Surface 2 RT Bitlocker Recovery Key problem is fixed

Windows Surface 2 RT comes already pre-setup with Bitlocker encryption, the user don't need to do anything to enable it or set/type a password to access the drive or wait for encryption time. This is very cool feature to protect and encrypt your data and files on the Surface. Its automatically enabled and turned on when users open the Surface for the first time, set it up and login with their Windows account (Outlook, Hotmail.....etc.)


The Key thing to note is that the Recovery key is stored on your Skydrive as soon as you login on the surface with your Microsoft account. If you need to recover your key you will need to login to Skydrive (http://www.skydrive.com/recoverykey) from another computer, phone or tablet and get the key and enter it to the Surface Recovery prompt on your surface.


This sounds normal if you are aware of this procedure and doing some action that requires you to get the Bitlocker Recovery key. However several users including my self encountered this problem on Surface 2 (Not Surface Pro). After rebooting your surface device or turning it on from a shutdown you may get a Prompt to Enter Bitlocker Recovery Key. After entering the recovery key the Surface will hang on 0% with the new nice blue screen of death and an error displayed at the bottom PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA.


The Problem is that this issue occurred randomly (Some users related it to new firmware update but it was never confirmed as other users installed the same firmware without any problem) and users are not aware of this Skydrive Recovery procedure and the main thing is that sometimes they may get this error/problem without having another device to access the Internet and get their recovery key.

Microsoft confirmed the problem and a fix was finally released to close this issue yesterday. For More information and to download this fix, please check the below site.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2921482

I installed the fix using Windows update and it went fine and I am monitoring my device for any side issue.

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Bye Bye Microsoft UAG !

Yesterday Microsoft Announced officially that there will be no new future full version of Microsoft UAG. Server 2012 and 2012R2 will cover some of the UAG features as Direct Access and basic secure application publishing. This was quite expected especially after the TMG retirement and the new web application proxy that was introduced in Server 2012 R2.


For more details on the latest changes to the Forefront family, please check the below article

http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2013/12/17/important-changes-to-the-forefront-product-line.aspx

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Windows XP support will end April 2014, What about Microsoft Server 2003 ?

A lot of companies nowadays are trying to move all their clients from the old windows XP platform to either Windows 7 or Windows 8.  By April 8, 2014 there will be no more support for Microsoft Windows XP, this includes windows updates, security updates, fixes and normal support. Although XP was a great product, Its highly recommended to move to a newer and more supported OS as Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Its not recommended to run a 10 years old OS nowadays with all this new security challenges.

Client migration is real problem but also the Server migration is still a big issue. I was curious to know the status of the Windows 2003 Server OS that was released at the same time frame of Windows XP and the good news is that its end of support is July 2015. This is a good opportunity for organizations to plan the move of the 2003 servers, i still see Domain Controllers, Exchange, File and application servers still on 2003 or 2003 R2.

There might be a chance that some security or fixes released for 2003 servers might work for XP (Basically 2003 is the XP server version) However no one should take the risk and start phasing out XP and planning for 2003 phase out before July. 2015.


Microsoft Support Life Cycle Index:

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectindex

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System Center 2012 Products doesn't Appear on WSUS

While checking the WSUS Products and Classifications i noticed that some products as the System Center Service Manager is not listed, also i noticed that the System Center 2012 R2 Products are not listed at all even with the latest updates (I am running WSUS on Windows server 2012 R2).

Upon checking the Microsoft Update Catalog on the Internet, i noticed that Service Manager is not listed/published on the Catalog as well, this explains why SCSM updates are not listed in the WSUS. For the current state WSUS is not designed to give SCSM under Products and Classifications as its not yet under the Catalog.

As for the System Center 2012 R2, they were just released less than 2 month ago and the next expected Rollup Will be mostly in the first quarter of 2014. I double checked with Microsoft Support team and they replied back that the Product team is working on WSUS hotfix/Service Pack/Release..........etc that might list the 2012 R2 Products.

Recommended links for WSUS

1. Microsoft Update Catalog: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com
2. Deploy WSUS 2012 and 2012R2 in your organization: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh852340.aspx

   

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Two DNS Records with same IP Address. Aging and Scavenging problems with DHCP Lease duration !!

Aging and Scavenging is very crucial and important for Active Directory Integrated zone, it should be carefully planned and configured. We recently faced a problem when a System Admin reported to me having two DNS records having the same IP address in the DNS Active Directory Integrated zone.

The first thing that came to my mind was to check the Scavenging settings however they both (Refresh and Non-Refresh) seem to be fine compared to the DHCP release time. Always remember that the main rule for this setting is that the Non-Refresh Interval + Refresh Interval should be greater than the DHCP release time. You can tweak it depending on your network, IPs availability and how busy is your network with computers in and out but always keep in mind this main equation.

