Systems Center - Virtualization

Launch PowerShell ISE with another Credential

2018-12-30T19:44:00.001-08:00

In a situation, where you are login in your laptop, when you launch the PowerShell it will be your current login credential

I need to login with another credential which has admin rights to perform certain tasks

When a box appears, key in your password

A new PowerShelll ISE is launch

And now I can carry out the tasks in this window with admin rights

In summary the command is

Start-Process powershell_ise.exe -Credential "yourdomain\adminID"

Make changes to the syntax in yellow. The command must have the quotes as shown.

keywords : launch powershell ise with another credential, launch powershell ISE with administrator rights, power shell

DPM 2012–Event ID 3184 Owner DPM Server

2018-02-27T20:58:00.001-08:00

Recently I had an incident on the DPM 2012. It’s the ActiveOwner issue.

I’m going to share with you how I done it.

The ActiveOwner files are located in "c:\program files\Microsoft Data Protection Manage\dpm\activeowner" on the server hosting the databases (SQL server being backed up). In my case it is one of the SQL server the DPM is protecting. These ActiveOwner are used to manage ownership of databases, important for ensuring multiple DPM servers aren't attempting to backup/restore resources at the same period of time.

In the Protected Server that is running the SQL, from the Windows Explorer, drill to the location of:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\ActiveOwner .

Rename all the files that is 0 KB. e.g. rename with the extention of .old

Next launch the Command Prompt in Administrator.

Change the directory to : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\bin in the Protected server (not DPM)

Key in as follow :
SetDPMServer.exe –DPMServerName DPMServerName

Note : Replace the DPMServerName with your DPM Server. The rest of the syntax stays the same.

Rerun the Synchronization in your DPM Console. It should resolved.

keywords : DPM, DPM 2012, DPM 2012 R2, Owner DPM Server ID 3184 The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable (0x80070570), DPM could not run backup/recovery job for the data source it is owned by a different DPM Server, Take data source ownership

Azure–Upsize VM while Maintaining VHD

2018-01-15T02:08:00.001-08:00

Upsizing a VM which is in the same family will be easy to perform. However, what happens if I want to upsize the VM to another category/family ?

I’m going to share the steps.

Scenario :

A VM (DC) that is in the size of Standard A1. I’ll need to upgrade to size to Standard A1 V2. Need to maintain the information.

In the steps I’ve created a text document and place it in the desktop of the old VM before I upsize the VM, just to show that the data is still intact.

Before changing the VM size.

The above shows the VM size

The above shows the VM (BK-TRN-DC01) in the resource group name rg_bkhoo_training

Take note of the VH VHD. This info is needed later.

Also take note of the Network Card attach to the VM.

The Process.

Firstly, stop the VM just like the shown above. The VM is stopping.

Once the VM has stopped, then delete the particular VM.

As you can see, even though the VM has been deleted, the VHD is still intact in the storage.

Create a new VM with the same OS in the Resource Group that you have deleted the VM

Now I created a new VM. In my example I name it as BK-TRN-DC01-A.

Now the VM, I select the size of A1_V2 Standard.

In the Settings panel, key in to the same settings as the same previous VM that was deleted earlier, then click OK.

Revise the Summary, then click OK.

Once the VM is created, then click on the Virtual machine to review the size. It’s shown as follow

Ensure the VM is shutdown down.

Azure Storage Explorer

Next is to launch the Azure Storage Explorer and connect to the Azure Account .

Take note that we’re going to remove the new VHD that has been created, and attach the previous VM VHD into the new VM.

Firstly, select the the new VM VHD, right-click and select Break Lease.

Click Yes to break the lease

Before the deletion, copy down the name of the new VM VHD.

Select the new VM VHD, then right-click, choose Delete the new VM VHD in the Azure Storage Explorer.

Select Yes to confirm the deletion

Right-click on the previous VM VHD and select Rename. Rename the VHD to the name that was noted earlier.

The end result in the Azure Storage Explorer is displayed as above for my example.

Attaching back previous Network.

