Category Archives: Migration

Kemp LoadMaster template import issue: Command serverinit needs 1 parameter(s)

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Introduction

The error Kemp LoadMaster template import issue: Command serverinit needs 1 parameter(s) was encounter during a migration project I was involved in recnetly. Recently. The job was to migrate the virtual services of an aging Kemp LoadMaster HA solution (LM-2200, 32 bit) to newer and more capable versions (running 7.2.43, X64 bit). Even more important, migrate to a version that is still in support. The LM-2200 series are like many older ones End of Life (EOL). Kemp still delivers important fixes for critical security issues like this year (7.1.35.5 and 7.1.35.6) but that’s it in long term support (LTS). This is not bad, these have been supported for a very long time but the aging 32-bit hardware has reached the point where replacing the is the only right thing to do.

With Kemp we can select new hardware, virtual machines or appliances in the cloud. So on-premises, hybrid and public cloud needs can be taken care off with the same familiar load balancer / Application delivery controller (ADC).

One technique to migrate Kemp workloads is to export the virtual services to templates and use these to configure the new solution. It is during that process we ran into an error: Kemp LoadMaster template import issue: Command serverinit needs 1 parameter(s)

Kemp LoadMaster template import issueCommand serverinit needs 1 parameter(s)

One of the applications is a mission critical one that has many different virtual services. FTP/FTPS/HTTP/HTTPS and also a bunch of TCP/UDP connectivity over ports that are very application/industry specific. A dozen virtual services, all on the same IP address with different ports and configuration needs.

We exported all of them to templates which we then used to recreate them on the replacement ADC. While doing so we used a different IP address for these newly created virtual services for testing purposes. This test IP address is changesd to the original production IP when ready to make the move and after disabling the old virtual services. That also allows for a quick exit / roll back if needed.

The process of creating a new virtual service requires a little work to be done still such as defining a gateway, SSL certificates, adding real servers, … but the bulk of the work is done for you.

But with certain templates we got an error: Syntax error detected in template file: Command serverinit needs 1 parameter(s)

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When looking at the template in a text editor we see the following:

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Clearly “servinit” does not have a parameter set. So, it probably needs one, to specify which type of the Server Initiating Protocol needs to be set for our generic service.

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Finding a solution

We need to find out what parameter goes with our setting and add that the template. That value is found is easy enough. Via educated trial and error. On a test virtual service on the current version ADC we set the value for the Server Initiating Protocols to our value (other server initiating) and then export this virtual service to a template. We look at the template and note the number. That way we map what server initiating protocol corresponds to what value. In our case other server initiating is “3”.

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We edit our exported templates to have the correct parameter value set that we find out this way and try to import it again.

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That’s all that we needed to do to get these exported templates to be imported with no further issues.

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All that’s left to do is to finish configuring the virtual service and continue our migration.

Conclusion

Don’t panic. Many problems you encounter have a solution, workaround or fix. Maybe this will help someone out there. Take care and until next time.3

Migrate a Windows Server 2012 R2 AD FS farm to a Windows Server 2016 AD FS farm

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Introduction

I recently went through the effort to migrate a Windows Server 2012 R2 AD FS farm to a Windows Server 2016 AD FS farm. For this exercise the people in charge wanted to maintain the server names and IP addresses. By doing so there is no need for changes in the Kemp Technologies load balancer.

Farm Behavior Level Feature

In Windows Server 2016 ADFS we now have a thing called  the Farm Behavior Level (FBL)  feature (FBL). It  determines the features that the AD FS farm can use. Optimistically you can state that the FBL of a Windows Server 2012 R2 AD FS farm is at the Windows Server 2012 R2 FBL.

The FBL feature and mixed mode now makes a “trick” many used to upgrade a ADFS farm to AD FS Windows Server 2012 R2 organizations without the hassle of setting up a new farm and exporting / importing the configuration possible. looking to upgrade to Windows Server 2016 will not have to deploy an entirely new farm, export and import configuration data. Instead, they can add Windows Server 2016 nodes to an existing farm while it is online and only incur the relatively brief downtime involved in the FBL raise.