The second thing to check was the DHCP scope properties and specifically the DNS Tab. Upon checking this setting i noticed that Dynamically Update DNS only if requested by DHCP clients is selected as shown below.

It should be noted that with this above setting, only if the client initiate a request to renew or release by maybe using the ipconfig /release command, then the DNS record will be updated or removed from the DNS zone. As per Microsoft Support advice, in most circumstances, the DHCP client won't initiate the DHCP release request (The client is just removed from the network) and the DHCP and DNS integrated zone won't notice that this client is removed and they still think that this client is online.

After the DHCP lease duration ends, the DHCP server will get this IP back and another client may get this same IP and register itself with the same IP. Now remember the main equation we mentioned earlier, since the Aging and Scavenging time didn't end (They are greater than the DHCP lease), the result will be two records with the same IP address in the DNS zone.

The Solution to this issue is to ensure the DNS record is deleted once the Lease time is reached, we need to change the setting in the image above (Scope Properties - DNS) to Always Dynamically update DNS A and PTR Records.

After changing this setting you will need to restart both DHCP server and DNS server services.


Reference Link:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/networking/archive/2008/03/19/don-t-be-afraid-of-dns-scavenging-just-be-patient.aspx

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User Login is very slow on Virtual Machines connected to Broadcom Network cards !

A weird behavior was noticed on few Hyper-V host machines, these machines are mainly Dell Rack servers as the powerful R720 Model. These servers came with mix of Network adapters (based on your configuration) as the Broadcom built in adapters and extra Intel cards. The behavior noticed was that Virtual machines that are connected to the Broadcom NICs has poor performance and user login takes several minutes on these specific machines. VMs connected to the Intel Network card login normally and has better performance.

When I moved the VMs connected to the Broadcom NICs to the Intel NICs they behaved normally and users can login much faster. I then tried to move the VMs on the Intel Cards to Broadcom and we got the poor performance. We concluded it must be something related to the Broadcom Network card.

Troubleshooting steps:

1. Updating the Broadcom NICs to the latest driver. Still No change.
2. We compared the options/Properties of Intel Card vs. Broadcom card and it was noticed that Transmit buffers in Broadcom was 200 vs 500 in the Intel cards, I tried changing it to match the Intel settings. Still No change.

Resolution:

After several investigations, the problem turned out to be in the VMQ setting which was enabled on both Broadcom and Intel. When it was disabled on the Broadcom card, the VM worked perfectly. Looks like the Broadcom card is not compatible with the VMQ feature.

Reference Links:

1. High Ping Latency in Hyper-V Virtual Machines: http://www.flexecom.com/high-ping-latency-in-hyper-v-virtual-machines/
2. Slow Network Access Within Virtual Machines - Broadcom and Hyper-V: http://fundamentallygeek.blogspot.com/2012/11/slow-network-access-within-virtual.html
3. VMQ feature http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg162704(v=ws.10).aspx

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How to Update Lync 2013 Standard Backend Database ?

Microsoft Releases frequent Cumulative updates for Lync 2013 servers and Most of these updates requires updating the Lync 2013 SQL Backend database. In this article I will discuss how to update the SQL Express backend database after installing a new Lync 2013 Cumulative update or specific Rollup that requires DB version update.


First to check the status of the Database after installing the cumulative update and whether you need an update, you need to run the below two commands from elevated Lync Power Shell.

1. PS C:\> Test-CsDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn servername.domain.com | FT DatabaseName, ExpectedVersion, Installedversion        
2. PS C:\> Test-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase | FT DatabaseName, ExpectedVersion, InstalledVersion

The Output will be something similar to that (This is the output of the second command on one of my deployments)

DatabaseName        ExpectedVersion      InstalledVersion

     ------------                   ---------------              ----------------

         xds                             10.13.2                    10.13.1
          lis                                 3.1.1                      3.1.1

 

As you can see there is a difference between the expected and installed value in the XDS database.

 

To update the Database we need to run the below commands in sequence:

 

1. Install-CsDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn FEBE.FQDN -Verbose
2. Install-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase -SqlServerFqdn CMS.FQDN -SqlInstanceName DBInstanceName -Verbose

 

 

After that we need to enable CsMobility service and Run Bootstrapper as follows:

 

1. Enable-CsTopology
2. Bootstrapper.exe
3. Reboot the server.

 

This should take care of updating the backend DB and you can double check by running the previous Power Shell again and ensure both expected and installed versions are the same.

Reference Links:

Lync 2013 Cumulative Update List

http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2013/03/26/lync-2013-cumulative-updates-list.aspx

Lync Server Resources

http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/p/links.aspx


 

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