The next things before firing up the VM, is to attach back the previous VM Network. It contains the previous IP address, with it’s profile. This is very important.

Take note the VM must be shutdown in order to perform the action

Select Virtual machine networking.

Select Attach Network Interface.

Select the previous VM network interface and click OK.

Next is to detach the the network interface when the new VM was created.

Select the new VM interface in the tab. Then at the top click Detach network interface.

Click OK to confirm.

Take note of the previous Private VM IP has been attached to the new VM.

Now can Start the VM.

RDP into the VM

Take note that the new VM hostname is the old VM hostname. This is because is using the previous VHD.

Also take note of the IP address. It’s the previous VM IP address.

Hope the steps has helped you on how to migrate your VMs from one size to another (from different category) without much of hassles. The method also can be use to migrate the VMs from classic to the new Azure Portal.

^{keywords : Azure migration, azure up size, azure family, azure migration of different family, virtualization, azure sizing.}

Azure Storage Explorer–Release 0.9.3

2018-01-10T18:46:00.001-08:00

The Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer was release in December 2017.

Can download from the link here

keywords : Azure Storage Explorer, storage, azure, cloud storage

SCDPM 2016 Storage Setup – Modern Backup Storage

2017-03-13T16:11:00.001-07:00

In the System Center Data Protection Manager 2016 (SCDPM 2016), there’s improvement of which type of data to be stored into specific LUN. I have in the sample are 2 LUNs from NetApps presented the volume to SCDPM 2016 for the Storage Pool.

By configuring this, I’ll have it as Application-aware backup for my SCDPM 2016

In the predecessors (SCDPM 2010, SCDPM 2012), the whole storage pool is mixed together with SQL,VM Backups etc.

However in the SCDPM I can have something like this :

In order to have the above, I’ll share the steps of how it was done.

Once the LUN is presented to the SCDPM 2016, open up the Disk Manager. I’m going to use Disk 4 and add into the Storage Pool. This LUN I’m going to use it for SQL type of backups. This Disk 4 LUN storage was presented from NetApps. In the later steps I use a friendly name to distinguish in the Storage Pool.

I’m going create it as a New Simple Volume (Right-click – Select New Simple Volume)

In the Welcome to the New Simple Volume Wizard, click Next.

In the Specify Volume Size, click Next (selection to use entire volume for this backup)

In the Assign Drive Letter or Path display, click the Assign the following drive letter, select letter, then click Next

In the Format Partition display, click Do not format this volume, then click Next.

In the Completing the New Simple Volume Wizard, click Finish

(Below is just a sample)

It will something like a sample below in the Disk Management, once the above activity has completed carry out.

Switch back to SCDPM 2016 console.

Click Management – Disk Storage – then click Add at the ribbon menu.

In the Add Disk Storage display, click the Add button.

A warning is displayed, click Yes to continue

Once selected and added, key in a friendly name (as mentioned earlier in this blog) to distinguish. Click OK.

Double click on the DPM Management Shell to launch the specific PowerShell commands for SCDPM (Note that this is different set of commands from the normal Windows PowerShell)

Once the DPM Management PowerShell is launch type the following :

$vol = Get-DPMDiskStorage –Volumes

$vol

In the next command key, this is going to change the particular pool for Application-aware backup as shown below :

Update-DPMDiskStorage –Volume $vol[3] –FriendlyName “SQL-NetApps” – DataSourceType SQL

Note : Change the ones in Pink in the above syntax The rest of it stays.

DatasourceType supported are :

Client
SQL
SharePoint
Exchange
SystemProtection
HyperV
VMWare
Other
All

Remember to use a unique Volume number. Usually my Practice is using Disk # – 1 (Disk Number minus 1, refer to the Disk Management)

Once the Update-DPMDiskDiskStorage shell command is done, navigate back to your DPM Console – Management – Disk Storage to see the Preferred Datasource Types has been changed

When the Protection Group is created, you can then select the appropriate storage for the kind of backup. With this Workload Aware Storage, it will help to reduce storage costs.

