Jason Yoder, MCT

If you are installing the full GUI on your Server core 2012 and receive this error, it is an easy fix.   Install-WindowsFeature : The request to add or remove features on the specified server failed. Installation of one or more roles, role services, or features failed. The source files could not be downloaded.   This simply means that your installation files need to be made available to PowerShell to do this.  To correct this, insert your installation media or map a drive to the installation source on your network.  Now add he – Source parameter to your Install-WindowsFeature cmdlet pointing to Windows folder to complete the installation Import-Module ServerManager Imstall-WindowsFeature –IncludeAllSubfeature User-Interfaces-Infr –Source < SourcePath>

While delivering a class at the Federal Reserve, I had the opportunity to help out with optimizing a script for use on exchange.  The script needed to check to see if the database is mounted.  The student was able to see it mounted, but could not extract the exact integer value from the data.  Below is how we did it. Get-Counter -Counter ' \MSExchange Active Manager(*)\Database Mounted ' | ForEach-Object { $_ .CounterSamples} | Select-Object -Property InstanceName, CookedValue   The CookedValue is what they were ultimately looking for. 0 means dismounted and 1 means mounted.

PowerShell has (or may have) a special script that allows you to set up your PowerShell environment when it starts.  This script can run any valid PowerShell cmdlet. This means you can load up your own functions and aliases.  I  want to caution you that if you intend to make scripts that will be used by others, make sure that you do not rely on any functionality in your profile.  If you do, your script will fail when the other user runs it. Your profile may, or may not be there.  If you have not configured it, it may not even be there yet.  To determine if your profile is present, use this PowerShell command. Test-Path $Profile If it comes back True , then you already have a profile.  If not, we first need to create one.  Type this in PowerShell to create your profile. New-Item –path $profile –type file –force     Directory: C:\Users\Jason\Documents\WindowsPowerShell Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name ----                -------------     ------ ---- -a---        

PowerShell does not have any number formatting built into it. For this reason, we have to use a little bit of .NET to make some changes. Let’s say you have the number 45.54321 and you only want to display the first 2 decimal places. Here is the code. $Num = 45.54321 "{0:N2}" -f $Num 45.54 The first zero is an index number (You will see how this works in a minute.) The N tells us what type of data we are formatting. I Borrowed the below chart from this Microsoft article. Name Specifier Description Currency C The value is displayed as currency, using the precision specifier to indicate the number of decimal places to be displayed. Decimal D The value is displayed using the number of digits in the precision specifier; if needed, leading zeroes are added to the beginning of the number. Percentage P The value is multiplied by 100 and displayed as a percentage. The precision specifier indicates the number of decimal places to be displayed.

  Yesterday, MCTExpert released our fall newsletter announcing our first Windows Server 2012 class that is ready for delivery.  Much effort is being placed into this next round of course development to ensure a level of quality beyond that delivered to us from Microsoft Learning.  As a training center, I invite you to take the Windows Server 2012 classes to a new level by utilizing an instructor who is seriously committed to going the extra mile.  Please contact me at Jason@MCTExpert.com to schedule this, or another other of our classes.  

  While instructing a PowerShell class at the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia, I took an opportunity to take a real PowerShell need and incorporate it into class.  The need was to discover any user accounts that had rules in Outlook that forward emails outside of the organization.  Below is the resulting script.     # This code is intended to run on the Exchange server in the # Exchange Management Shell.   It is also intended to be a # module or Dot sourced into the session. # Enable the line of code below to Import the Exchange cmdlets. # Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010   <# .SYNOPSIS Retrieves mailboxes that have forwarding rules outside of your email system. .DESCRIPTION Retrieves mailboxes that have forwarding rules outside of your email system and presents you with the mailbox owner and the forwarded address .PARAMETER EmailDomain The name of your email domain.   Any forward rules that do not match this domain will be reported. .E

This might seem a bit easy for most readers, but some of you may have noticed that the new File and Storage Manager in the Widows 2012 Server Manager is missing something. Notice that there is a option to extend a volume, but none to shrink on.  Not a problem.  You can still you the Diskpart to shrink a via command line.  The Disk Manager graphical tool from Windows Server 2008 is also still available. Just press the Windows key. Type Disk and click   Settings . Now, click Create and format hard disk partitions . Right click the volume that you want to shrink and click Shrink Volume Enter the amount of space that you want to shrink.  You may or may not get the amount that you want.  For best results, defrag the volume before attempting to shrink it.

