a pretty window that looks like the one below:

So you go ahead an make the number in the “Replica Volume” field a little bigger, hit ok and go on about your business.  Unless..

Sometimes you may need to go and use DISKPART to manually add space to the volume.  If you try the above method, and you get a failed message instead of success, you are either out of disk space, or it could be that you have more than one disk on your DPM server and one of the disks becomes full.  In order to extend the volume onto another disk, you have to use DISKPART.  DPM (at this version) won’t do it for you.

1. Open a command prompt (run as administrator if you are using a 2008 Server for your DPM server) and type “diskpart”. 
2. Type “List Volume” at the prompt.
3. Right click and “select all” then enter to copy the output to the clipboard
4. Paste it in notepad so you can do a search and search for the Data Source
   1. You should see a line similar to this:

      Volume 534       DPM-Prolo  NTFS   Simple      2050 MB  Healthy
        C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\Volumes\Replica\SQL2.domain.com\ SqlServerWriter\PrologPilot\
      Volume 535       DPM-Prolo  NTFS   Simple      2050 MB  Healthy
        C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\Volumes\DiffArea\SQL2.domain.com\ SqlServerWriter\PrologPilot\
      Volume 536       DPM-Non VSS  NTFS   Simple      1540 MB  Healthy
        C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\Volumes\Replica\quick1.domain.com\Non VSS Datasource Writer\Computer\SystemState\SystemState

   1. The volume number  comes before what it is describing and there are 2 for each protected object.  A Replica volume and a DiffArea.  The replica volume is a copy of the data as it is on the protected member.  The DiffArea is where the recovery points are stored.  The “Non VSS Datasource Writer” is system state in the example.
5. At the DISKPART> prompt type “select volume” and the volume number i.e. : select volume 534
6. If you want to see the details about the disk, you can type detail volume and it gives an output similar to:
   

   DISKPART> detail volume

     Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
     ——–  ———-  ——-  ——-  —  —
   * Disk 2    Online      2560 GB   356 GB   *    *

   Read-only              : No
   Hidden                 : No
   No Default Drive Letter: Yes
   Shadow Copy            : No
   Dismounted             : No
   BitLocker Encrypted    : No

   Volume Capacity        : 1030 MB
   Volume Free Space      :  186 MB

7. In order to increase the space for the Replica volume you would type: EXTEND SIZE=1024 DISK=2.  This would extend the selected volume by 1 GB (1024 MB) on DISK 2. 
8. Now you have to go back in and tell DPM that you extended the volume.  (I believe it may figure it out on its own eventually, but I prefer to get the warning cleared up sooner rather than later, so I go update DPM.

Note:  Each time you use DISKPART, you are likely to see different numbers for the volumes.  I haven’t looked into what that is, but I do know that the system volume is always one of the last in the list.  For that reason I recommend that you always view detail volume after you select it, to make sure you are seeing the volume you intend to work with.

The stub received bad data – DPM backup of a SQL DB

My DPM Server:
Server 2008 x64
DPM 2007 SP1
SQL 2005 SP3 (local to DPM)

Protecting:
Server 2003 SP2 x64
SQL 2005 SP3

I have about 30 databases being backed up from the one client machine.  All of them backup just fine except one.  Every time I try to do a synchronization or a full backup I get the following error:

Triggering synchronization on *myserver\mydatabase* failed: Error 46: DPM failed to perform the operation because too many objects have been selected. Select fewer objects and then retry this operation.

Error details: The stub received bad data (0x800706F7)

Recommended action: Select fewer objects. 1) If you are trying to protect a large number of data sources on a volume, consider protecting the whole volume instead of individual data sources. 2)If you are trying to recover a large number of folders or files from a volume, consider recovering the parent folder, or divide the recovery into multiple operations.

This happens even if I just select the one database.  All the other databases backup correctly.