Hope this helps.

keywords : Application-aware backup, SCDPM 2016, System Center Data Protection Manager 2016, modern backup storage

Network Connection Folder Empty

2017-03-08T10:41:00.001-08:00

Recently I had an issue with Server not displaying the Network Adapters.

I checked and ping and it was okay. But when I did a Failover Cluster Validation, it displayed error cause it couldn’t find the network.

The following are the steps that was carried out to have it resolve

Open regedit .
Drill to the following in the registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network
On the right-panel look for Config. Delete the key.
No worries. When delete this key, it’s just removing the configuration cache.
Restart the server or just reopen the Control Panel – Network, it will display once again.

keywords : Network Connection missing, network not display, network connections folder is empty, not showing network adapter list

How to remove “Unsupported Cluster Configuration” in SCVMM 2012

2017-02-27T07:30:00.001-08:00

Recently I had a incident in one of the end user’s environment.

The scenario is as follow :
The storage LUNs where the Virtual Machines resides had several Hard Disks failed. There were not enough hotspare disks assigned to it. The only way is to replace the faulty Hard Disks in the storage and then reconfigure it again.

Once it was done, the LUN was presented back to the Hosts and Failover Cluster recognize the LUN and then VMs were configured.

However, in the System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM 2012) has an issue. It contained two identical records. One is displayed as Running and another as Unsupported Cluster Configuration

Steps Taken

Ensure the VM is running in the Cluster
Launch the Virtual Machine Manager Command Shell in the Server that is running the SCVMM 2012
(right-click run as administrator)
Key in the command as follow in the VMM Command Shell that was launched :

Get-SCVirtualMachine | where { $_.Name -EQ "Duplicate-ComputerName"} | fl name, status

Note : Replace the Pink with your computer name that you want to remove from the SCVMM. Remember the rest of the commands stay, including the quotes.
It will display something like the screen below :
Next is to execute the command to remove from the SCVMM database

Get-SCVirtualMachine | where { $_.Name -EQ "Duplicate-ComputerName"} | Remove-SCVirtualMachine –Force

Note : Replace the Pink with the computer name that you want to remove from the SCVMM. The rest of the commands stays inclusive the quotes. This is going to remove from the SCVMM DB but not removing the VM. Remember the VM needs to be up and running.

In the SCVMM, the record will be removed and you need to do a refresh to once again get the information from the Cluster.
Right click on the Cluster in the VMM and click refresh

After the SCVMM has completed the job (getting the information from the Cluster), the Unsupported Cluster Configuration is no longer in the record. The one that is healthy is displayed in the cluster information.

A thank you to Aidan Finn and Law.

keywords : error 2604, unsupported cluster configuration, system center virtual machine manager, scvmm hyper-v, duplicate computer name in scvmm 2012, how to remove computer from scvmm

Cluster Disk in Failover Cluster Failed to Start (File Server)

2017-02-04T18:18:00.001-08:00

Recently one of the customer had an upgrade in their firmware of their storage. Their setup is as follow :

2 Hosts in Windows 2012 Server. Using a shared storage and it’s setup with Windows 2012 Failover Cluster.

After both the hosts were rebooted, the Cluster Disk that was assigned as FileServer in the Failover Cluster failed to start. From what I know it’s because both the hosts are assuming they are the owner of that particular Disk. So both are locked to the resources.

I clicked on the “more details” to check it displayed as :

Further probing into the Disk Management and found that the Disk is in RAW. Before this it was in NTFS format.

Next I go into the shared Storage Management (which is the Dell Storage Manager in this scenario), tried to repair but in vain. It displayed as follow :

After going through the logs as earlier on, found that the resource was locked due to both the hosts are assume they are the rightful owner and both are trying to write at the same time. In a Windows cluster environment, there’s only one owner at any one time.

Therefore I launched a PowerShell ISE in Administrator mode.