We can add a secondary Windows Server 2016 AD FS server to a Windows Server 2012 R2 farm. The farm will continue operating at the Windows Server 2012 R2 FBL. This is “mixed mode” so to speak. There is no need to move all the node to the same version immediately.

As long as you are in mixed mode you don’t get the benefits of the new capabilities and features in Windows Server 2016 ADFS. These are not available.

Administrators can add new, Windows Server 2016 federation servers to an existing Windows Server 2012 R2 farm. As a result, the farm is in “mixed mode” and operates the Windows Server 2012 R2 farm behavior level.

When all Windows Server 2012 R2 nodes have been removed form the farm and all nodes are Windows Server 2016 you can raise the FBL level. This results in the new Windows Server 2016 ADFS features being enabled and ready for configuration and use.

The Migration Path Notes

WARNING

You cannot in place upgrade a Windows Server 2012 R2 ADFS Farm node to Windows Server 2016. You will need to remove it from the farm and replace it with a new Windows Server 2016 ADFS node.

Note

In this migration we are preserving the node names and IP addresses. This means the load balancer needed no configuration changes. So in that respect this process is different from what is normally recommended.

This is a WID based deployment example. You can do the same for an SQL based deployment.

The FBL approach is only valid for a migration from Windows Server 2012 AD FS to Windows Server 2016 AD FS. A migration from AD FS 2.0 or 2.1 (Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012) requires the use of the Export-FederationConfiguration and Import FederationConfiguration as before.

Also see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/identity/ad-fs/overview/ad-fs-2016-requirements

Step by Step

  • Start with the secondary nodes. For each of them make sure you have the server name and the IP configuration.
  • Make sure you have the Service Communications SSL cert for your AD FS and the domain or managed service account name and password.
  • Make sure you have an ADFS configuration backup and also that you have a backup or an export (cool thing about VMs) of the VMs for rapid recovery if needed.

Remove the ADFS role via Server management

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  • Shut down the VM
  • Edit the setting and remove the OS VHDX. Delete the file (you have a backup/export)
  • Copy your completely patched and syprepped OS VHDX with Windows Server to the location for this VM. Rename that VHDX to something sensible like adfs2disk01.vhdx.
  • Edit the settings and add the new sysprepped OS VHDX to the VM. Make sure that the disk is 1st in the boot order.
  • Start the VM
  • Go through the mini wizard and log in to it.
  • Configure the NIC with the same setting as your old DNS Server
  • Rename the VM to the original VM name and join the domain.
  • Restart the VM
  • Login to the VM and Install ADFS using Add Roles and Features in Server Manager

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  • When done configure ADFS

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  • Select to add the node to an existing federation farm

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  • Make sure you have an account with AD admin permissions

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  • Tell the node what primary federation server is

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  • Import your certificate

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  • Specify the ADFS Service account and its password

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  • You’re ready to go on

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  • If any prerequisites don’t work out you’ll be notified, we’re good to go!

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  • Let the wizard complete all it steps

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  • When the configuration is done you need to restart the VM to complete adding the node to the ADFS farm.

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  • Restart your VM and log back in. When you open up ADFS  you’ll see that this new Windows Server 2016 node is a secondary node in your ADFS Farm.

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  • Note that from a load balancer perspective nothing has changed. They just saw the node go up and down a few times; if they were paying attention at all that is.
  • Now repeat the entire process for all you secondary ADFS Farm nodes. When done we’ll swap the primary node to one of the secondary nodes. This is needed so you can repeat the process for the last remaining node in the farm, which at that time needs to be a secondary node. In the example of our 2 node farm we swap the roles between ADFS1 and ADFS2.

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  • Verify that ADFS2 is the primary node and if so, repeat the migration process for the last remaining node (ADFS1) in our case.
  • Once that’s been completed we swap them back to have exactly the same situation as before the migration.

