At home, I absolutely love my Macbook Pro Retina 15" that I got in late 2014. I made the switch from Windows to OS X in late 2012 first with a Mac Mini. While it was a fantastic computer, I decided to switch and I love having the laptop.
I held off on moving to Yosemite for a bit for two major reasons. Yosemite was having some major networking issues that I knew would be crippling for me using home Wifi. There were tons of purported fixes that didn't really address the issue. It sounds like the true fix will be coming in 10.10.4 when Apple abandons their new discoveryd process. (More on that here: http://fortune.com/2015/05/27/apple-mac-bug/ and countless other places).
The other big stumbling block was the iPhoto to Photos move. My primary use for my home computer is organization of an extensive digital photo collection. It is one of my favorite hobbies. Over many years, I have scanned all of the print photos in my family that I could fine (that number is roughly 4,000). Throw in a plethora of digital pictures, and duplicates as I preserve originals for edited and improved versions, and today I have over 28,000 pictures! In iPhoto, they are meticulously organized with correct dates, faces and keywords. With a few quick clicks or searches, I can put my hands on any photo. They scroll across my screen daily as my screensaver to be enjoyed. They are not relegated to a dark box in the corner of a closet.
One of the added bonuses of doing this in the Apple ecosystem was having this complete photo access on my iPhone and iPad. I have both devices with 64GB of storage, and that was ample space to synchronize my photos. Events and Faces also synchronized for easy access on those devices as well. That required me to plug in and synchronize with iTunes regularly, but in doing so, my photos were always at my fingertips.
So, now we have Photos and the iCloud Photo Stream. By using this software and this ecosystem, now, all my photos will automatically synchronize to all devices with no efforts required by me. Great, right? Yes, but it's not that simple.
iCloud gives users 5GB by default. Before even messing with iCloud Photo Stream, I was paying for 20GB per year. That was enough space to back up my iPhone and iPad as I needed just over 5GB. I want to say the current rates for that were somewhere in the neighborhood of $10-20/year.
But now I'm looking at 28k photos! Yikes. When I enabled iCloud Photo Stream, it let me know that 200GB would be enough space. They charge $3.99/mo for that. I decided that full, no effort access to my photos was worth that and upgraded.
But now what? My MBP needs to upload all these pictures! And, here we go...
I have a great Internet connection. I love Wide Open West and we pay for 50Mbps down with 5Mbps up. But, Photos just began to push all of my pictures up. It consumed the 5Mbps upload rate. And brought my whole household's Internet to a crawl in the process.
It is painfully short sighted of Apple to not give more control on the upload process. The only control you have is whether or not you keep high quality original resolution on your local device, and an option to pause uploads for a day.
Researching the matter quickly let me know I was not alone. Many people with similarly large photo collections and similarly crushed Internet connections. Thankfully I have found a decent solution here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6992427?start=90&tstart=0
A post from user 'mayall' on page 7 highlights the fix. By using an Apple Developer tool known as the Network Link Conditioner, you can control your bandwidth usage.
Sign into http://developer.apple.com with your Apple ID. You'll need to accept a few license agreements and whatnot. Then make your way to downloads and get the latest Xcode developer toolset as a DMG download (v 6.3.2 as of this writing on 6/4/2015).
Once you have the Network Link Conditioner installed, it is an option in your System Preferences. Use the Manage Profiles button in the lower right. Add a Custom Profile, a name that suits you, and configure the downlink and uplink bandwidth in Mbps. With my 50/5 Internet connection, I have configured a 20/2 profile. I am now running this way. This means my MBP will limit its Internet usage to 20Mbps down and 2Mbps up. That is leaving 30Mbps down and 3Mbps up for all the other devices in my home, so everyone else can happily use the Internet.
It's been about 5 days so far. My Internet connection is working well and the photos are uploading. Out of 28k photos, 18k have gone up so far with 10k to go.
P.S. I am also looking at Google Photos and wondering if I'll need to keep paying for iCloud space. In the meantime, I will upload them all and decide which one I like best.
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
How to Pin Windows Update to Start Menu on Windows Server 2012 R2
So, we've all heard the big stink when Microsoft did away with the Start button and menu and the Metro interface. I know that Windows 10 is moving back towards the tried-and-true way that we expect.
I have been leaving my 2012 R2 servers default. I don't find the interface too bad. I just take a moment to pin a few key items to my Taskbar or my Start Menu and it works for me.
Most of these are pretty easy to do. I hit the Start button, then use the magnifying glass to search for what I want. I can then right click it and Pin to Start or Pin to Taskbar. I do this for things like Run, Command Prompt, and Computer Management. Also any applications on the server that I would access regularly.
One that stumped me, however, is Windows Update. When I search on it, I can't right click and get a menu. Now what?