Execute a command to clear the Cluster Disk Reservation on both the hosts

In my scenario as above, in the Disk Management it shows as Disk 6, I execute the command of :

Clear-ClusterDiskReservation –disk 6

Note : change only the one in Pink according to the info from disk management

Resource of the command : https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee461016.aspx

After that, I started the FileServer and no issue. The format was in NTFS and content was intact.

In the Failover cluster of the File Server :

Hopefully this helps.

keywords : cluster disk reserve, error 219, dell storage manager, disk in RAW format, incorrect function, cannot start up cluster disk file server, the requested resource is in use, persistent reservation

SCDPM – Protecting SQL 2012 & above.

2016-09-11T09:42:00.001-07:00

To protect SQL Server 2012 or SQL Server 2014, the following must be done.

Add the system account NTAuthority\System to the Sysadmin group on SQL Server
DPM cannot protect databases that are stored on remote SMB stores
Availability group replicas are configured as read-only
When you perform an alternate location recovery for a partially contained database, you must ensure that the target SQL instance has the Contained Databases feature enabled

Hope the above illustration helps

Azure–Powershell (Updated)

2016-09-03T18:06:00.001-07:00

Recently the PowerShell for Azure, there’s an update that you can download from the GitHub

The Link is located in here.

You need to have the Azure SDK installed first. The installation file can be download from this link.

Hope this helps.

keywords : Azure, powershell, azure command-line,

Hyper-V VSS Writer State : [7] Failed Last error : Timed out

2016-07-27T00:38:00.001-07:00

Had an issue of the Hyper-V VSS when I typed to check.

vssadmin list writers

In the event viewer I got as the following :

I want to get the VSS back to be stabilize but not wanting to restart the server, therefore I restart a service.

Service to restart : Microsoft Virtual Machine Management

Keyword :

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error querying for the IVssWriterCallback interface. hr = 0x80070005, Access is denied.. This is often caused by incorrect security settings in either the writer or requestor process.Operation: Gathering Writer Data Context: Writer Class Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220} Writer Name: System Writer Writer Instance ID: {bc497fa6-6627-47fb-a005-ac94fa83904e}Error : 8194 vssadmin list writer Hyper-V State 7 timed out

SCDPM–Job Failed to Cancel or Hung or Stuck BUT Cannot be remove

2016-07-13T21:43:00.001-07:00

Environment
SCDPM 2012 SP1

It’s been hours the job has been cancelled but couldn’t be remove from the DPM job. Can’t execute the next job due to the job is still in progress to cancel. However, found the issue is with the SQL Database that is holding the job from being release.

In the SCDPM console, it displays as below :

The following steps were carried out :

Launch the SQL Server Management Studio (<right-click> run as Administrator)

Once it’s launched, ensure DPM DB is connected

Copy the script below :

USE DPMDB

BEGIN TRAN

-- mark replica as invalid if there was some operation happening on that replica

UPDATE tbl_PRM_LogicalREplica

SET Validity = 1 -- Invalid

WHERE OwnerTaskIdLock IS NOT NULL AND

Validity <> 5 AND -- ProtectionStopped

Validity <> 6 -- Inactive

-- Release all the locks held

UPDATE tbl_PRM_LogicalREplica

SET OwnerTaskIdLock = null,

Status=8

if (select COUNT(name) from tbl_AM_Agent where Name like 'DPM RA v2%') > 0

begin

exec sp_executesql N'UPDATE tbl_RM_ShadowCopy

SET ArchivetaskId = NULL,

RecoveryJobId = NULL'

end

UPDATE tbl_ARM_Datasource

SET Status = 0,

OwnerLockId = NULL

DELETE tbl_RM_DatasourceServerlock

DELETE tbl_RM_ShadowCopyLocks

-- Set All running tasks and jobs to failed

UPDATE tbl_TE_TaskTrail

SET ExecutionState = 3,

LastStateName = 'Failure',

StoppedDateTime = GetUtcDate()

WHERE ExecutionState NOT IN (2,3)

UPDATE tbl_JM_JobTrail

SET JobState= 'Failed',

EndDateTime = GetUtcDate()

