I’m a Veeam Vanguard 2017

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I’m a Veeam Vanguard 2017 I learned tonight

I came home tonight after a long day at work. The day was one of trying to solve some weird remote client issues, helping colleagues, supporting the devs, etc. There was also some fun whilst teaching some PowerShell skills to a colleague. It keeps them motivated and it also showed him future path were thing can and are going. Which reminds me of the good feeling being part of the Veeam Vanguard program gives me. Speaking of which …

What put a huge smile on my face tonight was an e-mail confirming I was invited to the  Veeam Vanguard program again in 2017. Excellent news! And yes I did accept. What did you think!?I’m a Veeam Vanguard 2017

Being a Veeam Vanguard

So yes, I’m a Veeam Vanguard 2017. The Veeam Vanguard program is to me is about sharing, learning and growing through interaction with some of the finest techies any company out there could ever hire. It is full of hard core, highly skilled and experienced technologists from around the globe. They range from intensively hands on types deep in the trenches to real architects & strategists.

These are people that elevate me, teach me, educate me and, every now and then, make me feel very humble due to the depth and breadth of their knowledge. While I have my strengths, I sometimes feel out of my league among them. But that’s OK. Not being the smartest guy in the room and group means I’m learning and advancing. It makes it interesting and the diversity in skills and technologies make for a better stronger group that can deal with wide variety of challenges.

Everybody contributes to help each other, customers and clients which is good for us, for everyone using Veeam products and for Veeam. Veeam builds great software, has stellar support and delivers the value I look for in an ISV.

So to Veeam, thank you for the trust in me, my skills and professional abilities to make me a Vanguard in 2017. I’m happy and proud to be one.

Warning on Windows Server 2016 Deduplication Corruption

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UPDATE 2 – 2017/02/06

DO NOT INSTALL KB3216755 if you don’t need it.  Huge memory leak reported to associated with this. If you need it I’d consider all my options.

UPDATE – GET KB3216755

As you can read it the comments, Microsoft reached out and confirms the issues are fixed as part of KB3216755 => https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4011347/windows-10-update-kb3216755 . I commend them for responding so quickly and getting it sorted. Do not that at the time of writing this (late on January 30th CET) the Windows Sever 2016 update isn’t in the Windows Catalog yet, only the Windows 10 ones. But Microsoft confirms you should install the update  on their blog

Windows Server 2016 Data Deduplication users: please install KB3216755!

The issue

Good morning. A quick blog post to give a heads up to my readers who might not be subscribed to Anton Gostev (Veeam) his “The Word Form Gostev”. It concerns a warning on Windows Server 2016 Deduplication corruption.

Warning on Windows Server 2016 Deduplication Corruption

There are multiple reports of data corruption with Windows Server 2016 deduplication. One is related to file sizes over 2TB. The other with the loss of checksum values. Microsoft is aware these issues and a fix is coming for these issues.

I quote Gostev

I’ve already received the official confirmation from Microsoft that this is the know issue (ID 10165851) which is scheduled to be addressed in the next Windows Server 2016 servicing update. There are actually two separate issues, both leading to file corruption when using deduplication on very large files. One issue occurs when files grow to 2.2TB or larger, and another one causes loss of checksums for files with “smaller sizes” – this is the actual wording of the official note, so I have no idea how small

What to do?

If you use Windows Server 2016 deduplication for backups, create new full backups regularly. Also make sure you do backup integrity testing and restore tests. Follow up on the update when it arrives.

If you use the for production data make sure you have frequent and validated backups! Design & operate under the mantra of “Trust but verify”.

Also, we’ve heard reports and noticed that Windows Server 2016 Deduplication resource configuration isn’t always respected. I.e. it can take all resources away despite limitations being set. We hope a fix for this is also under way.

Being a Microsoft MVP and “The Big Ask”

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Being a Microsoft MVP and “The Big Ask’’

I’m proud to be recognized once more as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in 2017 for the Cloud and Datacenter Management expertise. It’s fantastic to be part of that community and I enjoy the feedback, discussion between my fellow MVPs and Microsoft. So what’s all this about Being a Microsoft MVP and “The Big Ask’’ you might wonder?

Being a Microsoft MVP and “The Big Ask’'

Many readers have reached out for help lately.  I hope that, at least, I have guided you towards the information and knowledge to find a solution. Please understand that I cannot help out everybody out there individually. With a job to do, community efforts, a life and only 24 hours in a day, there is a limit.. So yes, it’s a big ask, but I also enjoy the learning and the interaction. So don’t get me wrong on this. I love doing it.

I hope I can keep learning, growing and sharing in this industry for many years to come. I’m looking forward to some “out of the box” solutions based on Microsoft technologies in 2017-2018. The aim is  to offer the best possible solutions fast, good & affordable. These will be shared via this blog and the community for the benefit of you all!

Thank you reading!

Import of RD Gateway configuration file with policies referencing local resources wipes all policies clean!

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Introduction

When you have Windows Server 2016 RD Gateway server and you expect to be able to import a configuration XML file you’ll might find yourself in a pickle when you are also using local resources. Because the import of RD Gateway configuration file with policies referencing local resources wipes all policies clean! With local resources I mean local user accounts and groups. These are leveraged more than I imagined at first.

When does it happen?

In the past I have blogged about migrating RD Gateway servers that contain policies referencing local resources here: Fixing Event ID 2002 “The policy and configuration settings could not be imported to the RD Gateway server “%1” because they are associated with local computer groups on another RD Gateway server”.

We used to be able to use the trick of making sure the local resources exist on the new server (either by recreating them there via the server migration wizard or manually) and changing the server name in the exported configuration XML file  to successfully import the configuration. That no longer works. You get an error.Import of RD Gateway configuration file with policies referencing local resources wipes all policies clean!

As far as migrations go from older versions, they work fins as long as you don’t have policies with local resources. Otherwise you’d better do an in place upgrade or recreate the resources & policies on the new servers. The method described in my blog is not working any more. That’s to bad. But it gets worse.

Import of RD Gateway configuration file with policies referencing local resources wipes all policies clean!

As said,it doesn’t end there. The issue is there even when you try to import the configuration on to the same server you exported it from.That’s really bad as it a quick way to protect against any mistakes you might make, and allows to get back to the original configuration.

What’s even worse, when the import fails it wipes ALL the policies in the RD Gateway Server => dangerous! So yes, the import of RD Gateway configuration file with policies referencing local resources wipes all policies clean!

Precautions

Only a backup or a checkpoint can save your then (or recreate the all manually)! Again this is only when the exported configuration file references local resources! The fasted way to clean out an RD Gateway configuration on Windows Server 2016 is actually importing a configuration export which contains a policy referring to local resource. Ouch! I’m not aware of a fix up to this date.

For now you only protection is a checkpoint or a backup. Depending on where and how you source your virtual machines you might not have access to a checkpoint.

You have been warned, be careful.