How to Remove the Windows Recovery Partition

Normally the steps to delete a partition are as follows:

1. Right-click the Start button.
2. Click Disk Management.
3. Right-click the partition you wish to delete,
4. Choose Delete Volume.
5. Select Yes when warned that all data will be deleted.

Unfortunately this doesn’t work for Windows Recovery partitions. The Windows Recovery partitions are protected and so right clicking on them has no effect at all.

To delete the recovery partition follow these steps:

1. Right click on the Start button.
2. Click Command Prompt (Admin).
3. Type diskpart.
4. Type list disk.
5. A list of disks will be displayed. Note the number of the disk which has the partition you wish to remove. (If in doubt open disk management and look there, see steps above).
6. Type select disk n(Replace n with the disk number with the partition you wish to remove).
7. Type list partition.
8. A list of partitions will be displayed and hopefully you should see one called Recovery and it is the same size as the one you wish to remove.
9. Type select partition n(Replace n with the partition you wish to delete).
10. Type delete partition override.
11. The recovery partition will now be deleted.

re: https://www.lifewire.com/delete-windows-recovery-partition-4128723

Windows Server 2012 R2: How to add the DHCP role using PowerShell?

Found this blog quite helpful in the middle of a deployment, when getting “Failed to open the runspace pool. The Server Manager WinRM plug-in might be corrupted or missing” in GUI. So PowerShell is more capable if you are confident what you are doing. Here is what I put in the ISE to execute one by one.
Install-WindowsFeature DHCP -IncludeManagementTools
Get-WindowsFeature
Install-WindowsFeature WINS -IncludeManagementTools
Get-WindowsFeature

Bekim Dauti's Blog

The following is a sample chapter from the e-Book Windows Server 2012 R2: How to install and add roles? (Server Core). Enjoy reading!

“This is what people need: an easy-to-deploy, easy-to-use tool.” Nat Friedman

What is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)?

Basically, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a computer network protocol that assigns IP addresses to computers on a network. The working principle of DHCP briefly is described through the acronym DORA which means Discovery, Offer, Request, and Acknowledgement. In a computer network, when you turn on your computer and the operating system boots up the DHCP Client service transmits the request for an IP address. In fact, this request is an attempt to identify whether or not a DHCP server is available on a LAN. If it is, the DHCP server accepts the DHCPDISCOVER message from the client, reserves an IP address for the client, and…

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“The RPC server is unavailable”

In the scenario of getting event logs remotely, using Event Viewer or PowerShell, some time in an unfamiliar environment, the system admin may get this error “The RPC server is unavailable” even the correct credential is supplied.

Why? The service is running on the remote host – most of the time it’s a Windows Server. There must be something block the traffic – Windows Server itself or the network.

Look into the Windows server – the target host, there are several places to check – The Windows Firewall, the Group Policy. Many online resources focused on WMI Group rules, such as running the following command to enable this group of firewall rules – 3 Inbound and 1 Outbound.

> netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)” new enable=yes

The same approach is to open 3 Inbound rules using Windows Firewall with Advanced Security or GP Editor:

Computer Configuration
– Windows Settings
— Security Settings
— Windows Firewall Advanced Security
—- Inbound Rules
—- Right-click and select ‘New Rule’ (Key point)
—- Predefined radio button
—- Choose Remote Event Log Management (Drop down list)
—- Click Next
—- Accept the defaults and click ‘Next’
—- Choose Allow the connection and click ‘Finish’

But, sometimes these local firewall rules are already enabled, by default, unless they are disabled on purpose. Then what?  There is another place to look at, despite the message “The RPC server is unavailable”, some newer operation systems give more information in a pop-up.

Now look at these two rules, they could be disabled, just enable them you will be able to access Event Logs remotely.

This is tested in both Event Viewer and PowerShell, on Windows Server 2012 R2.

p.s. I don’t think .Net Framework 3.5 is necessary in this case, some online article mentioned that though. But still worth to check if the following services are running on the target host:

• Windows Management Instrumentation service
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service
• Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service

Remote Desktop Services (RDS) in Azure

It is a Dev/Test environtment available to all Azure subscribers. I tried this out and it is not too bad. In my opinion, this is the way to go for Microsoft, because it provides a package to potential customers that are not quite familiar with how Azure environment is to be built, either for the PoC purpose or next, in production. Once people get more idea on how it works, there will be less barrier to adopt more in the cloud.

Traditionally, when we start build an infrastructure and services in data center, we started with IP allocation, physical location/rack/power supply, network patching, switches/load balancers, servers, storage, then firewall, iLO/DRAC, O/S build, license, etc.  But when we start in Azure, where I should start is a big question to many of us.  If one just wants to do some testing but need more than a couple of servers and in a small to medium scale, there is no sense to go through all the hassles.

