Posts

Automating a RabbitMQ Cluster Deployment on Windows with Powershell DSC

-
This one has been annoying me for a while, but I finally got to the bottom of it! The solution is really very simple, but with not a lot of love for Rabbit on Windows and nothing I could find on using DSC, it took longer than it really should have. Hope this helps someone
Post a Comment
Read more

SCUP 2011 and File Digest errors

-
This one has been bugging be for quite some time... Sometimes, when you've published an update from SCUP to WSUS as metadata only, it fails to publish the full content later and gives an error of "incorrect file digest". What's going on here? This is where the publisher has created an updated binary for the same release, but not updated the Origin File Digest in the metadata. When SCUP imports a update, it stores a SHA-1 Base64 hash of the file which is held in the SCUP database. When you go to publish "full content", it compares the hash of the downloaded file with that in the database. When the don't match, you get the file digest error. Ultimately, this is a mistake on the part of the vendor, but they're pretty inconsistent at fixing them (Dell being a particular offender). So how do we fix it to get that critical update out? Download the binary directly from the vendor Get the SHA-1 Base64 encoded of the file (I used online...
Post a Comment
Read more

Repairing non-booting Windows 2012 R2 and others

-
If you're stuck in a "Preparing Automatic Repair" boot loop that always takes you back to the blue screen of unhelpful menu options: Disable Automatic repair Get to the recovery command prompt bcdedit /enum Get the name of the Windows entry (likely to be {default} bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No Reboot Now instead of getting into the loop of a failing repair it'll show you the real problem that it's failing to fix. This is likely to be a corrupt file. In my case it was c:\windows\system32\drivers\cng.sys which I copied from a working server that was at the same patch level.
Post a Comment
Read more

All things WSUS

-
A variety of fun things that have dug me out of multiple WSUS related holes Cleaning Unused Updates Getting reset server node is pretty common with this, so spin up SQL Management Studio and run: Windows has no updates from WSUS Had this after creating a new VM from a fully patched VHDX. Updates from WSUS would only work after checking against Microsoft Update first. 1. Stop Windows Update Service 2. Delete contents of c:\windows\softwaredistribution 3. Check for Updates against WSUS again
Post a Comment
Read more

DFS "Waiting for Initial Replication"

-
Taken directly from  Technet Forum  post by  scorprio_milo . Pop along and give them an up vote! You may encounter the error message "waiting for initial replication" when no primary member is currently specified on the DFS Replication. This DFS member is waiting for initial replication for replicated share folder Public and is not currently participating in replication. This delay can occur because the member is waiting for the DFS Replication service to retrieve replication settings from Active Directory. After the member detects that it is part of replication group, the member will begin initial replication.  Besides, there is also possiblity that DFS servers cannot contact domain controller which could result in the issue. 1. Please first verify that all the target folder of Public folder is enabled.   2. Please use Dfsradmin to set the primary member in the situation where there is an existing replication group that is waiting...
Post a Comment
Read more

VAMT not discovering Windows 10 machines

-
There's currently a bug in VAMT 3.1 that prevents it finding Windows 10 machines in AD. Quick fix for now: Change search settings to LDAP Add this as the query   LDAP://domaincontroller.domain.com/DC=domain,DC=com??sub?(&(objectClass=computer)) Search and there are your Windows 10 machines
3 comments
Read more

Things I'm bound to forget: Error importing drivers into SCCM 2012 SP1

-
Massively helpful post here as to why I couldn't import drivers into SCCM from a de-duped drive. Things I'm bound to forget: Error importing drivers into SCCM 2012 SP1 :
Post a Comment
Read more

Popular posts from this blog

Avoid Microsoft Intune if you use G-Suite and Android

-
Like me, you might have considered Intune to be your one stop MDM solution if you're an Office/Microsoft 365 user. On the whole it is pretty good, but it's got one massive failing: It doesn't support Google accounts on Android Work Profiles. You might think that if you're a Microsoft shop it's not a big deal, but there two major reasons why you might want to use Google alongside Azure Active Directory: SSO. Many companies charge extra for SSO with Azure but include it for free with Google, e.g. Slack and Atlassian. Chrome. Let's face it, everyone uses Chrome rather than Edge so signing in with a Google account to sync your favourites is pretty handy. Managing this setup in an organisation is pretty easy. Sign up for G-Suite account, sync all your users from Azure AD, configure G-Suite to use AAD for authentication and you're done. Enterprise managed Google accounts for everyone at zero cost if you don't actually need G-Suite. Given the abo...
Read more

Setting Wallpaper for a Remote Desktop Session

-
Ah, the fun I had trawling around trying to find out how to set the wallpaper on a remote desktop session! The (seemingly) most obvious answer was changing the Wallpaper setting under Desktop in a GPO, but no. That setting explicitly states that it doesn't apply to RDP sessions, so back to the registry we go... I'm presuming here that we want these settings to apply to all the computers within a specific OU rather than to individual users. Create a new GPO "Wallpaper" Navigate to Computer Config/Policies/Admin Templates/System/Group Policy Set "Configure user Group Policy loopback processing mode" to Enabled with Mode as "Merge" Navigate to Computer Config/Policies/Admin Templates/Windows Components/Remote Desktop Services/Remote Desktop Session Host/Remote Session Environment Set "Always show desktop on connection" to Enabled Set "Enforce Removal of Remote Desktop Wallpaper" to Disabled Navigate to Computer Con...
Read more

DFS "Waiting for Initial Replication"

-
Taken directly from  Technet Forum  post by  scorprio_milo . Pop along and give them an up vote! You may encounter the error message "waiting for initial replication" when no primary member is currently specified on the DFS Replication. This DFS member is waiting for initial replication for replicated share folder Public and is not currently participating in replication. This delay can occur because the member is waiting for the DFS Replication service to retrieve replication settings from Active Directory. After the member detects that it is part of replication group, the member will begin initial replication.  Besides, there is also possiblity that DFS servers cannot contact domain controller which could result in the issue. 1. Please first verify that all the target folder of Public folder is enabled.   2. Please use Dfsradmin to set the primary member in the situation where there is an existing replication group that is waiting...
Read more