How to list installed application in Windows 2012 core mode

You can use PowerShell to list all the installed applications on Windows 2012 core mode.

Get-WmiObject Win32_Product | ft -Auto

VSS fixup script

If Windows backup is failing due to VSS issues, you can try this script to re-register all the VSS DLLs. This should be a last resort after all other avenues have been investigated.

net stop "File Replication Service"
net stop "DHCP Server"
net stop "DFS Replication"
net stop "Background Intelligent Transfer Service"
net stop "System Event Notification Service"
net stop "Background Intelligent Transfer Service"
net stop "COM+ Event System"
net stop "Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider"
net stop "Volume Shadow Copy"

cd /d %windir%\system32

net stop vss
net stop swprv
regsvr32 /s ole32.dll
regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 /s vss_ps.dll
vssvc /register
regsvr32 /s /i swprv.dll
regsvr32 /s /i eventcls.dll
regsvr32 /s es.dll
regsvr32 /s stdprov.dll
regsvr32 /s vssui.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml4.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml3.dll

net start "COM+ Event System"
net start "System Event Notification Service"
net start "Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider"
net start "Volume Shadow Copy"
net start "File Replication Service"
net start "DHCP Server"
net start "DFS Replication"
net start "Background Intelligent Transfer Service"

Finding volume GUIDs from powershell

This peice of PowerShell will find all the volume GUIDs, their name and free space.

Get-WmiObject -class Win32_Volume -computername localhost | where-object {$_.name -like "\\?\*"} | select-object label, name, @{ Label = "Capacity(GB)" ; Expression = { "{0:N2}" -f ($_.capacity/1024/1024/1024) } },@{ Label = "Freespace(GB)" ; Expression = { "{0:N2}" -f ($_.freespace/1024/1024/1024) } } | ft -auto

Changing a hosts display name case in SCVMM

If you want to change the displayed case of hosts in SCVMM to upper case below this the SQL query you need to execute on the SCVMM SQL database.


Stop the System Center Virtual Machine Manager and System Center Virtual Machine Manager Agent service on the SCVMM server.

Open SQL Studio manager, select the VirtualManagerDB and take a backup first! Then paste this code into a new query window and select execute.

SELECT [ComputerName], UPPER(LEFT([ComputerName], CHARINDEX('.', [ComputerName], 1) -1)) +
            RIGHT([ComputerName], LEN([ComputerName]) - CHARINDEX('.', [ComputerName], 1) + 1)
FROM [VirtualManagerDB].[dbo].[tbl_ADHC_Host]

UPDATE [VirtualManagerDB].[dbo].[tbl_ADHC_Host]
SET [ComputerName] = UPPER(LEFT([ComputerName], CHARINDEX('.', [ComputerName], 1) -1)) +
                               RIGHT([ComputerName], LEN([ComputerName]) - CHARINDEX('.', [ComputerName], 1) + 1)

Start the System Center Virtual Machine Manager and System Center Virtual Machine Manager Agent service on the SCVMM server.

Job done!

Using PowerShell Enter-PSSession when your computer isn't on the domain.

Quite often when i'm at a customers site I need to work on their servers. Each time I go to site I don't join my laptop to the customers domain. The problem with this is that when you use the Enter-PSSession command you get an error message about the fact that your computer is not joined to the domain that the server is.

This also presumes you have enabled PSRemoing on the destination host with this command:

Enable-PSRemoting -Force

Here is the work around; Enter the first command on you computer once only. This tells your computer to trust the identify of any remote computers. This should not be done on non technical users computers as the security implications are obvious.

Set-Item WSMAN:\Localhost\Client\TrustedHosts -Value * -Force

The command below will connect you to the computer of your choice, you will need change the IP address or substitute a computer name, you will also need to change the domain and username to an account that is active on the server.

Enter-PSSession -ComputerName 0.0.0.0 -Credential domain\username -Authentication negotiate

DHCP scope exhausted with BAD_ADDRESS enteries

I noticed a new VM would not get a DHCP address from one of the customers DC's, after remoting into the DC we could see that the scope was full. Upon further inspection the scope had been filled with BAD_ADDRESS entries. We selected all the BAD_ADDRESSES and deleted them, but within minutes it was full again.  I knew it had to be some of the new equipment we had plugged in, this was disconnected and I used the PoSh below to see if any new BAD_ADDRESS entries emerged.

Get-DhcpServerv4Lease -ScopeId "192.168.221.0" | Where {$_.HostName -eq "BAD_ADDRESS"}

Isolated the problem to two new downstream Force 10 MXL switches that have DHCP enabled in the default VLAN. The commands below were issued on the switch to resolve the problem with the scope filling.

>interface VLAN 1

>no IP address DHCP

>do wr

The PoSh command above was used to make sure that no new BAD_ADDRESS entries existed.

Troubleshooting intermittent pings

Troubleshooting intermittent pings can be a pain in the rear. Here are some steps I have used to isolate the issue.
I am working with a customer who is having a Hyper-V cluster, after getting the Network Adapters sorted out I noticed the RDP connectivity to the server was poor. A ping to the default gateway revealed high ping latency and a good handful of request time-outs.  

• Updated the drivers - No change.
• Changed the CAT6 cable - No change.
• Disabled VMQ - No change.
• Plugged my laptop in to the same cable - Same issue, Bingo! This turned out to be a red herring. I updated my drivers and plugged the power in and that resolved the laptop ping issue.
• Tried another laptop on the same cable - It was fine, 1ms.
• Tried another 1GbE NIC to eliminate the LBFO driver - still the same.
• Tried a 10GbE - Seems to be stable, odd.
• Tried another switch - Seems to be stable, odd.
• Flatted the server, installed Windows 2012 R2 again and test the ping, it was fine, odd!
• Repeated all the configuration steps one at a time each time testing the ping, still OK.
• Joined the domain, BAM! Pings all over the shop.
• Tried safe mode, Seems to be stable 1ms!
• Removed the server from the domain, seems to be stable 1ms.
• Added the server back to the domain, pings latent and intermittent again.
• Stop the Base Filter Engine (stop-service BFE - force), seems to be stable 1ms.
• Uninstall the Broadcom driver and use the OOB driver from Microsoft, seems to be stable 1ms.

Update: After creating some VMs the problem moved inside some VMs. The solution was to change the Broadcom 1GbE NICs for Intel x350-t NICs.

Hardware, Dell PowerEdge R720, 1GbE & 10GbE Broadcom NICs. Switch HP 5400