After posting in the news group, I got a question from a Microsoft person whether full text indexing was enabled, and if so how many catalogs.  Upon investigation, it appears that this is one of the only databases that i have that has full text indexing enabled.  It has 32 indexes. 

So with the suggestion of a colleague, I did a rebuild of the indexes:

1. In SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) expand the database/Storage/Full Text Catalogs
2. Right click on the Full Text Catalogs folder and select Rebuild All

Then I went back to my DPM server, to the protection group and selected the database in question.  I did a “Create recovery point – Disk”, “Create a recovery point by using express full backup”.

That worked, so maybe that means the problem is fixed…

Error installing update for Microsoft Forefront

I have a server that is Server 2008 x64.  It has the client for Microsoft Forefront Client Security installed.  It has been showing that it needed to update the client, but every time I told it to run, it would fail.

I found this in the Application log:

Application ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft Forefront\Client Security\Client\Antimalware\MSASCui.exe’ (pid 3304) cannot be restarted – Application SID does not match Conductor SID..

And this in the update history:

Update for Microsoft Forefront Client Security (KB956280)
Installation date: ‎3/‎25/‎2009 2:23 PM
Installation status: Failed
Error details: Code 643
Update type: Important
This patch  updates the Microsoft Forefront Client Security Anti-Malware Agent.

I started to do a little bit of searching on the “Application SID does not match Conductor SID..” and saw that it comes from the restart manager.  With that nugget of info, I went and stopped all the Forefront services, and ran the update again:

Update for Microsoft Forefront Client Security (KB956280)
Installation date: ‎3/‎25/‎2009 2:33 PM
Installation status: Successful
Update type: Important
This patch  updates the Microsoft Forefront Client Security Anti-Malware Agent.

Preinstall DPM Client

If you deploy servers from an image, and you would like to install DPM prior to imaging, you can’t just use the install option from the DPM server.  You CAN install the agent manually, and then configure it later. 

1. Copy the latest agent files from C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\Agents\RA and put them somewhere you can get to them. 
2. Run the DPMAgentInstaller from the appropriate directory,  amd64\1033 or i386\1033 depending on if you have a x64 or x86 system.
3. On the Production server (the machine you want to protect) run %PROGRAMFILES%Microsoft data protection manager\dpm\bin\setdpmserver -dpmservername <DPM server name>
4. On the DPM server, open the DPM Management Shell (the PowerShell interface for DPM) and run attach-productionserver.ps1.  This will ask you for the DPMServer, PSName (the production machine that you want to protect), UserName (an administrator on the client machine), Password, and Domain.
5. Refresh the view in the DPM administrator console.

You should see your production servers listed in the Managemt\Agents view.

SQL Queries

I don’t usually do a lot with SQL, but lately I have found myself having to look at, and work with SQL a good bit.  It seems that things come in waves. 

Anyway, I was looking for a quick way to copy a table from one Database to another and came across this blog which I think has a lot of good queries just waiting to be tinkered with:

http://www.sqlservercurry.com/

And the particular post that got me there was:

Copy a table from one database to another in SQL Server 2005

4:09 AM Posted by Suprotim Agarwal
Labels: SQL Server Administration

If you have a table in a database and you would like to copy the table to another database, use this query:
SELECT * INTO AdventureWorks.dbo.CustomersTemp FROM Northwind.dbo.Customers
Just remember that using this query will only transfer the schema and data. It does not transfer the indexes, foreign keys, statistics etc.
If you want to transfer all the objects from one database to another, open Sql Server Management Studio > Right click on your database > All Tasks > Generate SQL Scripts. Then run these scripts against the new database.
Transfer both schema and data
To copy both data and schema, use the Microsoft SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard 1.1. This tool works for both SQL 2000 and SQL 2005 and generates a single SQL script file which can be used to recreate a database (both schema and data).

