How to assign IP address in WinPE

This is quick one, assigning static IP address (for example 192.168.0.10/24 and gateway 192.168.0.1) in WinPE is using netsh:

netsh int ip set address "name of local area connection" static 192.168.0.10 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.1

Install Windows Server 2012 on HP DL 380 G5

Form HP compatibility matrix installing Windows Server 2012 on HP DL 380 G5 is not supported, but it does not mean that it doesn't work. After installing the OS, ILO and SAS P400 controller drivers were missing:

 

In order to install the missing drivers, I've downloaded HP Service Pack for Proliant 2013.02 and started the installation. HP Smart Update Manager has detected missing drivers for ILO, but has reported dependency error for SAS/SATA event notification service and online rom flash component for P400 controller:

 

 

After deselecting the "problematic" components that were dependent from P400 controller, HP SUM has successfully installed the other selected components.

Driver for HP Smart Array P400 controller for Windows Server 2012 can be downloaded from here . The installation package will not allow you to install the driver automatically (from setup), so I have extracted the driver first and updated the Smart Array P400 controller "manually" from Device Manager. After updating the Smart Array P400 controller driver, I have started the HP SUM again and there were no dependencies errors for SAS/SATA event notification service and online flash component for P400, so those two were selected for installation and were installed successfully.

Now, the system was having all components up to date:

 

 

 

 

Note: For HP System Management Homepage to work properly with SNMP, install SNMP feature and enable public community name READ ONLY right for localhost.

 

 

Unable to delete VHD from VMM library

I had VM template associated with VHD from VMM library, and I wanted to delete both of them, since they were used for testing purposes. I deleted the VM template successfully, and after that I wanted to delete the VHD, but VMM was not allowing to delete the VHD because temporary VM template was dependent of it. Here is the error message when I tried to delete the VHD:

And the dependencies from the properties of the VHD file:

Easiest way to delete this temporary VM template is using powershell:

Remove-SCVMTemplate -VMTemplate "Temporary TemplateName"

After deleting the temporary VM template, there were no dependencies of the VHD, and I deleted the file from library successfully. 

 

MSMQ error events in Failover Clustering Diagnostic Log

I was checking Failover Clustering Diagnostic Log on Windows Server 2012 cluster nodes, and all nodes were having error events for MSMQ:

[RHS] s_RhsRpcCreateResType: ERROR_NOT_READY(21)' because of 'Startup routine for ResType MSMQ returned 21.'

[RCM] result of first load attempt for type MSMQ: 21

[RCM] Failed to load restype 'MSMQ': error 21.

[RHS] s_RhsRpcCreateResType: ERROR_NOT_READY(21)' because of 'Startup routine for ResType MSMQTriggers returned 21.'

[RCM] result of first load attempt for type MSMQTriggers: 21

[RCM] Failed to load restype 'MSMQTriggers': error 21.

These events can be safely ignored, since during installation of Failover Cluster feature, MSMQ and MSMQ triggers resource types are registered with cluster service, but the MSMQ feature is not installed.

More about these events check:http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2013/04/05/10408075.aspx    
 

Failover Clustering Event 1196 and 1228

In this case Hyper V failover cluster was installed on Windows Server 2012, and on one of the nodes that was hosting the "Cluster Group" started to log following error events in System event log:

Event 1228:

Cluster network name resource 'Cluster Name' encountered an error enabling the network name on this node. The reason for the failure was:

'Unable to obtain a logon token'. 

The error code was '1326'. 

You may take the network name resource offline and online again to retry.

and Event 1196:

Cluster network name resource 'Cluster Name' failed registration of one or more associated DNS name(s) for the following reason: DNS bad key.

Ensure that the network adapters associated with dependent IP address resources are configured with at least one accessible DNS server.
I moved the "Cluster Group" to another node, but same story and same events were logged. I tried to live migrate VMs between nodes, but unsuccessfully, the live migration was failing. Quick migration was working fine. Failover Clustering Diagnostic Log during live migration was showing following error messages:

[RES] Network Name: [NNLIB] LogonUserEx fails for user 'Cluster Name': 1326 (useSecondaryPassword: 0)  

[RES] Network Name: [NNLIB] LogonUserEx fails for user 'Cluster Name': 1326 (useSecondaryPassword: 1)  

[RES] Network Name: [NNLIB] Logon failed for user 'Cluster Name' (Error 1326), DC \\dc.domain.name, domain domain.name  

[RES] Network Name <Cluster Name>: Identity: Obtaining Windows Token for Name: 'Cluster Name', SamName: 'Cluster Name', Type: Singleton, Result: 1326, LastDC: \\dc.domain.name  

… 

[RES] Network Name <Cluster Name>: Initializing Identity module failed with error 1326  

[RHS] Error 1326 from ResourceControl for resource Cluster Name.  

[RCM] ResourceControl(NETNAME_GET_VIRTUAL_SERVER_TOKEN) to Cluster Name returned 1326.  

[RES] Virtual Machine <Virtual Machine Name>: Live migration of 'Virtual Machine Name' failed.

I've checked for the permissions of the CNO DNS record and CNO AD object, and everything was fine, but somehow the password was out of sync with AD. And here are the steps for remediation:

Moved the CNO account to Computers container
Logged on one of the cluster nodes with account that had Reset Password right
Simulate multiple failures of the cluster Network Name resource until permanent failed state
Once in failed state, right click on resource and in More Action chose Repair The last action will reset the CNO password in AD, and will bring the resource online. CNO DNS record was successfully updated, live migration of VMs started to work, and no error events were logged on 'Cluster Group' owner.

For more info about CNO on Windows Server 2012 please check : http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2012/09/25/cno-blog-series-increasing-awareness-around-the-cluster-name-object-cno.aspx