WHERE jobstate= 'Execute' OR jobstate= 'Retire'

-- unreserve resources held

UPDATE tbl_MM_Global_Media

SET ReservationLevel = 0,

ReservationOwnerMMId = null

UPDATE tbl_MM_Global_Drive

SET ReservationLevel = 0,

ReservationOwnerMMId = null

UPDATE tbl_MM_Global_IEPortResource

SET ReservationLevel = 0,

ReservationOwnerMMId = null

COMMIT TRAN

Click on New Query
Paste the Script into the Query Column
Click Execute

Check on the OUTPUT column below
Close the SCDPM console and open it back. It should clear the status and be able to execute whatever job that is outstanding.

Hope this helps. Works on SCDPM 2012 R2 too.

Resource of the script is from here.

Thank you.

keywords : SCDPM, Data protection manager 2012 SP1, SCDPM 2012 SP1, SCDPM 2012 R2, Job cancel but hang, cancel job failed

PowerShell–Get-VM command is not recognize or missing

2016-06-28T23:38:00.001-07:00

Currently I’m supporting one of the customer, found out that the PowerShell is in version 1.0 in the SCVMM. Therefore, I tried to execute a script using the get-vm but it says as not recognize.

The message was :

PS C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop> Get-VM
The term 'Get-VM' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

As a workaround, I’ve execute the command as below :

Import-Module virtualmachinemanager

Then the get-vm command works.

keywords : SCVMM, get-vm missing, get-vm command not recognize, powershell command not recognize.

PowerShell–Listing of Folder Permission, export to CSV

2016-06-28T03:29:00.001-07:00

Today would like to share with you about a way to list down all the Folder and subfolder permission into a CSV format. This is good especially for internal or external audits.

There are two options that you can run.

Run in the File Server (provided you have PowerShell installed)
Run from your Computer (Map the File Server Drive, and also provided you have PowerShell installed in your computer)

The coding is as below :

# This is the file specified for the Output of CSV. Make the necessary change
$OutFile = "C:\Download\Permission.csv"

$Header = "Folder Path,IdentityReference,AccessControlType,IsInherited,InheritanceFlags,PropagationFlags"
Del $OutFile
Add-Content -Value $Header -Path $OutFile

# This is the top path of where want to scan the permission from. This will include the sub folders
$RootPath = "C:\Download\Driver"

$Folders = dir $RootPath -recurse | where {$_.psiscontainer -eq $true}

foreach ($Folder in $Folders){
    $ACLs = get-acl $Folder.fullname | ForEach-Object { $_.Access }
    Foreach ($ACL in $ACLs){
    $OutInfo = $Folder.Fullname + "," + $ACL.IdentityReference + "," + $ACL.AccessControlType + "," + $ACL.IsInherited + "," + $ACL.InheritanceFlags + "," + $ACL.PropagationFlags
    Add-Content -Value $OutInfo -Path $OutFile
    }}

Note : Make changes to the Pink in colour according to your CSV file and which path you want to scan your File Server and export out the permission listing.

The output will be something like below when open with Excel :

I’m executing on my PC, that’s the reason I have the output as above.

Thank you and hope this helps.

keywords : ACL, folder permission, powershell, File Server, fileserver, Access list, access control list, permission to CSV

Azure – Removing / Deleting Resource Group with PowerShell

2016-06-09T03:38:00.001-07:00

Since Azure introduced the new portal, the recommendation to create is as below :

Create Resource Group
Create Azure Storage Account
Create Azure VNET

That is the 3 basic items that MUST be created first before creating any VMs.

So now I face the “horror of cleaning up” after conducting some demos. The cleaning up is quite a challenge through the GUI Management Portal. Therefore I need to clear the entire Resource Group. Before I can delete that, I need to delete all the contents in the resource group. It’s very tedious.

Now I’ve found a way that I would like to share.

Step 1

Update your local PowerShell with the Azure SDK. If not download it from here.

Step 2

Once it’s installed, then you should have the Azure commands added into your PowerShell.

