Group Policy Preference ( GPP ) : GPP Is Not Working, There Are Red and Green Dots / circle At The Settings

Group Policy Processing has been introduced since Server 2008, and Microsoft recommends to use GPP instead of normal GPO. To me, I prefer to use GPP as well, as it is more convenience to configure and troubleshoot. 

However, in some cases, the configuration may not get reflected, no matter how many times you perform gpupdate (gpupdate /force as well), or even reboot the machines. Your settings are all good, linked enabled to appropriate OU, Block Inheritance already enabled (to ensure policies assigned to parent OU not conflicting with your policies, just in case), there were no similar setting in Site and Domain policies, policies already being enforced (oh wait, do you really need to enforce?). 

What else could it be then? Oh wait, just before you planned to kill someone, you realized there were red dots / circles at the configurations, and those configurations (with red dots / circles ) were the one who drove you crazy! Configurations with green straight lines / circles were working as expected! 

So yes, it is how GPP works, actually. To simplify things, Microsoft (by default) disabled some configurations, so Administrators won't accidentally make changes. They need to enable those changes first, before the changes working as expected. In order to enable / disable those changes, one need to press :

• F5 - Enable all configurations
• F6 - Enable that specific configuration 
• F7 - Disable that specific configuration 
• F8 - Disable all configurations

To demonstrate some examples :

This is default configurations, some are enabled, some are not.

You pressed F5 (all enabled with green straight lines)

You pressed F8 (all enabled with red dots)

You clicked at some setting, and pressed F6 or F7 (pressing F6 will enable it, F7 will disable it)

Now we go to Advanced setting, to see on green / red circles.

We pressed F8.

We pressed F6 on some settings.

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Failed to poll Now : Not enough server storage is available to process this command

A few weeks ago I went to AppSense training. It was very good, very informative and very intense - 5 days were not enough to be honest as it covers all 4 components of DesktopNow (AppSense Management Console, Performance Manager, Environment Manager, and Application Manager).

So back to the topic - I received this error while trying to pool the policy :

Failed to poll Now : Not enough server storage is available to process this command.

A bit digging, I managed to find why it happened, and how to resolve it. According to Microsoft :

"This issue may occur if the IRPStackSize registry entry on the server is set too low."

Now, what is IRPStackSize? 

According to Microsoft: 

The IRPStackSize parameter specifies the number of stack locations in I/O request packets (IRPs) that are used by Windows 2000 Server, by Windows Server 2003, and by Windows XP. You may have to increase this number for certain transports, for media access control (MAC) drivers, or for file system drivers. Each stack uses 36 bytes of memory for each receive buffer. 

or this explanation from Mark Perry might help: 

The IRPStackSize is a parameter that specifies the number of stack locations in I/O request packets (IRPs) that are used by the operating system. Each stack uses 36 bytes of memory for each receive buffer and you can increase the IRPStackSize, through the Windows registry for some transports, media access control (MAC) drivers, or for file system drivers. The default value of the IRPStackSize parameter is 15. On my Windows 7 PC, for whatever reason, it was set to 10. I creaded it to 20 and have not had an issue anymore.

Okay,  that's it - I don't really understand the cause ( T___T~) But to make it simple, it is because of the value specified in IRPStackSize parameter, which is too low. Perhaps if the value is too low, it caused the stack size to be limited, and file system cannot handle the request. My wild guess, do not quote me on that!

Issues :

Receive error when to perform Poll Now in ApPSense AMC.

Failed to poll Now : Not enough server storage is available to process this command.

Troubleshooting :

1. RDP to the machine which having problem, launch REGEDIT
   
   
   
2. Navigate to below path :
   Path : HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
   
   
   
3. A DWORD registry parameter with the name of 'IRPStackSize' is not available. Or if it is available, the value set is too small.
   
   
   

Resolution :

1. Right click | New | choose DWORD value
   
   
   
   
2. Rename it to below name. make sure to follow exactly the same, as it is case-sensitive.
   Name : IRPStackSize
   
   
   
3. Once done, right click at it, and click at Modify
   
   
   
   
4. Ensure the base changed to Decimal first before entering the value. The value should be 20 (or 14 in Hexadecimal).
   
   
   
5. This is the output. Restart the machine
   
   
   
   
6. Try to perform 'Poll Now' again once the machine came up from reboot. It should be working by now.
   

Reference 

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-nz/kb/106167
• https://support.microsoft.com/en-nz/kb/285089
• http://www.cm3solutions.com/enough-storage-available-process-command-visual-studio/

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How To Do : Microsoft Office Excel - Compare 2 Sets of Data

A bit different thing today, a simple task but greatly helps me in getting my jobs done fast. I am in the middle of housekeeping our Citrix licenses as it needs to be renewed. Due to the fact that we are using User/Device model, some users who are already left the Company might have their ID still utilizing the licenses. By freeing up the licenses, it will help the Company to reduce Operational costs and assign the licenses to the other users. Well, it is almost year end, and everybody is coming up with their plan for performance review, why shouldn't I? ^__^!

Description :

To compare 2 sets of data (Data 01 : all users who are utilizing the licenses, Data 02 : all disabled users id AD). I there are match, it means the users can be removed and the licenses can be released.

