Cannot start multiple virtual machines in Hyper-V

Whenever I tried to start multiple virtual machines on my Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, I kept getting the following error

Microsoft Emulated IDE Controller (Instance ID {83F8638B-8DCA-4152-9EDA-2CA8B33039B4}): Failed to power on with Error ‘The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.’

Failed to open attachment ‘E:’. Error: ‘The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.’

 

It turned out all my virtual machines were accessing the same DVD drive. Well VMware does not have such an issue, but in any case had to do something. So got the DVD drive shared and removed it from the Virtual Machine Settings. Now all machines can access it from the primary machine share instead.

Hyper-V virtual machines do not automatically start on Windows Server 2008 R2 after Reboot

A very annoying issue. However, I was able to find a solution to this.

This problem is related with FSDepends.sys which is probably set to Manual in the Registry. The workaround is to have this driver set to Boot by following the directions below. Only users having expertise in using registry editor should do this.

Make sure that you back up the registry before you modify it. To work around the issue, do the following:

1) Start Regedit.exe.
2) Navigate to the following reg key: “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\FsDepends”
3) Under the “FsDepends” key change REG_DWORD value “Start” from “3” to “0”
4) Reboot the machine.

For detailed information, visit http://bytesolutions.com/Support/Knowledgebase/KB_Viewer/ArticleId/23/Cannot-start-Hyper-V-virtual-machines-on-Windows-Server-2008-R2-after-Reboot.aspx

Hypervisor is not running on a HP machine

You receive the error message “virtual machine could not start because the hypervisor is not running” in Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2

Just trying to setup a few virtual machines on my new Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64) and I get this error. The machine is a HP Pro 3300 Microtower. After searching on Microsoft Support I found the following article,

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2490458

which said, The Data Execution Prevention (DEP) setting is not enabled in BIOS. For HP server, it is called “No Execute Memory Protection”

So I entered into the BIOS settings,

1. Press F10 while booting (Computer Settings)
2. Select Security Tab and then sub menu System Security
3. Enable ‘Virtualization Technology (VTx)’. By default I had DEP enabled.
4. If you have another option ‘Virtuialization Technology Directed I/O(VTd)’ – enable that too.

There we go, save changes and boot up. Select the virtual machine in Hyper-V and click Start

Handler Mappings for ActiveReports 3.0 on IIS7

If you are still facing that 404 – File Not Found exception when trying to open an ActiveReport in a ASP.NET 2.0 integrated website in a IIS7 hosting, then try the following mappings  – tried and verified -

<system.web>
…..
…..
<httpHandlers>
      <add verb=”*” path=”*.rpx” type=”DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Web.Handlers.RpxHandler, ActiveReports.Web, Version=5.3.1436.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=cc4967777c49a3ff” />
      <add verb=”*” path=”*.ActiveReport” type=”DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Web.Handlers.CompiledReportHandler, ActiveReports.Web, Version=5.3.1436.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=cc4967777c49a3ff” />
      <add verb=”*” path=”*.ArCacheItem” type=”DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Web.Handlers.WebCacheAccessHandler, ActiveReports.Web, Version=5.3.1436.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=cc4967777c49a3ff” />
</httpHandlers>
…..
…..

<system.webServer>
…..
…..
<handlers accessPolicy=”Read, Execute, Script”>
      <add name=”ActiveReports RPX Handler” path=”*.rpx” verb=”*” type=”DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Web.Handlers.RpxHandler” resourceType=”Unspecified” requireAccess=”Script” />
      <add name=”ActiveReports WebCache Handler” path=”*.ArCacheItem” verb=”*” type=”DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Web.Handlers.WebCacheAccessHandler” resourceType=”Unspecified” requireAccess=”Script” />
      <add name=”ActiveReports Compiled Report Handler” path=”*.ActiveReport” verb=”*” type=”DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Web.Handlers.CompiledReportHandler” resourceType=”Unspecified” requireAccess=”Script” />
</handlers>

Delete IIS logs via PowerShell

My dedicated server had occupied up to 5GB space on C drive through IIS log files. Very worrying when 10+ GB is taken by Windows Server and other 4GB taken by SQL Server and Office files.

The solution to this problem was to delete older logs, i.e. older than 30 days. To filter and delete based on this requirement PowerShell was the right tool. Below is the script I used to delete these logs. You can replace the number ’30′ with your own value and replace the directory location of inetpub log files if different.

get-childitem -Path C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles\w3svc1 -recurse | where-object {$_.lastwritetime -lt (get-date).addDays(-30)} | Foreach-Object { del $_.FullName }

Windows Server 2008: How to find the Active Directory LDAP path of a certain user

Start>Run type cmd and press enter.

Type the following text,

dsQuery user -name irtaza

and press Enter key.

In the above text the OU group is ‘user’ and ‘irtaza’ is the windows username

Running 32bit ASP.NET 1.1 applications on 64 bit Windows OS

Had an unsual issue today. I was unable to run my older ASP.NET 1.1 apps on a new 64 bit Windows server. Could not restart the IIS web site service. Kept on getting these two issues in the Event Log,

 

Issue #1:

ISAPI Filter ‘c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\aspnet_filter.dll’ could not be loaded due to a configuration problem. The current configuration only supports loading images built for a AMD64 processor architecture. The data field contains the error number. To learn more about this issue, including how to troubleshooting this kind of processor architecture mismatch error, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=29349.
[the link takes you no where]

Issue #2:

Could not load all ISAPI filters for site/service. Therefore startup aborted.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.”
Trying to find a solution, I kept bouncing to the page
How to switch between the 32-bit versions of ASP.NET 1.1 on a 64-bit version of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default…b;en-us;894435

Finally I resolved the issue. The following steps will give you a better idea on how to resolve this cracker.

1. Goto your Inetpub folder and browse AdminScripts folder
2. Look for adsutil.vbs and double click it. It would ask if you wanted to enable cscript. Say yes and move forward.
3. Click Start>Run and type cmd to open the Command Window
4. Now type the following command to enable the 32-bit mode:

cscript %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs SET W3SVC/AppPools/Enable32bitAppOnWin64 1
(here replace systemdrive with the drive letter, i.e. C: or D:)

5. Now install .NET 1.1 Framework. If already installed then using the command window type the following:
%SYSTEMROOT%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\aspnet_regiis.exe -i
(systemroot is your windows path, i.e. c:/windows or d:/windows)

6. Make sure that the status of ASP.NET version 1.1.4322 is set to Allowed in the Web service extension list in IIS Manager.

After all is done, right click the Web Sites folder in IIS Manager and click on properties.

In the Services tab make sure Isolation mode is unchecked.

or using the command window type the following,

CSCRIPT %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs SET W3SVC/IIs5IsolationModeEnabled 0
NET STOP HttpFilter /y
NET START W3SVC

For more understanding of similar issues visit the following links
http://blogs.msdn.com/david.wang/archive/2005/12/14/HOWTO-Diagnose-one-cause-of-W3SVC-failing-to-start-with-Win32-Error-193-on-64bit-Windows.aspx

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=348106

Do let me know what you think about this post.