Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 New Cumulative Enterprise Hotfix Rollup Released

Microsoft has released a series of updates that aggregate a number of hotfixes released since Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 into one spot. Note that this spot is not Microsoft Update _or_ WSUS.

• Microsoft KB 2775511: An enterprise hotfix rollup is available for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Normally for hotfixes we would have to link into each hotfix’s download site and go through the e-mail return with password protected ZIP archive (in most cases) process for _each_ hotfix contained in this one update set.

To get the updates we are required to step out of our normal update routines and download them from the Windows Catalogue site.

1. Go to the Windows Update Catalogue site.
• Note for users running as Standard User a UAC with admin credentials will be required due to a plug-in requesting install rights.
• 
• IE10 on Win8 with Compatibility mode enabled ends up with:
• 
2. Type 2775511 in the Search field and click Search.
• 
3. We can then add the required update download files to our “Basket”.
• 
4. Click the View Basket link.
5. Click the Download button.
• 
6. Click the Browse button and choose a folder to download the updates to.
• A UAC Prompt will happen at this point.
• Though, Win7 with IE9 seems to have stalled at this point on our download attempts. :(
• 
7. We ended up needing to Run As Admin and elevating Internet Explorer when starting the browser before we finally saw this:
• 
• But, then we get this:
• 

Oh well, we tried Win8 with IE10, Win7 with IE9, and Win7 with IE8 with all failing.

We tried Run As Admin with UAC via the domain admin account to start all of the IE versions on each OS and still hit a roadblock.

We shall try again later. :(

Once we do have the files we will be able to see about how we will deploy them at client sites.

Hat Tip: Susan Bradley the SBS Diva

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
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Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V: Apply Hotfix Before Running Export on Production Server

It seems that there is a bit of a bug in the Hyper-V export function if the destination for the export is receiving data slower than the source is sending it. The export function will continue to cache the export in all available memory until the server stops responding due to memory being exhausted.

• Microsoft Support KB 2547551: Hyper-V Export function consumes all available memory in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

Prior to running any export processes on a production server this hotfix should be applied.

Examples where the problem hits is when the export is being run to a USB hard disk that runs at 30MB/Second or across a slower LAN link to another server.

Hat Tip: Tim Barrett of No Geek Left Behind.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

CaseWare and SMB2 Update – Install A Hotfix

A while back we indicated that we had started to disable the SMB2 protocol at accounting firm sites due to file corruption issues.

• MPECS Inc. Blog: CaseWare Working Papers 2010 – Network File Locations Errors
• MPECS Inc. Blog: CaseWare Working Papers – Disabling SMB2

CaseWare’s KB on the subject has been updated:

• CaseWare Support: File corruption when using Windows Vista/Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 with SMB2

From the updated KB Update on file corruption when using Windows Vista/Window 7 or Windows Server 2008/Windows Server 2008 R2 with SMB2:

We recommend that clients working in this environment install the hotfix (documented here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028965), to limit their exposure to file corruption.

If you require assistance implementing the hotfix, please contact our support department for assistance.

Windows 7

Microsoft has acknowledged that data corruption can occur when multiple users perform read and write operations to a shared file in the SMB2 environment. Microsoft has issued a hotfix (mentioned above) which we have tested on Windows 7 workstations and confirmed that the potential for corruption no longer occurs. As long as the hotfix has been applied to all Windows 7 workstations running Working Papers, and there are no Vista workstations accessing Working Papers engagements, SMB2 can be enabled.

Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008/Windows Server 2008 R2-based Terminal/Citrix Servers running CaseWare® Working Papers

The hotfix outlined above has reduced the potential for file corruption for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008/Windows Server 2008 R2-based Terminal/Citrix servers running CaseWare Working Papers environments. However, we have still noticed crashes of our application even with the hotfix applied.

Microsoft has acknowledged that SMB2 may cause problems with applications that require our level of performance/access to data files and have recently provided a number of possible recommendations. We are in the process of testing these recommendations to confirm whether they address the Working Papers corruption issues in these additional environments.

We expect to provide an update for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008/Windows Server 2008 R2-based Terminal/Citrix Servers running CaseWare Working Papers environments in early January. Until that time, we still recommend disabling SMB2 for these environments to avoid any potential data corruption.

Note the exception for the server OSs as well as Windows Vista.

This looks to be a client based hotfix at this time, so we will start updating the problematic Windows 7 machines and wait to see what CaseWare has to say in January.

Here is a direct link to the Request Page:

• Hotfix KB2028965 Request Page

A link has been placed in our Hotfix Quick Links in the left hand column of the blog for later access.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Key Hyper-V Role and Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Updates

When putting a new Hyper-V R2 based server into production, there are a few updates that should be applied prior to bringing that new box online.