I found an article on using PowerShell to pin items to the Start menu in Windows 8. https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Script-to-pin-items-to-51be533c I thought I was onto something. But Windows Update is a subset of Control Panel. So I couldn't figure out how to make the script work.
My approach is painfully simple, but I stumbled across it myself and my GoogleFu didn't lead me to it. So I blog it here in the hopes that it will help someone else.
Click the Start button
Search for Windows Update
Click Windows Update. It will open.
In your box's navigation, it says Control Panel | System and Security | Windows Update. Click System and Security to move up a level.
Find Windows Update as the 4th main heading. Click and drag it to your desktop. When you release, you now have a "Windows Update - Shortcut" shortcut.
Take a moment to rename it to Windows Update.
Right click your shortcut. Voila, the Pin to Start option is there.
Pin and enjoy your day.
I have been leaving my 2012 R2 servers default. I don't find the interface too bad. I just take a moment to pin a few key items to my Taskbar or my Start Menu and it works for me.
Most of these are pretty easy to do. I hit the Start button, then use the magnifying glass to search for what I want. I can then right click it and Pin to Start or Pin to Taskbar. I do this for things like Run, Command Prompt, and Computer Management. Also any applications on the server that I would access regularly.
One that stumped me, however, is Windows Update. When I search on it, I can't right click and get a menu. Now what?
I found an article on using PowerShell to pin items to the Start menu in Windows 8. https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Script-to-pin-items-to-51be533c I thought I was onto something. But Windows Update is a subset of Control Panel. So I couldn't figure out how to make the script work.
My approach is painfully simple, but I stumbled across it myself and my GoogleFu didn't lead me to it. So I blog it here in the hopes that it will help someone else.
Click the Start button
Search for Windows Update
Click Windows Update. It will open.
In your box's navigation, it says Control Panel | System and Security | Windows Update. Click System and Security to move up a level.
Find Windows Update as the 4th main heading. Click and drag it to your desktop. When you release, you now have a "Windows Update - Shortcut" shortcut.
Take a moment to rename it to Windows Update.
Right click your shortcut. Voila, the Pin to Start option is there.
Pin and enjoy your day.
Monday, April 6, 2015
WSUS on Server 2012 R2: Much Harder Than One Would Expect
In my organization, I have been using WSUS for some time to patch my desktops via Group Policy. It is a very straightforward process that allows me some level of control over patch deployment without taking up too much of my time. I deploy patches in two batches. Microsoft releases hotfixes on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. One week later, on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, I release to computers within the IT department, and a smattering of "test" systems throughout the organization, attempting to hit a random sampling throughout each department. Once we've heard of no problems, a week later, on the 4th Tuesday, hotfixes go to the rest of the organization.
My WSUS server is running Windows Server 2003. With that being officially end of lifed in July 2015, it was time to move this function to a newer server.
I was shocked at the complications I had when deploying to Windows Server 2012 R2. I expected to install the feature via Server Manager and the Add Roles and Features wizard. While that was fundamentally what I did, I encountered a number of problems I had to correct. It did not seem to work 'out of the box' as one would expect.
Once I had WSUS online, I redirected some test computers to use the new server via Group Policy. But All Computers in WSUS continued to show zero computers. Investigation on the client, in the Event Log, under Applications and Services Logs | Microsoft | Windows | WindowsUpdateClient | Operational log yielded this error message:
Error
Source: WindowsUpdateClient
Event ID: 25
Task Category: Windows Update Agent
General: Windows Update failed to check for updates with error 0x80244019.
So I head to the Google machine and come back with this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/920659
The language in this article was slightly off for Server 2012, but I found that the IUSR account didn't have access to the folder in question. I edited the NTFS rights (after taking ownership). And that was one hurdle resolved.
Once I had that issue resolved, I could then use a web browser to get access to a relevant WSUS file (i.e. http://servername/selfupdate/wuident.cab) and I pressed on.
Only to realize that I still wasn't getting any clients showing up to WSUS. The next thing I realized: the web site for WSUS hadn't gone into the Default Web Site, but was running in a separate site under WSUS Administration.
Now bare with me here as I'm not sure if this is designed correct behavior or I had something odd happen during install. I didn't feel like specifying unusual ports in my Group Policy settings pointing my clients to WSUS (it was running on 8530 for http). So I removed the binding for port 80 for the Default Web Site (Internet Information Services IIS Manager | Bindings, highlight http, Edit... button, change port to 8080, OK, Close). I then set the WSUS Administration to port 80 in similar fashion.
But at that point, all I did is cause Update Services console to open with error messages indicating I needed to Reset the Server Node, which didn't clear the error message. Whoops, I've broken things. Back to Google I went.
There were two additional steps to fix matters. I needed to update a registry key. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Update Services\Server\Setup. Port Number needed to be switched to 80.
One more command I ran was found in C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools. I needed to run WSUSUtil.exe. The syntax was "wsusutil usecustomsite false".