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  • On the primary node run Get-AdfsFarmInformation (a new cmdlet in Windows Server 2016 R2).

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  • You’ll see that our current farm behavior is 1 and our 2 nodes (all of them Windows Server 2016) are listed. Note that any nodes still on Windows Server 2012 R2 would not be shown.

WARNING: to raise the FBL to Windows Server 2016 your AD Schema needs to be upgraded to at least Windows Server 2016 version 85 or higher. This is also the case form new AD FS farm installations which will be at the latest FBL by default. My environment is already 100% on Windows Server 2016 AD. So I’m good to go. If yours is not, don’t forget to upgrade you schema. You don’t need to upgrade your DC’s unless you want to leverage Microsoft Password authentication, then you need al least 1 Windows Server 2016 domain controller. See https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server-docs/identity/ad-fs/overview/ad-fs-2016-requirements

  • As we know all our nodes are on Windows Server 2016 we can raise our Farm Behavior Level  (FBL) by running Invoke-AdfsFarmBehaviorLevelRaise

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  • Just let it run it has some work to do including creating a new database.

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  • It will tell you when it’s done and point out changes in the configuration.

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  • Now run Get-AdfsFarmInformation again

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  • Note that the  current farm behavior is 3 and our 2 nodes (all of them Windows Server 2016) are listed. Note that  if any nodes had still been on Windows Server 2012 R2 they would have been kicked from the farm and should be removed form the load balancer.

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PS: with some creativity and by having a look at my blog on https://blog.workinghardinit.work/2016/11/28/easily-migrating-non-ad-integrated-dns-servers-while-preserving-server-names-and-ip-addresses/ You can easily figure out how to add some extra steps to move to generation 2 VMs while you’re at it if you don’t use these yet.

Easily migrating non-AD integrated DNS servers while preserving server names and IP addresses

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Introduction

I’ll show you the quickest way to move an existing public advertising DNS deployment on Windows Server 2012R2, generation 1 virtual machines (1 primary DNS server and 1 or more secondary DNS Servers) to Windows 2016 RTM generation 2 VMs. On top of this we will preserve the sever names and the IP addresses. This makes the migration easier and it doesn’t burden anyone with updating IP addresses or FQDN of services pointing to the existing public advertising DNS service. Basically the result is the best possible for everyone involved.

Step by Step

We start by preparing a sysprepped VHDX of Windows 2016 with all the updates installed and any tools that are sysprep compatible and that you want or need on your VMs. This will allow us to make the move fast. As we want our new DNS VMs to be generation 2 VMS, make sure you use a generation 2 VM to create the syprepped OS VHDX.

The process we describe below is the same for each of the involved DNS servers. You start with the secondary VMs and end with the primary VM. This is just a form risk reduction, it’s smart to start with the secondary as it’s less critical than the primary where you make the changes.

Log on to the old, source VM and do the following

  1. Create a Folder to store the migration data and Info, i.e. C:\DNSMigrateServer01
  2. Open an elevated command prompt
  3. Run Ipconfig /all > C:\DNSMigrateServer01\Server01TCPIPinfo.txt this gives you the IP info you need for future reference.
  4. Run reg export HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters C:\DNSMigrateServer01\Dns-Service.REG
  5. Run reg export HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DNS Server” C:\DNSMigrateServer01\Dns-Software.REG
  6. In some cases, rarely for most deployments, you’ll need to also copy all files under each custom database directory on the old DNS server by manually reading from the registry at the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters\DatabaseDirectory If you have these also copy the directory to C:\DNSMigrateServer01. Normally when you have custom DNS database locations this is not by accident and should be well documented.
  7. Run xcopy %windir%\system32\dns C:\DNSMigrateServer01 /s This copies the content of your DNS folder (normally C:\Windows\System32\dns) to your migration folder. Note that you don’t need to copy the samples sub folder. Even the backup folder is not really needed. Just create a new backup when needed on the news DNS servers.
  8. Copy the C:\DNSMigrateServer01 from your old DNS Server to your desktop or some file share for safe keeping. You’ll need to copy this into the new DNS Server later. Note it contains your IP information, your registry exports and your DNS files.