Launch the Run ISE as Administrator

Minimize the PowerShell Window.

Step 3

Launch IE (Internet Explorer)
Go to https://portal.azure.com
Login with your Azure Account
Open another IE tab. Enter the https://resources.azure.com/ to access to Azure Resource Explorer.

Expand the left panel
Browse to the Resource Group

Take note of the PowerShell command (which is going to help later).

Step 4

Maximize the PowerShell that was launch earlier (ISE) in Step 2
Login using the command of Login-AzureRMAccount

Take note of the SubscriptionId
The command to remove the entire Resource Group is as follow :

Remove-AzureRMResource –ResourceId /subscriptions/SubscriptionId/resourceGroups/resourcegroupname/ –ApiVersion 2014-04-01 –Force

Note : Only make changes to the pink colour syntax. The first is your subscription ID information that you get from the top when you login to Azure and the second one is the resource group name.

If you’re not so sure of the command, then refer to the command that you noted earlier in Step 3 from the Azure Resource Explorer.
As example I would like to delete off the entire Resource Group of RG-CANADA-CENTRAL-01 in my subscription then I type the following :

Once it’s completed removing the Resource Group, a True word is indicated.

So hopefully the above helps you as it has helped me in cleaning up the Resource Group.

keywords : azure, resource explorer, manage azure, azure portal , resource group, housekeeping resource group, new azure portal, manage azure portal

How to Remove Azure Account (Cached) using PowerShell

2016-06-09T00:11:00.001-07:00

Recently I’ve done quite a lot of testing using various accounts to Azure. All the commands are executed in the PowerShell ISE (Run ISE are Administrator).

The PowerShell should have the Azure Commands in it already. If not, can download from here.

Select the Install from the Command-line tools

When I tried to Get-AzureAccount, it displayed more than one account and subscriptions

I need to remove the other subscriptions. Therefore I perform as follow :

Execute the command as below :

Get-AzureAccount | format-table id

Once displayed, I execute to remove the account using

Remove-AzureAccount account-name

Note : Just replace the account-name with the account that needs to be deleted.

Another way is to remove all the accounts then re-add it back.

To do this execute it as below to remove all the accounts :

Get-AzureAccount | ForEach-Object {Remove-AzureAccount $_.ID -Force}

To add the account that I’m working on, use :

Add-AzureAccount

keys : add azure account, remove azure account in cache, Azure powershell command line, command-line, azure subscription, AzureSubscription, get-azureaccount, remove-azureaccount, Azure SDK

Reset Local Administrator Password for Azure VM

2016-05-26T16:22:00.001-07:00

Recently I had set up quite a couple of VMs in Azure and one of the VMs local administrator’s password I’ve keyed in wrongly and totally forgotten what is it anymore.

So in the Azure new portal there’s a feature to reset the password.

Local Administrator username : bkhoo

The steps taken are as below :

Launch the new portal : https://portal.azure.com

On the left menu bar click on the Virtual Machines
In the Virtual Machines, select the specific Virtual Machine that want to reset the local administrator password.

In the settings menu on the right, click Reset password .

Key in the new password and confirm password, then click on Reset

Then I test it, I can now RDP into the VM using the new reset password .

keywords : forgot password,local administrator password, Azure VM, Virtual machine password, how to reset local administrator password in virtual machine, VM, VMs, virtual machines

Killing a Hung VM in Task Manager (Another PowerShell command)

2016-04-04T10:06:00.001-07:00

This is another command of how to kill a Hung VM by identify the Process ID using PowerShell command :

For Windows 2012

Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\virtualization -class msvm_computersystem | select elementname, operationalstatus, processid, name| ft –auto

For Window 2012 R2

Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\virtualization\v2 -class msvm_computersystem | select elementname, operationalstatus, processid, name| ft –auto

Once the Process ID is obtain, launch the Task Manager and kill the VMWP.exe process with the correspondence Process ID to that particular VM.