How To Do :

1. Launch MS Excel, put the first group of data in Column A
   
   
   
2. Put the second group of data in Column C
   
   
   
3. Put the following formula in Cell B1:
   Syntax : =IF(ISERROR(MATCH(A1,$C$1:$C$5,0)),"",A1)
   
   
   
4. Change the formula a bit so data in Column A could be compared against all data in Column B. In my case as I have 10 data, I changed from $C$5 to $C$10.
   
   
   
5. Next, copy the formula in B1 to B10 (in may case, yours might be more / lesser than that).
   

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Server 2012 - No User Interface Available

On one fine day when I was busy with one of my project, one of my collegue tapped my shoulder, a bit panicking.

He : Heiry, take a look at this...

Me : Dude, what on earth have you done? (serious face)

He : I dont know man, I uninstalled .Net Fx 4.5, reboot the machine and this happened

Me : Dude, What on earth was the reason you uninstalled .Net Fx 4.5?

He : Well, I thought ....

Me : (Evil Smile)

So here is the thing. When we uninstalling .Net Fx 4.5, those related features would be uninstalled as well, including a feature called User Interfaces and Infrastructure. Please refer to here.

There are 2 ways to get it done - locally or remotely. For the purpose of this post, I will do it remotely from another Windows Server 2012 member server.



Issues :

Unable to view GUI in Server 2012.

Troubleshooting :

it is straight forward, GUI is disabled, RDP to the server, the only screen one can see is :

Resolution :

1.  RDP to another Server 2012 member server.
   
   
2.  Launch Server Manager, and click at Add other servers to manage
   
   
   
   
   
3. Put the target server name at Name (CN) column, and press Find Now. Once the target server appeared in the table, click at the server name and press the arrow button marked with green box as below. The target server will appeared in the right column.
   
   
4. Then, click kat Manage | Add Roles and Feature

   

   
   

   
   
5. Ensure to choose Select a server from the server pool, and choose the target server. Press Next.
   
   
6. At Server Roles option, skip it by pressing Next
   
   
7. At Feature option, enable a feature called User Interface and Infrastructure. Press Next.
   
   
   
8. Ensure all info are correct, and press Install to proceed.

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Windows Activation - KMS : Access Is Denied

There are 2 types of Windows Activation - KMS and MAK. However, for this post, I won't be discussing on what are those or their differences, as this post is to discuss an error in regards to KMS implementation. 

Issues :

The following error has occurred. Please resolve the error and try again.

Description :

Access is denied

Troubleshooting 

1.  Used multiple IDs (Domain Admins as well as Local Admins), however issue stll persist. Thus, it is safe to rule out User ID privilege from the root cause. 
2. UAC is enabled.

Resolution :

1.  Go to Volume Activation Tools again, but right click at it and choose Run as Administrator (not Pin to taskbar, sorry for that)
   
   
   
   
   
2. Browse to your server name,and press Next. Punch in alternative credential if needed.
   
   
   
   
   
3.  If you need to activate your KMS, get it activated. In this case, I already activated my KMS, so I will skip to Configuration.
   
   
   
   
   
4.  Once all steps above completed, there hould not be any issue in accessing to the Configuration, "Access Denied" error should not appear anymore.
   

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Troubleshoting Account ID Locked in Windows AD Domain Environment

I am pretty sure this issue occurred to almost all Wintel or Service Desk Engineers - User came to us, make a report saying that his or her ID was locked, and he or she did not know why (or did they?).

Nevertheless, I have compiled on how I checked and resolved this issue in my environment, hopefully it will help yours too.

Issues :

Troubleshooting Account Locked



Troubleshooting 

1.  Download Account Lockout and Management Tools from here.
   
   
2. Get it extracted.
   
   
   
3. Launch LockoutStatus.exe
   
   
   
4. Go to File | Select Target...
   
   
   
5. Put in target user name, domain, and if needed alternate domain admin credential. Press OK once done.
   
   
   
6. Collecting data...
   

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The File is too large for the destination file system

One of my user came to me and told me that he was unable to transfer a file (big  size file) to his external drive. He even bought a new one just for that - unfortunately, still failed. The error was :

The file <File Name> is too large for the destination file system.

as always, mark the key point there : file system.

Issues :
User was not able to copy large file to external drive due to above error.

Troubleshooting 

1.  Right click at Computer > Manage
   
   
   
2.  Computer Management console appeared. Go to Storage > Disk Management
   
   
   
    
3.  At the right side, you will see more or less this screen. Note the Free Space for the external drive was so large, so logically there should not be any issue to copy any files. At the same time, please also note at the File System type (FAT32)
   
   
   
   
4. If we look at the disk, the format also listed as FAT32

Resolution :

1.  Copy all files inside the external storage to another location, as a backup. Next steps will erase all data inside the storage, so keep a copy of those files is a MUST.
   
   
2.  Go to Computer Management, and right click at the storage. Click Format
   
   
   
   
   
   
3.  This message pop-up, press Yes.
   
   
   
   
   
4.  This window will pop-up. You can see the File system was currently set to exFAT.
   
   
   
   
   
5.  Change it to NTFS, and press OK.
   
   
   
   
   
6.  This message box pop-up, press OK
   
   
   
   
   
7.  Formatting…
   
   
   
   
   
   
8.  Formatting completed. The storage format changed to NTFS
   
   
   
   
   
   
9.  Try to copy the file again, and it will go thru successfully.
   
   
   
   
   
   

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