You now have everything you need form the old DNS Server. So now we’ll decommission it, but before we do so we’ll make sure we have the options to recover it if needed.

  1. Make sure you have a backup or have made on recently (you do trust your ability to restore, right?)
  2. Shut down the VM and for good measure and fast recovery you might want to export the VM for quick import.
  3. Remove the VM from Failover Clustering if it’s clustered.
  4. Now remove the VM from Hyper-V Manager. Note this doesn’t delete the virtual disk files.
  5. Remove the old VHDX (you have an export and a backup) and replace it with your sysprepped W2K16RTM VHDX that has all the updates already. Rename that VHDX to something sensible like server01disk01.vhdx.
  6. Create a new generation 2 VM with the same name as the old one, select the required memory settings, choose to use an existing VHDX and point it to your sysprepped VHDX.
  7. Start the VM
  8. Go through the mini wizard and log in to it.
  9. Configure the NIC with the same setting as your old DNS Server
  10. Rename the VM to the old DNS VM name and join the domain.
  11. Restart the VM
  12. Login to the new DNS VM
  13. Install DNS
  14. Copy the C:\DNSMigrateServer01 you saved from your old DNS Server into the new one
  15. Open an elevated command prompt and run
    • Stop the DNS Server service by running net stop “DNS Server”
    • Double click the Dns-Service.REG and merge them into the registry

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    • Double click the Dns-Software.REG files and merge them into the registry.

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    • Copy all the files under C:\DNSMigrateServer01 to %windir%\System32\DNS
    • Start the DNS Server service by running net start “DNS Server”

Congratulations, you now have a new generation 2 VM running DNS on Windows Server 2016 with the same name and IP configuration as the old one. You now want to validate it’s working. To do so on the primary DNS server update the serial number in the start of authority (SOA) tab of the zone properties. I normally use YearMonthDayXX.

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This will allow you to check whether the zone transfers to your migrated DNS server work. Normally all is just fine. In case things went horribly wrong you can import the VMs you exported or restore the backups. If your VMs are domain members and as you have reused the VM name, you’ll need to reestablish its domain member ship but that’s easily done.

Now repeat the above process for all the reaming secondary DNS Server and finally for the primary DNS server. Until you’ve done them all.

Conclusion

You do this process for every DNS Server and finally for your primary DNS server. That’s it. You’re in business and you have achieved 2 goals. You’re DNS VMs have been move to generation 2 and are running on a clean install of Windows Server 2016. All this without having to reconfigure DNS zone and transfers and while maintaining your DNS server names and IP addresses. Life is good.

Presenting at Experts Live 2015 On SMB Direct

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I’m happy and proud to present that I’m presenting at Experts Live 2015 On SMB Direct on November 19th. I enjoyed this community driven very much last year. The speaker line up is awesome, the organization flawless and the attendees numerous and motivated. This make for a great one day conference where people come to learn, share experiences and network.

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I’ll be doing a session called “SMB Direct, The Secret Decoder Ring” that has been updated with some tips and experiences learned for recent engagements. You can not afford to ignore SMB Direct, RDMA, Data Center Bridging as it is being leveraged for ever more workloads in ever more scenarios. The need for high performance combined with the steady progress of converged architectures makes it an essential part of your solutions.

There are many well respect speakers also presenting, people I learn a lot from and enjoy talking shop with. You can take a look at the line up of speakers here. It reads as a “who’s who” in modern Microsoft technologies. These are all people working in the field, who are active in the community and love to share. This means a wealth of knowledge is available to any one who attends to leverage it their own day jobs and companies.

You can follow a preferred track all day long or mix and match sessions between tracks. It’s your day, so you decide how to make the most out of it. Don’t forget to talk and network with your peers as this is an essential part of any conference.

I hope to see you there!