Hope this helps.

keywords : hang VM, hung VM, stuck VM, Hyper-V virtualization stuck Server 2012 R2, vmwp.exe, killing vwmp.exe

Killing a Hung VM in Task Manager

2016-04-04T09:54:00.001-07:00

Sometimes the VM we tried to stop hangs. So in order to kill the process using the Task Manager, we can end process of VMWP.exe. But the next question is which one. Each VM has a unique Process ID.

Therefore, I launch the elevated Powershell by executing the following command below

Get-WmiObject win32_process -Filter "Name like '%vmwp%'" | Select-Object ProcessID, @{Label="VMName";expression={(Get-VM -Id $_.commandline.split("")[1]|Select-Object VMName).VMName}}|ft –AutoSize

So I go back to the Task Manager and Right-Click on it and end task,base on the Process ID of that particular VM.

Hope this command helps you as it helped me.

keywords : hang VM, hung VM, stuck VM, Hyper-V virtualization stuck Server 2012 R2, vmwp.exe, killing vwmp.exe

DPM 2012 Reporting Issue (ID : 220)

2016-03-11T03:10:00.001-08:00

After upgrading from SCDPM 2012 SP1 to SCDPM 2012 R2, I hit the issue when I tried to configure the Reporting to be send out periodically in the Report Module of SCDPM 2012 R2.

The steps taken was the following :

Launch the Reporting Services Manager (in my example is SQL 2008 R2, since it’s upgraded gradually from SCDPM 2012 SP1 to SCDPM 2012 R2)
Ensure to the correct database that I’m pointing to (e.g. MSDPM2012)
Navigate to E-Mail Settings.
Key in the valid Sender Address and SMTP Server.
Click Apply

Launch the SCDPM 2012 R2 – Reporting
Configure the schedule reporting with emails, tested with no issues.keywords : SCDPM 2012, DPM cannot enable e-mail subscription for reports unless SMTP details are configured in the remote SQL Server Reporting Service Installation. SMTP details need to be configured manually when an existing SQL Server is chosen to be used for DPM during DPM setup. Please enter the SMTP server name, SMTP port number and SMTP From address manually in the SQL Server Reporting Services configuration File.

Configuration file path : c:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\SQL\MSRS10.MSDPM2010\Reporting Services\ReportServer\RSReportServer.config

The SMTP Server details on the SMTP Servers tab in the Options dialog enables only DPM alert notifications. For more details, see DPM Help (ID : 220)

SCDPM Report error, Systems Center Data Protection Manager Report Error, cannot configure email distribution in DPM report

Systems Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2 Keeps Crashing – ID:917

2016-03-04T07:06:00.001-08:00

Have managed to upgrade from SCDPM 2012 SP1 to SCDPM 2012 R2. The DPM agents and the Protection Groups are still intact.

However, when I tried to edit or remove the Protection Group, the SCDPM 2012 R2 Administrator console keeps crashing and restart the DPM Administrator Console

After finding out, the issue is NOT the Data Protection Manager, but it’s the SQL that is storing the DPM Database. The SCDPM 2012 R2 has also been patched with UR6, however it still crash whenever I tried to edit or remove the Data Protection.

Therefore these are the steps taken.

Take a backup of the DPM Database
Right-click on the SQL Management Studio and select “Run as administrator”

Once the SQL Management launched, right-click on the DPMDB and select “New Query”
Copy and paste the following SQL Script

update tbl_IM_ProtectedGroup 
SET IMCatalogXML = replace(cast(IMCatalogXML as nvarchar(max)), '<AllowedBackupType>FullBackup', '<AllowedBackupType>Regular')  
from tbl_IM_ProtectedGroup where IMCatalogXML like '%<AllowedBackupType>FullBackup%'

Click Execute and it should show the results. The example is as above picture.
Launch the SCDPM 2012 R2 Administrator Console, and it’s successful can edit or remove the Protection Group.

keywords : SCDPM 2012 R2, upgrade of SCDPM 2010 to SCDPM 2012 R2, Error : 917, Systems Center Data Protection keeps crashing after upgrade in place, in-place, inplace, Restarting Administrator Console.