This RDS testing package I set up over the long weekend is pretty simple to start with. Under the basic concept of MS Remote Desktop Services, you can go through the documentation and team blog first, then start picking the size and scale of the environment – redundency, vm size, etc.  At least you will need one DC on Windows Server 2012 R2, and three servers on Windows Server 2016 – RDSH, RD Broker, RD Gateway (including RD Web Access) – other service can be combined such as RD license server and file storage. So far I don’t see there is firewall between them like the diagram showed, all testing servers are in the same subnet (10.0.0.x), of course Azure would guard everything that are accessible from the Internet.

Most steps are straight forward as I did before for  the similar services. Only a few places in the document maybe still referring to a different version of Windows Server (2012 R2 vs 2016 or vice versa).

Remote Desktop Services @ MS Docs

Windows Server RDS team blog site

First look at updates coming to RDS (Sept 2017)

Here are links to Windows Server 2012 based RDS:

https://workspot.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202698935-Remote-Desktop-Services-RDS-Configuration-Guide-for-Remote-Desktop-and-RemoteApp

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/yungchou/2013/02/07/remote-desktop-services-rds-quick-start-deployment-for-remoteapp-windows-server-2012-style/

Other team blogs, some are not current but future ideas:

https://remotedesktop.uservoice.com/forums/301635-remote-desktop-for-windows-universal

http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.ca/

Unrelated links:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/roadmap/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/templates/

https://learningportal.microsoft.com/learning-path/?search=&jobroles=2&products=4

Sysprep

Manually Using SYSPREP in Windows 2012 VMs and Templates

vLore Blog

Recently, on a professional services engagement, we encountered a situation, where the Customization Wizard was failing to successfully apply SYSPREP to Windows 2012 Servers.  Because our main objective and my time was focused on other areas, we could not take time to resolve the underlying the root cause, so we needed a work-around.   This led us to applying SYSPREP manually, which I had not done in a long time.  Here are the details that we applied toward using SYSPREP manually in a VM template

Our main concern is if we deploy two VMs from a template or VM that already has a SID, then an issue may occur if we try to add both new VMs to the domain.  The following error may occur when adding the second VM.

To fix this in the second VM, you can use these steps:

1 – Open RUN and enter sysprep

2…

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How do I reboot, power cycle ProLiant server in iLO?

The options to restart a server using the iLO are contained under the virtual power tab. You can do one of four options:

1. Momentary press – this is like pressing the power button on your laptop/pc or server, with Windows 2000 and above (if I remember correctly), it should cleanly shut down the operating system.
2. Press and hold – this is like pressing and holding the power button, it will turn off the computer completely and will not cleanly shut down the server.
3. Cold boot of the system – this effectively powers off the server and restarts it.
4. Reset system – this is the iLO way of rebooting it without cleanly restarting the operating system, if your server has hung and won’t respond, this might be the option you select.

iLO “Remote Console is unavailable. It is already in use by a different client”

When you try to access the iLO Remote Console on some servers you sometimes get the message “Remote Console is unavailable. It is already in use by a different client”. But there is no other client connected to the iLO on that server. How can you “reset” the Remote Console connection (from remote) to access the server through the iLO again?

Solve the problen by simply going to “Administration -> Settings -> Network -> Apply” (no changes to settings and just applying the current configuration)

It disconnects all connections, you may able to connect the remote console now.

Source: http://billyf2010.blog.com/2009/10/03/ilo-remote-console/ — this is a pretty good blog for WinTel system admins.

Another solution:

When using the integrated remote console on a HP Blade Server and you get disconnected for whatever reason you get the error message “The Integrated Remote Console is unavailable; it is already in use by a different client.”.

This is a common problem and is apparently working as intended, though it can be annoying. To fix this you need to turn on “Remote console acquire” within the iLO of the system.

Log into iLO and select Remote Console / Settings
There you will see settings that allow you to enable:
– Remote Console Acquire
Acquire allows you to terminate the current remote console session to attach a new one. The current user is notified.

You can also click on Remote Console Share but you will need to purchase another license key for the functionality of having multiple users using the remote console at the same time.

Source: http://waynestorey.com/blog/tag/remote-console/

For Blade: http://egementanirer.blogspot.com/2009/03/integrated-remote-console-is.html

One more solution:

If you’re using HP iLO (Integrated lights out) and get this message it is because another user is either using the iLO or somehow it’s locked up.

One way to get around this is to reset it under the web settings for the iLO if you have access to it. Under the System Status tab, you can go into diagnostics and there is a button to reset iLO2.

Note that will kick off anyone currently using it, but who cares as long as it helps you right?

Source: http://www.ashbaughonline.com/2007/12/08/unavailable-already-in-use-by-a-different-client/