Rebooting after executing these two steps resolved matters for me. (I found the info that helped me to figure this all out from multiple people here https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/systemcenter/en-US/8907dd07-8cc2-4aec-b542-d52e4691ba1e/how-to-change-port-settings-in-wsus)
OK, so at LONG LAST, I had functional WSUS. But, further minor headaches were to come.
Once I had computers in the new WSUS, finding needed updates, one of your available options it to right click a computer and select Status Report.
Doing so told me that I needed Microsoft Report Viewer 2008 Redistributable. OK that's easy enough. But wait, during that install, it told me I was missing .NET 2.0.
Well, hang on a minute. I certainly can't go download that and install it, that's too old. So Googling leads me here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/schadinio/archive/2012/05/18/windows-server-2012-beta-how-to-configure-wsus-reporting.aspx.
So either via GUI or via command line, you can install .NET Extensibility 3.5 (which will include the .NET 2.0 that you need). But I was having problems. I was providing the DVD ISO for Server 2012 and it was telling me the needed files were missing. I was using the command line arguments to tell it to go download the needed files and those were failing. I was getting errors 0x800f0906 and 0x800f081f (I don't remember which problem equated to which error code).
The problem was: This is my WSUS Server. I had already placed it in a location in Active Directory where it gets its Windows Update reconfigured to USE ITSELF to get downloads from. So it wasn't going to Microsoft to get the missing files.
On top of that, I also encountered roadblocks because it needed some parent features installed. The /all switch was necessary to get around that problem.
I had to relocate it in Active Directory so it wasn't using a WSUS server, then this was the correct syntax to install .NET and go download needed files while using the provided DVD ISO (replace z with whatever drive letter you have mounted to your DVD or ISO):
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /all /featurename:NetFX3 /Source:z:\sources\sxs
Lo and behold, at long last, I had a functional WSUS!!!!!
My WSUS server is running Windows Server 2003. With that being officially end of lifed in July 2015, it was time to move this function to a newer server.
I was shocked at the complications I had when deploying to Windows Server 2012 R2. I expected to install the feature via Server Manager and the Add Roles and Features wizard. While that was fundamentally what I did, I encountered a number of problems I had to correct. It did not seem to work 'out of the box' as one would expect.
Once I had WSUS online, I redirected some test computers to use the new server via Group Policy. But All Computers in WSUS continued to show zero computers. Investigation on the client, in the Event Log, under Applications and Services Logs | Microsoft | Windows | WindowsUpdateClient | Operational log yielded this error message:
Error
Source: WindowsUpdateClient
Event ID: 25
Task Category: Windows Update Agent
General: Windows Update failed to check for updates with error 0x80244019.
So I head to the Google machine and come back with this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/920659
The language in this article was slightly off for Server 2012, but I found that the IUSR account didn't have access to the folder in question. I edited the NTFS rights (after taking ownership). And that was one hurdle resolved.
Once I had that issue resolved, I could then use a web browser to get access to a relevant WSUS file (i.e. http://servername/selfupdate/wuident.cab) and I pressed on.
Only to realize that I still wasn't getting any clients showing up to WSUS. The next thing I realized: the web site for WSUS hadn't gone into the Default Web Site, but was running in a separate site under WSUS Administration.
Now bare with me here as I'm not sure if this is designed correct behavior or I had something odd happen during install. I didn't feel like specifying unusual ports in my Group Policy settings pointing my clients to WSUS (it was running on 8530 for http). So I removed the binding for port 80 for the Default Web Site (Internet Information Services IIS Manager | Bindings, highlight http, Edit... button, change port to 8080, OK, Close). I then set the WSUS Administration to port 80 in similar fashion.
But at that point, all I did is cause Update Services console to open with error messages indicating I needed to Reset the Server Node, which didn't clear the error message. Whoops, I've broken things. Back to Google I went.
There were two additional steps to fix matters. I needed to update a registry key. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Update Services\Server\Setup. Port Number needed to be switched to 80.
One more command I ran was found in C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools. I needed to run WSUSUtil.exe. The syntax was "wsusutil usecustomsite false".
Rebooting after executing these two steps resolved matters for me. (I found the info that helped me to figure this all out from multiple people here https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/systemcenter/en-US/8907dd07-8cc2-4aec-b542-d52e4691ba1e/how-to-change-port-settings-in-wsus)
OK, so at LONG LAST, I had functional WSUS. But, further minor headaches were to come.
Once I had computers in the new WSUS, finding needed updates, one of your available options it to right click a computer and select Status Report.
Doing so told me that I needed Microsoft Report Viewer 2008 Redistributable. OK that's easy enough. But wait, during that install, it told me I was missing .NET 2.0.
