Windows Azure -How to Log on to a Virtual Machine Running Windows Server

For a virtual machine that is running the Windows Server operating system, you use the Connect button in the Management Portal to start a Remote Desktop Connection.

1. If you have not already done so, sign in to the Windows Azure Management Portal.
2. Click Virtual Machines, and then select the appropriate virtual machine.
3. On the command bar, click Connect.
   
4. Click Open to use the remote desktop protocol file that was automatically created for the virtual machine.
5. Click Connect to proceed with the connection process.
   
6. Type the user name and password of the administrative account on the virtual machine, and then click OK.
7. Click Yes to verify the identity of the virtual machine.
   
   You can now work with the virtual machine just as you would with any other server.

Remote Desktop Session automatic logoff on Windows 2008 R2

This is another annoying setting in Windows 2008 R2, especially when a virtual machine is used for development.  To deactivate the automatic logoff of a disconnected session in Windows Server 2008 R2…

1. Go to Administrative Tools > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration
2. Select top left node (RD Session Host Configuration)
3. In the middle window, right-click on RDP-Tcp and click Properties
4. On the Sessions tab, change the End a disconnected session to the wanted value.
   

DPM 2012 Sp1 Agent Trouble Shooting Issues with Windows Server 2003 R2 Sp1 !!

ISSUE:

Unable to install DPM agent on server named "Protected Server" from "DPM server"

Target Server : windows Server 2003 R2 Sp1

  

CAUSE:

MSI issue.

SOLUTION:

-Extracted DPMAgentInstaller_x86.exe.
-Removed Vcredist 2008.
-Reinstalled Vcredist 2008.

-Ran agent installation again.

Here are the screenshots for the steps:

This is the agent installer files for 32 bit system.

Run following command to extract content of DPMAgentInstaller_x86.exe.

We got the extraction location.

-Once extracted you will see following files. I have marked the files which needs to be executed from bottom to top. 

Useful links:

Links regarding the new System Center 2012 R2 – Data Protection Manager :

What's new in System Center 2012 R2 - DPM

System requirements for System Center 2012 R2 - DPM

Download a Preview Version of System Center 2012 R2 – Data Protection Manager

Agent troubleshooting:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2012/02/06/data-protection-manager-agent-network-troubleshooting.aspx

Syncing the Domain Controller Time on Windows Servers

Now we come to the new OS, Windows Server 2008, which apparently did not come preconfigured knowing what time server to sync to. So here is how to get Windows Server 2008 to automatically sync the time on a regular schedule.

Try These Commands First:

1) w32tm /stripchart /computer:time.windows.com /samples:5 /dataonly
2) w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:time.windows.com /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes /update
3) w32tm /resync

1. Make sure your computer is set to the correct time zone. Right-click the time in the lower right corner and then click on "Adjust Date/Time", correct time zone if needed.
2. Download Atomic Clock Sync 3.0 from http://www.worldtimeserver.com/atomic-clock. There is no installer, just the exe.
3. Run Atomic.exe, click the "Synchronization Interval" tab. Set the value for how often you want the computer to resync and click Apply, then click "Sync Now".

Here is where the problem may start. If you received "The command completed successfully", you are done. Goodbye.

If you received "The computer did not resync because no time data was available", go through the steps on the "Repair Service" tab. If it works now, you are done. Goodbye.

If you are still here, maybe what worked for me will work for you. Open a command prompt and type "net time /querysntp", then press Enter. If you get the response "This computer is not currently configured to use a specific SNTP server", this is what happened to me. Proceed with the steps outlined below and hopefully your problem will be resolved.

1. Still in the command window, type "w32tm /stripchart /computer:time.windows.com /samples:5 /dataonly" and press Enter.
2. Assuming you get back valid numbers, great, proceed to the next step. If not, check your ports or try a different server (see references below).
3. Still in the command window, type "w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:time.windows.com /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes /update" and press Enter.
4. Go back to the "Synchronization Interval" tab in Atomic Clock Sync and press "Sync Now".

If all went well, you are done. If not, try some of the links below for more information.

References:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773263.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc786897.aspx
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winservergen/thread/96278628-03a1-4b3d-90d9-2208a65a1210
http://support.ntp.org/bin/view/Servers/WebHome

This may not work in all situations, from my research I found that some situations require a change in group policy or a registry edit. Here are two articles related to older OSes that I did not have to use, but may be useful if the above did not resolve your issue.
http://www.chicagotech.net/server/timeissues2.htm
http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/94615/when-you-run-the-w32tm-resync-command-on-a-windows-server-2003-computer-you-receive-the-computer-did-not-resync-because-no-time-data-was-available.html

System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager (DPM) SP1 - Part 3: Backup and Recover Mailbox Exchange Server 2013

In my LAB I use three computers:

- DC2012: Domain Controller (domain mcthub.local) running Windows Server 2012.

- DPMSERVER: Domain Member running Windows Server 2012, this computer has been installed DPM 2012 SP1.
(You can see Part 1)

- EXCHANGE1: Domain Member running Windows Server 2012 and Exchange Server 2013 (Mailbox Role and Client Access Role)

(You can see: Installing Exchange 2013)

Now, you need to configure the storage pool. DPM 2012 requires a disk that is dedicated to the storage pool. I have a disk connected to this computer (Disk 0) as a good disk to configure as DPM storage.

Open DPM Administrator Console, in the Management task area, on the Disks tab, in  the Actions pane, click Add button. A warning pops-up asking that the disk will be converted to dynamic, click Yes.

          The disk will show up as belonging to the DPM storage pool. Choose the disk and click Add button

Click OK  button

Make sure status of the disk is Healthy

Switch to EXCHANGE1, open Exchange admin center, navigate to servers - databases  you can see EXCHANGE1 server hosting a mailbox database named Mailbox Database 1

Navigate to recipients - mailboxes you can see I have several mailboxes

Installing Agent

Switch to DOMSEREVR. To install a Protection Agent, in the Management task, on the Agents tab, click Install . 

The Protection Agent Installation wizard appears and guides you through the process of creating the protection agent. Select Install agents - click  Next

Select one or more computers from the Computer name list (I select EXCHANGE1) and click Add

Make sure that EXCHANGE1 has appeared in the "Selected computers" box, click Next

Type the user name and password for a domain user account that is a member of the local administrators group on all selected servers and click Next.

DPM will try to detect clusters

Select the method you will use to restart the computers after the protection agent is installed. Click Next. 

Click Install to start installation

After the installation was successful - Click Close

Verify status of the agent is  OK

Verify the success of the installation process

Switch to EXCHANGE1, if the agent is installed, it will now appear on the Programs and Features 

- Open Services Console. You will see that DPMRA service is Running, and you need to set Startup type to Automatic - Click OK

- Next, you must copy the ese.dll and eseutil.exe files (usually located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Bin) to the DPM Server. The eseutil.exe and ese.dll versions that are installed on the most recent release of Exchange Server must be the same versions that are installed on the DPM server. In addition, you must update eseutil.exe and ese.dll on the DPM server if they are updated on a computer running Exchange Server after applying an upgrade or an update

Paste the two files to C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\DPM\DPM\bin folder on the DPM server

Creating Protection Group

            To create a Protection Group, in the Protection task, click New button

The New Protection Group Wizard appears and guides you through the process of creating the protection group - Click Next. 

- Select  Servers - Click Next

- Select Mailbox Database 1 on EXCHANGE1 server - Click Next

- Type an arbitrary name for Protection Group.  Select I want short-term protection using check box for short-term protection and then select the media you want to use from the drop-down list. Because my server do not have a tape attached to the DPM server, only Disk is available. Click Next. 

Select the Run Eseutil to check data integrity check box to check the integrity of the Exchange Server databases.  If you didn’t previously copy the eseutil file, you’ll see an error

On the  Specify Exchange DAG Protection page, Click Next because in my Exchange system does not currently exist DAG

(See about configuring DAG in my previous article)

Select the retention duration for data recovery in the Retention range box. In the Synchronization frequency section, enter the frequency of the incremental backups. click Next

DPM will display its recommended disk allocations, accept default values - click Next

Select when you want DPM to execute the initial replication of your data, I select Now  and click Next

Choose either the Run a consistency check if a replica becomes inconsistent or the Run a daily consistency check according to the following schedule. Click Next.