1. MS KB2264080: An update rollup package for the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2008 R2: August 24, 2010
• This one needs to be downloaded from the Update Catalogue.
• Blog post: Can’t Download Hyper-V Update Rollup Package 2264080 from Update Catalogue.
2. MS KB975354: A Hyper-V update rollup package is available for a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2
3. MS KB974909: The network connection of a running Hyper-V virtual machine is lost under heavy outgoing network traffic on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer

Once the updates have been completed we reboot the Hyper-V box prior to beginning our configuration steps.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Quick Access to Hotfixes on the Blog and URL Tip

We have added a Hotfix quick link section to the right hand column of the blog.

The link will take us directly to the download page for that Hotfix:

From there, we punch in our e-mail address and the funky characters and we receive our Hotfix via e-mail in short order.

This will make it easier for us to grab a Hotfix that we may need if we don’t happen to have one of our Technician’s Thumb Drive with us.

The tip has to do with the URL format of the Hotfix page:

Note the number after the “=” and before the “&” in the above URL. That is the hotfix Knowledgebase number.

If there is a need to grab a couple of Hotfixes in a row, then change that number and be greeted by the needed Hotfix.

Thanks Susan!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Server’s Having A Bad Day When … CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT (101)

We lose it almost continually throughout the day.

This particular box is our first Intel SR1630HGP Server System with an Intel Xeon Processor 3460 and 16GB of RAM.

This is what the %windir%\MiniDump directory looks like right now:

Our handy Crash Analyzer Wizard that comes with our Software Assurance and MDOP benefits tell us:

Click on that Details button and we see:

CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT (101)

An expected clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor in an MP system within the allocated interval. This indicates that the specified processor is hung and not processing interrupts.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000019, Clock interrupt time out interval in nominal clock ticks.
Arg2: 0000000000000000, 0.
Arg3: fffff88001e5d180, The PRCB address of the hung processor.
Arg4: 0000000000000002, 0.

Now, it’s not like we have not seen this one before:

• Hyper-V On Nehalem CPUs Error – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Critical Hotfix
• Hyper-V CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Error Within 24 Hours On Fresh H-V 2K8 R2
• This particular server hit by the freezes was actually the one from the above posts. It has been sitting off on a shelf as we have not had the need for it up until this current project we are working on.

We did run the hotfix on the server a while back, but apparently that version was not good enough since we brought all off the server’s server board firmware and the RAID controller’s firmware up to date. We did this just before bringing it back online.

The above screenshot of the MiniDump directory does not do the situation justice as the server has frozen a lot more times than that . . . leading us to look at other options for the setup we need.

But then, apparently the KB975530 hotfix has received a newer version from what we found when searching to find any further info on the problem.

Here is a screenshot of the hotfix directory with our original update and the one that we just received:

There was not a lot of time between v3 and v4 with the time of this post being late March.

It now remains to be seen if this fourth iteration of the patch will actually straighten out the timing problem happening with the Nehalem CPUs.

The server:

• Intel Server System SR1630HGP 1U
• Intel Xeon Processor X3460
• Intel RAID Controller RS2BL080
• Battery Backup Unit
• 16GB Kingston ECC DDR3 RAM
• 450GB 15K Seagate SAS drives in RAID 5
• DVDROM optical drive

***

This post has been sitting open for the last couple of hours while busy with other things. After consistently freezing today, the server has been up and running with the two server VMs and five desktop VMs without a hiccup.

Hopefully that will be the situation from now on!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Error Within 24 Hours On Fresh H-V 2K8 R2

We ran a test on one of our freshly installed Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 servers to see if we ran into this issue.

• Intel Server System SR1630HGP 1U
• Intel Server Board S3420GPLC integrated
• Intel Xeon Processor X3450
• 16GB Kingston ECC
• Intel RS2BL080 6Gbps SAS 2nd Generation PCI-E
• 3x 450GB Seagate 15K RPM SAS in RAID 5
• Intel RAID Smart Battery for the RAID controller

The server has only been up and running about 24 hours. We have been running some stress tests along with some test VM installs and backup restores as Hyper-V guests.

This is the Crash Analyzer Wizard’s results (DaRT MDOP product):

So, after a relatively short period of use the problem has reared its head.

• Our previous post: Hyper-V On Nehalem CPUs Error – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Critical Hotfix.

It looks as though the hotfix is an absolute must for any Technician’s Thumb Drive and a required install on any server that will utilize Hyper-V on Intel Xeon Processor 3400 and 5500 series CPUs!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V On Nehalem CPUs Error – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Critical Hotfix

Via Slashdot:

• Slashdot: Hardware: Microsoft Advice Against Nehalem Xeons Snuffed Out.

The Microsoft Knowledgebase article with the hotfix:

• MS Knowledgebase 975530: Stop error message on an Intel Xeon 5500 series processor-based computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and that has the Hyper-V role installed: "0x00000101 - CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT"

We are just in the process of implementing Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 on the new Intel Nehalem architecture in both the Intel Xeon Processor 3400 and 5500 series.

So, finding out about this particular problem before the boxes went into production is a good thing.