Well, hang on a minute. I certainly can't go download that and install it, that's too old. So Googling leads me here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/schadinio/archive/2012/05/18/windows-server-2012-beta-how-to-configure-wsus-reporting.aspx.
So either via GUI or via command line, you can install .NET Extensibility 3.5 (which will include the .NET 2.0 that you need). But I was having problems. I was providing the DVD ISO for Server 2012 and it was telling me the needed files were missing. I was using the command line arguments to tell it to go download the needed files and those were failing. I was getting errors 0x800f0906 and 0x800f081f (I don't remember which problem equated to which error code).
The problem was: This is my WSUS Server. I had already placed it in a location in Active Directory where it gets its Windows Update reconfigured to USE ITSELF to get downloads from. So it wasn't going to Microsoft to get the missing files.
On top of that, I also encountered roadblocks because it needed some parent features installed. The /all switch was necessary to get around that problem.
I had to relocate it in Active Directory so it wasn't using a WSUS server, then this was the correct syntax to install .NET and go download needed files while using the provided DVD ISO (replace z with whatever drive letter you have mounted to your DVD or ISO):
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /all /featurename:NetFX3 /Source:z:\sources\sxs
Lo and behold, at long last, I had a functional WSUS!!!!!
Monday, March 23, 2015
Brute Force Approach To TSAdmin on Server 2012 R2
It's a common problem. Your server has Remote Desktop enabled, and multiple administrators hop on to a server, don't properly log off, and you want to see who is connected and remotely disconnect them.
In Server 2003, we had tsadmin.exe. In Server 2008, we had tsadmin.msc. But in Server 2012 R2, we have... what?
I found what I will deem a brute force approach to fixing this problem. Basically copying some files from a 2008 server along with some registry settings, and getting yourself something working on Server 2012.
From a 2008 server, copy:
In Server 2003, we had tsadmin.exe. In Server 2008, we had tsadmin.msc. But in Server 2012 R2, we have... what?
I found what I will deem a brute force approach to fixing this problem. Basically copying some files from a 2008 server along with some registry settings, and getting yourself something working on Server 2012.
From a 2008 server, copy:
- tsadmin.dll
- tsadmin.msc
- umcres.dll (this file was already on my Server 2012 system, so I did NOT overwrite)
- wts.dll
Then make the below registry modifications. (I copied this text into notepad, saved with a .reg extension. Double click from your server to execute.)
Reboot and voila. tsadmin.msc will work for you.
I'm not going to highlight this as a best practice, but it is working for me. Use at your own risk.
Thanks to user stefnviarsson who documented this here: http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/352431-terminal-services-manager-equivalent-for-server-2012-rds
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MMC\SnapIns\FX:{3FCE72B6-A31B-43ac-ADDA-120E1E56EB0F}]
"ApplicationBase"=hex(2):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,\
73,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,00,00
"About"="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}"
"VersionStringIndirect"="@C:\\Windows\\System32\\umcRes.dll,-106"
"ProviderStringIndirect"=hex(2):40,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,\
00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,\
5c,00,75,00,6d,00,63,00,52,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,\
00,31,00,30,00,32,00,00,00
"NameString"="Remote Desktop Services Manager"
"HelpTopic"=hex(2):25,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,72,00,6f,00,6f,00,\
74,00,25,00,5c,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,70,00,5c,00,74,00,73,00,5f,00,6d,00,61,\
00,6e,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,63,00,68,00,6d,00,00,00
"AssemblyName"="tsadmin"
"RuntimeVersion"="v2.0.50215"
"Description"="Manage Remote Desktop Services sessions"
"DescriptionStringIndirect"=hex(2):40,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,\
64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,\
00,5c,00,75,00,6d,00,63,00,52,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,\
2d,00,31,00,30,00,34,00,00,00
"LinkedHelpTopics"=hex(2):25,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,72,00,6f,\
00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,70,00,5c,00,74,00,73,00,5f,00,\
6d,00,61,00,6e,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,63,00,68,00,6d,00,00,00
"NameStringIndirect"=hex(2):40,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,\
00,77,00,73,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
75,00,6d,00,63,00,52,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,31,\
00,30,00,33,00,00,00
"IconIndirect"=hex(2):40,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,\
00,73,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,75,00,\
6d,00,63,00,52,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,31,00,31,\
00,31,00,00,00
"FxVersion"="2.0.1.7"
"Type"="Microsoft.TerminalServices.Monitor.SnapIn.TSManagerSnapIn, tsadmin, Version=6.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
"FolderBitmapsColorMask"=dword:00000000
"ModuleName"="tsadmin.dll"
"Provider"="Microsoft Corporation"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MMC\SnapIns\FX:{3FCE72B6-A31B-43ac-ADDA-120E1E56EB0F}\NodeTypes]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MMC\SnapIns\FX:{3FCE72B6-A31B-43ac-ADDA-120E1E56EB0F}\Standalone]
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