Here is a neat problem. I’m experimenting with correcting disjoined client computers in the domain and stumbled across this little issue. I have the client on the same network as the domain. I can ping the domain controller. I attempted to enable Windows PowerShell remoting via command line but recieved the following error: Take a look at line 5 in the middle: Network connection types on this machine is set to public. OK, no problem. I go to Network and Sharing Center to change the network type to at least Private so I can enable the remoting. Take a look at this: The network profile is not clickable. I tried several techniques that I found on the internet. No luck. This was finally what fixed it. Open PowerShell Type Test-ComputerSecureChannel If the response is False then type Test-ComputerSecureChannel –Repair . If the response is now True , then reboot.

The new Server Manager has expanded our ability to manage multiple servers at the same time.  In the 2008 Server Manager, we could connect to another server and manage it, but then we had to connect to another server to manage a different one.  In the process, we lose our connection to the other servers. Windows 2012 allows us to manage multiple servers at the same time.  To do this, you need to tell Server Manager which servers that you want to manage.  Open Server Manager . Right click All Servers and click Add Servers .   Notice the three tabs on the of the Add Servers window.  We have three methods of adding domain joined servers to Add servers via Active Directory The first method is to use Active Directory. You can filter the servers/clients that are returned to you for selection based on their operating system.  By default, all operating systems from Windows XP on up will be presented to you if they match your Name(CN): pattern. Provide the full, or a partial name

To simulate this, We created a shared folder on a Windows 2008 R2 server that did not have FSRM installed. On another server with FSRM installed, we attempted to connect to the remote share through the UNC path. Even though the Storage Reports Task Properties allowed this, once we clicked OK , we received the following error: \\ServerName\ShareName is an invalid local path for namespace root, please replace it with a valid local path. We also attempted to use the hidden share at the root of the remote servers hard drive as our access point, this did not work. We then mapped a drive the share folder. In the Storage Reports Task Properties where we specified the location to scan, the mapped drive would not show up. I think it is safe to say that we can allow scan local drives for FSRM reports.

In our testing in class, yes they do.  We set up a standard user account with NFTS Write permissions to a folder the was Targeted in a DFS namespace. We also shared the folder through normal folder sharing methods and specified that the user had Deny share permissions.  When attempting to access the folder through the DFS namespace, we were denied access.  We then changes the share permission for the user to Read but kept the NTFS permission for the user at Write .  When accessing the folder through the DFS namespace,  we only had Read permission. Remember that using NTFS permissions to control access is the preferred method.  NTFS is always in effect whether you are accessing the folder locally or remotely.  This also makes Role Based Administration much easier in your environments.

This week I instructed my first class using Windows Server 2012 accessed via LogMeIn and discovered a Sticky Key problem every time you press the Shift key. Here is my solution to resolve this.  First off, in the Preferences of LogMeIn for the connection to the Windows Server, click General . Change the Keyboard and mouse priority to Host side user and click Apply at the bottom. On the Windows 2012 server, open the Control Panel – Ease of Access – Change how your keyboard works . Uncheck Turn on Sticky Keys . Click Set up Sticky Keys . Uncheck Turn on Sticky Keys when SHIFT is pressed five times . Click OK twice. If you are using Windows Server 2012 as a Hyper-V host, you will need to redo the Easy of Use settings on each guest operating system in order to avoid the Sticky Key Problem. Updated Information: March 20, 2013 If you continue to have problems, Uncheck Turn on Filter Keys .

Here is a good scenario.  What if you want to recover an object from the AD Recycle Bin, but its parent OU has been deleted also?  Here is a blog article that I wrote a few years ago to help simplify all the PowerShell code that you would have to use.  In short, you would have to discover the parent object and restore it before you restore the object that you want. In the image below, you can see that we are looking at the Active Directory Administrative Center. This domain has the AD Recycle Bin turned on and we have 4 objects in the Deleted Objects area.  OU1 was the parent with OU2 and its child.  OU2 had OU3 as its child.  John Doe’s user object was stored in OU3. We will start off by right clicking John Doe and selecting Restore . The result is an error. This is because the parent Object of the John Doe object do not exists in Active Directory.  They have also been deleted.  We can find the parent of john do using PowerShell Well isn't this a mess?  If you look carefu