The update begs the question though, does the hotfix really resolve the conflict with the CPU architecture?

It looks as though we will be doing a bit more testing than we normally do on new platforms to make sure that things do not blow up on us with the new soon to be deployed production Hyper-V boxes.

One of the linked articles from Slashdot is a good read:

• The H: Processor Whispers - About War and Peace

UPDATE: Here it is:

As a test, we did not install the update on a freshly installed Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 box and the above happened about midway through our second VM setup.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V On Nehalem CPUs Error – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Critical Hotfix

Via Slashdot:

• Slashdot: Hardware: Microsoft Advice Against Nehalem Xeons Snuffed Out.

The Microsoft Knowledgebase article with the hotfix:

• MS Knowledgebase 975530: Stop error message on an Intel Xeon 5500 series processor-based computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and that has the Hyper-V role installed: "0x00000101 - CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT"

We are just in the process of implementing Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 on the new Intel Nehalem architecture in both the Intel Xeon Processor 3400 and 5500 series.

So, finding out about this particular problem before the boxes went into production is a good thing.

The update begs the question though, does the hotfix really resolve the conflict with the CPU architecture?

It looks as though we will be doing a bit more testing than we normally do on new platforms to make sure that things do not blow up on us with the new soon to be deployed production Hyper-V boxes.

One of the linked articles from Slashdot is a good read:

• The H: Processor Whispers - About War and Peace

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SBS + SQL 2005 + SharePoint = SQLVDI Error: Mutex not owned by caller.

On the last number of SBS 2K3 R2 Premium setups we have done, we are seeing the following error:

Critical Errors in Application Log

SQLVDI Event ID: 1
SQLVDI: Loc=DVDSCleanup. Desc=Release(ClientAliveMutex). ErrorCode=(288)Attempt to release mutex not owned by caller. .Process=7364. Thread=6900. Client. Instance=SHAREPOINT. VD=.

The SQL 2005 version on the SBS boxes: 9.00.3054.00. They are currently up to date on their service pack levels.

A quick search turned up the following Microsoft KB article: KB934396 FIX: Error messages and an event may be logged when you use the Virtual Device Interface in SQL Server 2005 or in SQL Server 2000.

We needed to call into Product Support Services for this one:

Microsoft Product Support Services Phone Numbers for North America

All SQL instances must be at Service Pack 2 level before applying this hotfix. If you need to determine what service pack level the SQL install is: MS KB321185: How to identify your SQL Server version and edition.

Please note that there are two versions for the hotfix: x86 and x64. And, deep in mind that the hotfix covers a lot:

Hotfix 934396 x86 File for SQL 2005

Because it is a one size fits all, the x86 download is around 100MB and the x64 download is 139MB. We always request both versions if they exist for any hotfix we are calling in for. Doing this has saved us a further call into PSS for the alternate version on many occasions.

Once the files have been extracted, they definitely need to be placed on the Technician's Thumb Drive for later access.

And, if this is a problem that we see on a regular basis on all of our new SBS 2K3 R2 Premium boxes, then we will be adding this blog post as a To Do item on our SBS Setup Checklist.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS - SharePoint Version 3 Kills CRM Web Client - Hotfix Available

This one comes via the newsgroups.

After installing SharePoint Services 3.0 on SBS, the CRM Web Client will fail to start. An IISReset would temporarily fix the issue.

KB 934790: Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 hotfix package: April 12, 2007.

From the KB:

• When you run a program that uses the SPWorkflowManager.ForceDehydrateHttpContextWorkflows() event to work with files that are saved in a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 document library, the expected Web page is not displayed. Additionally, you receive the following error message:
  
  Service Unavailable

Product Support Services will need to be contacted for the hotfix. That link indicates that Microsoft will require up to 8 hours to respond.

If you need the hotfixes a bit quicker, then get in touch with the Online Concierge (previous blog post). They may be able to provide them via email immediately.

A direct link: Windows Server 2003 Online Concierge.

UPDATE: I goofed on the title. It is Version 3 of WSS, not SP3 for WSS 2! My apologies for the mistake.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Lenovo (& Others) XP Specific Updates: Hotfixes required via Product Support Services

The following hotfixes will be registered in the Lenovo Updater as required:

• KB 917332: The monitor does not turn on when you move the mouse or press any key after you configure the "Power Options" settings on a Windows XP SP2-based portable computer.
• KB 923293: The 923293 hotfix adds support for SD High Capacity memory cards in Windows XP.

Note that the second hotfix is applicable to any Windows XP installation that has an access to high capacity SD cards.

Product Support Services will need to be contacted for them. That link indicates that Microsoft will require up to 8 hours to respond.

If you need the hotfixes a bit quicker, then get in touch with the Online Concierge (previous blog post). They emailed them to us right away.

A direct link: Windows Server 2003 Online Concierge.

These are definitely must adds to the technician's thumb drives.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.