Windows Server 2008 « Stuart Cox’s Tech Punch

Entries categorized as ‘Windows Server 2008’

SharePoint 2007 100% CPU Spike – Blue Screen 0×0000001d

April 29, 2009 · 1 Comment

Problem

SharePoint 2007 Web Front End (WFE) servers crashing repeatedly. Environment is SharePoint 2007 (MOSS Enterprise) 64-bit running on Windows Server 2008 Standard. Server was crashing repeatedly with CPU spiking to 100%, blue screen, and server rebooting itself. System log showing BugCheck event (1000) entry with code 0×0000001d:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0×000000d1 (0xfffff9802ea0ef50, 0×0000000000000002, 0×0000000000000000, 0xfffffa6004e06ed9). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP.

Resolution

After a lot of troubleshooting, it turns out it was Trend Micro Common Firewall Driver (Trend Micro OfficeScan Client 8.0). When we disabled the firewall, problem resolved.

Categories: MOSS 2007 · SharePoint · WSS 3.0 · Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 – Can’t Ping the Server

November 17, 2008 · 5 Comments

After installing Windows Server 2008, I found I can’t ping the server, even within a “Private Network”. I like to ping stuff in my spare time, so this was distressing to me. I suspected to find a firewall issue, but was surprised to find enabling the Network Discovery option in the firewall configuration settings didn’t fix it.

Configure Windows Firewall Settings – File and Printer Sharing

By default, Windows Firewall for WIndows Server 2008 is configured to disallow File and Printer Sharing on the network. By default Windows Server 2008 firewall is configured with Windows Firewall running, and with File and Printer Sharing disabled. This blocks ICMP Echo Request packets used by the PING command. You can allow the server to respond to ping requests by doing the following:

Turn off Windows Firewall on the Windows 2008 Server (not recommended)- OR -
Enable the File and Printer Sharing option in Windows Firewall Configuration Settings
1. Start > Control Panel > Network and Intranet
2. Under the Windows Firewall section heading, Click the Allow a program through Windows Firewall link
3. In the programs and ports list, check the File and Printer Sharing option

Categories: Windows Server 2008

Virtual PC 2007 – Installing Vista / Windows Server 2008 Sound Drivers on VPC’s

September 10, 2008 · 6 Comments

When building Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 VPC’s, I found it is sometimes difficult to get the correct device driver for the sound card installed. After a few fruitless Google searches, I found lots of people with this problem and few solutions. I finally found a blog post that gave me the help I needed. Thanks to Greg Low Bit Bucket for his blog post, Greg Low’s Bit Bucket – Playing videos and sound in Windows Server 2008 using a Virtual PC (VPC).

First, as Greg said, if you’re using Virtual Server, you’re out of luck. Virtual PC 2007 emulates a sound card, but Virtual Server doesn’t. I’m not sure about Hyper-V. If anyone has any findings on Hyper-V sound card emulation, please leave a comment and let us know what you found out.

Virtual PC 2007 Service Pack 1

The service pack has new sound emulator drivers for Vista and Windows Server 2008. Be sure to install it and setup your VMC as a Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 virtual machine. As far as I can tell, the only difference between the operating systems you pick are the sound drivers and the memory allocation. I normally tweak the memory allocation anyway.

Installing the Sound Drivers

To install the sound drivers, you need to install Virtual Machine Additions first, reboot, and then install the sound drivers from the C:\Program Files\Virtual Machine Additions folder on the VHD.

Install Virtual Machine Additions (File > Install or Update Virtual Machine Additions). This will mount a virtual drive and run a setup program to install the VM additions.
After installing the software, reboot the VPC as directed
If you get the Found New Hardware dialog, you can point it to the C:\Program Files\Virtual Machine Additions folder to install the drivers from there
If you don’t get the Found New Hardware dialog (you disabled it because it was bugging you to death), you can install the device driver from the Device Manager
1. Open the Device Manager (Start > Control Panel > Device Manager)
2. Under the Other devices, you’ll see a yellow icon indicating you have a problem with the Multimedia Audio Controller
3. Right-click the Multimedia Audio Controller and select the Update Device Driver option
4. Select the option to “Browse my computer” and point it to the C:\Program Files\Virtual Machine Additions folder
5. Click Next to install the device drivers
After the device driver setup is complete, your sound should start working, and you’ll no longer have an annoying device driver warning when you startup your VPC

Installing Windows Media Player on Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 does not have Windows Media player installed by default. If you want to get streaming media audio running, you’ll need to install it. To install the Media Player, you need to install the “Desktop Experience” feature.

The Desktop Experience feature enables a bunch of stuff that is by default present on a Vista workstation, but is not included by default on a Server 2008 installation.desktop OS. Most importantly it includes Windows Media player, Themes, and the Aero related features.

Open Server Manager (Start > Administrative Tools > Server Manager)
Select Features > Add Features
Check the Desktop Experience feature and click Next
Click Install to install the feature
Reboot as directed
When the machine comes back up, WIndows Media Player will be there

After installing the Desktop Experience on Windows Server 2008, Windows Media Player will be available. Themes and Aero will be installed but disabled, but I don’t need them bogging down my VPC anyway.