Review the tasks that DPM is set to perform to create the protection group and click Create Group

Click Close when completed

Verify status of Protection Group. If you see status is Replica creation in progress, please patient and wait until status is OK

If you see an error message as shown below "Replica is inconsistent" then you must download and install  Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 3 at the link below:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679 

Installing  Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 3

Accept the license information and click Install

Click  Close

Then perform consistency check again

Wait until status of the protection group is OK

At this point, the backup process for Exchange Server 2013 mailbox database has completed. I will now proceed emulator error to recover. DPM allows you to recover all data, recover a single mailbox database or recover a single mailbox. To simulate the complete loss of the Mailbox Database 1 database, I stopped the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service 

Then I  deleted the .edb file,

Then I start Microsoft Exchange Information Store service

Open Exchange admin center, refresh and verify Mailbox Database 1 appear as dismounted 

Try to mount Mailbox Database 1

You will see an error dialog box as shown below 

Open Outlook App using URL https://exchange1.mcthub.local/owa, you'll see a error message as shown bellow

Now you must go to the Exchange Server in order to allow the database to be overwritten by the restore. If you miss this step, the restore will fail. Open Exchange Administration Center  and navigate to servers >databases, select Mailbox Database 1, click Edit button. on maintenance tab, select the This database can be overwritten by a restore check box and click save 

Switch DPMSERVER. Open DPM Administrator Console and click Recovery . Browse to the mailbox database you wish to recover (Mailbox Database 1) in the All Protected Exchange Data node. Click any bold date in the calendar, select the Latest recovery point from the Recovery time drop-down box and click Recover  to launch the Recovery Wizard 

Review the recovery selection and click Next 

Select Recover to original Exchange Server location and click Next 

Make sure Mount the databases after they are recovered checkbox is selected and click Next

Click Recover button to start recover

This action will take a few moments to complete.  Please wait 

Click  Close when finished

Check out the success of the recovery process. Click Monitoring, you will see Alert column display as "Recovery success"

Switch to EXCHANGE1 verify .edb file has been restored

Open Exchange admin center, refresh and verify Mailbox Database 1 appear as mounted 

Verify by opening Outlook Web App

Next situation I will simulate a specific user lost mail, open Outlook Web App and delete all messages

DPM 2012 supports the recovery of individual mailboxes, to recover a mailbox, DPM must copy the entire database, because this is the recommended method that Exchange supports, so you create a recovery database attempting this recover , I will create a recovery database named RecoverDB by using two following commands in Exchange Management Shell

New-MailboxDatabase -Recovery -Name RecoverDB -Server EXCHANGE1

Set-MailboxDatabase -Identity ReciverDB -AllowFileRestore $true

Then you must restart Microsoft Exchange Information Store service to take affect

Verify the list of mailbox databases by using command Get-MailboxDatabase

Now I'll recover Administrator 's mailbox to RecoverDB database. Switch to DPMSERVER. Select Recovery - All Protected Exchange Data - Mailbox Database 1 - select Administrator. You cannot select Latest as the recovery point, this functionality is not available for individual mailboxes 

Click Recover

Review the tasks that DPM is set to perform to recover the mailbox of Administrator  and  click Next

Select Recover mailbox to an Exchange server database to recover the mailbox to its original server, or select Copy to a network folder to copy the database files to a separate folder location - Click Next

Specify the location to write the recovered mailbox database to (The Recovery Mailbox you created in previous step)

Click  Next

Review your selected settings and click Recover

This action will take a few moments to complete.  Please wait 

When the recovery is complete, click Close

When the recovery is complete, all messages of  Administrator has been restored to RecoverDB database, The final step to restore the mailbox is to run a following command:

New-MailboxRestoreRequest –SourceDatabase RecoverDB –SourceStoreMailbox Administrator –TargetMailbox Administrator@mcthub.local –TargetRootFolder Recovery

Then verify status of the process is "Completed" by using following command

Get-MailboxRestoreRequest

Now open Outloook Web App, open Recovery - Inbox folder you'll see all messages has been restored

Thank you for reading my article