"Cannot connect to WMI provider. You do not have permission or the server is unreachable" in SQL Server

2016-02-29T22:26:00.000-08:00

When trying to open MS SQL Server Configuration Manager, a dialog may appear..

Cannot connect to WMI provider. You do not have permission or the server is unreachable. Note that you can only manage SQL Server 2005 and later servers with SQL Server Configuration Manager. Invalid class [0x80041010]

Cause :
An issue with the compiled SQL Configuration Manager GUI’s communication with WMI.

A work around is as follow :

Open a command prompt (elevated, run as administrator)

Then Navigate to your SQL version’s shared directory (cd <version path>):

SQL 2008	C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\
SQL 2008 R2	C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Shared\
SQL 2012	C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Shared\
SQL 2014	C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Shared\

After that execute the following command :
mofcomp sqlmgmproviderxpsp2up.mof

After that reboot the server to get all related services to start.

keywords : Cannot connect to WMI provider. You do not have permission or the server is unreachable. Note that you can only manage SQL Server 2005 and later servers with SQL Server Configuration Manager. Invalid class [0x80041010]; SQL,

How to Access or Connect to DPM 2010 SQL

2016-01-14T23:01:00.001-08:00

Current Operating System : Windows 2008 R2
Data Protection Version : DPM 2010

Here’s a simple step that I access to my DPM 2010 SQL. I need to do a backup.

<Right-Click> on the SQL Server Management Studio
Select Run as administrator

In the Server Name column, key in as
- .\msdpm2010

or

dpmservername\msdpm2010
replace the dpmservername with your server that the DPM is installed on.

Expand the Databases, then navigate to DPMDB

<Right-Click> on the DPMDB – select Tasks – then select Back Up …

Click OK to backup the database
Default path is : C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\SQL\MSSQL10DPM\MSSQL\Backup

keywords : SQL, DPM 2010, SCDPM 2010, Data Protection 2010, SQL for DPM 2010, open SQL for DPM 2010

How to Remove Azure Account (Cached) using PowerShell

2015-11-03T07:06:00.001-08:00

Recently I’ve done quite a lot of testing using various accounts to Azure. All the commands are executed in the PowerShell ISE (Run ISE are Administrator).

The PowerShell should have the Azure Commands in it already. If not, can download from here.

Select the Install from the Command-line tools

When I tried to Get-AzureAccount, it displayed more than one account and subscriptions

I need to remove the other subscriptions. Therefore I perform as follow :

Execute the command as below :

Get-AzureAccount | format-table id

Once displayed, I execute to remove the account using

Remove-AzureAccount account-name

Note : Just replace the account-name with the account that needs to be deleted.

Another way is to remove all the accounts then re-add it back.

To do this execute it as below to remove all the accounts :

Get-AzureAccount | ForEach-Object {Remove-AzureAccount $_.ID -Force}

To add the account that I’m working on, use :

Add-AzureAccount

keys : add azure account, remove azure account in cache, Azure powershell command line, command-line, azure subscription, AzureSubscription, get-azureaccount, remove-azureaccount

Azure–Token Error when execute from Powershell

2015-10-30T01:34:00.001-07:00

I was doing the following :

Connect to a Azure from a Computer A
Execute the connection from PowerShell and connecting to Azure
Everything was ok.

Then I went to another location. Executing the same process by connecting to Azure through the PowerShell. I had no issue when executing the Add-AzureAccount but when I check I tried to get the subscription, I had the error as below :

After some finding, it seemed the token in the second location has expired. Therefore I did the following :

The User I login is Administrator, therefore I go to :

C:\Users\Administrator\AppsData\Roaming\Windows Azure Powershell

Note : Change only the value in the PINK, with whatever credential you use to login to the PC.

Delete all the content in the directory

Proceed back to PowerShell and Add-AzureAccount
Then execute the Get-Subscription will display with no issue.

keywords : failed to refresh token, no service namespace, the server returned an error (400), AadAuthenticationFailedExecption, Bad Request