System Center Service Manager

When I first heard that Microsoft was going to release a “Service Desk” product, I was actually kind of excited.  I heard about it at MMS in 2006 (I think) and the things that they were planning for their Service Desk product sounded really useful and even a bit forward thinking.  Evidently, what they intended and what they built, wasn’t even close to what the customers wanted, because they scrapped it and started over completely.

Now they are once again trying to get feedback on a Beta version of System Center Service Manager.  We aren’t participating in the Beta this time (too much other stuff going on) so I haven’t kept up with what is happening, but here is a reply to a question someone had about the Service Manager Roadmap:

Thanks very much for your interest in Service Manager – this is great feedback for our team.  We will be adding many features into Beta 2, including OpsMgr integration, Service Maps, Reporting, Self-Service Portal, Knowledge Management, and Problem Management.  We are making infrastruture improvements that will enhance scalability and performance.  We are making usability improvements that will provide a better overall user experience.  We are also going to be providing a tool that will enable form customization, object model extensions, and IT process workflow authoring.
I’ll try to answer some of your other questions below.
1.  We don’t have plans today for a SCE connector. 
2.  We don’t have plans to have built-in integration with DPM – I would love to hear more details on how you think Service Manager could add value.  A step-by-step example would be most helpful
3.  We don’t have plans to directly control task execution in OpsMgr using Change Management workflows, although I believe the underlying Service Manager platform would support many scenarios.  We do have plans to launch the OpsMgr web console from the Service Manager console (on the same machine) — then you can run these tasks from the OpsMgr web console. 
4.  We are not going to have the ability to prevent changes from being applied using the Service Manager change management feature, however we are evaluating functionality to incorporate change windows at a future date.

Service Manager roadmap : Service Manager – General : System Center Service Manager : Microsoft TechNet Forums

The right way and the wrong way to disable the the firewall…

I use Server 2008 for a lot of things these days and I tend to not use the Windows firewall for most applications.  Here is an interesting note for the right and wrong way to disable the firewall and why doing things “the way we have always done them” isn’t always the right way:

Although Window Server 2008 offers an impressive built-in firewall, in some cases we Exchange administrators don’t want to have to deal with it. Maybe you are building a demo to show a customer, or a lab environment to reproduce an issue. Maybe you just want to get Exchange installed now and will loop back to deal with fine-tuning firewall issues later. Maybe you have some other firewall product you’d rather use. Maybe, even, you don’t believe in defense in depth – or don’t think server-level firewall is useful.

Whatever the reason, you’ve decided to disable the Windows 2008 firewall for an Exchange 2007 server. It turns out that there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it.

http://blogs.3sharp.com/deving/archive/2009/03/17/haz-firewall-want-cheezburger.aspx

Making a Header

In an effort to encourage my wife to share the site we created for keeping up with our family, I was trying to get a good picture to use as the banner in the WordPress theme that we are using.  I had a good picture, but since it doesn’t auto scale…

I ended up using Microsoft Expression Design to create a picture for it.  I first opened the default banner picture to figure out what size it was, and then I create a new file with the same dimensions.  Then I created a box the full size of the document.  I filled that box with a gradient, and then made a slightly smaller box also with a gradient, but I pushed the lighter shade more so that there is a hard edge around the smaller box.  Then I put my picture in the right edge of the smaller box.  The result wasn’t too bad.  And I think I can update the picture pretty easily for seasons.

You can see what I did here:

Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service won’t start

I have several Hyper-V host systems and I am very happy with the performance and manageability.  I did recently have an issue with one of them though and it took me a while to figure out how to correct it.

I was attempting to fix an error in the Virtual Machine Manager console and I restarted the the Virtual Machine Manager Agent service and the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service.  Unfortunately, I didn’t save the exact error message, but it said something to the effect that only one process could use a port at a time.  I did some looking at the running processes and figured out that Windows Error Reporting was trying to report an error.  I stopped those processes (there were two) and then the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service started right up.  There still seems to be some issue with the machine, but I can at least look at my VMs now.