Newsletter Archives

• Ready to retire your servers?

  Posted on August 28, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  SOFTWARE

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Last week, I urged users to review their software needs and consider options other than sticking with outdated and unsupported operating systems for their personal PCs.

  This week, I’m going to discuss what businesses need to think about when it comes to server operating systems. They have a lifecycle that should be reviewed, just like workstations. For example, October represents the end of the road for Server 2012 and 2012 R2. It’s time to look ahead and plan accordingly.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.35.0, 2023-08-28).

  Software Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Server 2012, Server 2012 R2, Servers

• Report that Server 2012 R2 Monthly Rollup KB 4512488 breaks RDP login

  Posted on August 14, 2019 at 14:27 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Reader @sdsalsero reports:

  Last night we upgraded our public-facing Server 2012R2-based RDS Gateway (GW) and Connection Broker (CB) servers to the brand-new Aug 2019 Rollup. After the patching, no one could login. We use an RDP connection file which specifies the use of the GW and has the CB listed as the target system. You would be prompted to authenticate, i.e., I assume your login request was passing through the GW to the CB, but then there was a completely generic error, “Unable to connect.”

  On the CB’s Windows Event application log,
  Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-SessionBroker-Client/Operational

  There are repeating pairs of 1306/1296 errors:

  1306, “RD Connection Broker Client processes request from a user”
  “Remote Desktop Connection Broker Client failed to redirect the user. Error: NULL”

  1296, “RD Connection Broker Client processes request from a user”
  “Remote Desktop Connection Broker Client failed while getting redirection packet from Connection Broker. Error: Remote Desktop Connection Broker is not ready for RPC communication.”

  Anybody else hitting that problem?

  Windows Patches/Security KB 4512488, RDP, Server 2012 R2

• WSUS on Windows Server 2012 R2 appears to be badly broken

  Posted on May 4, 2016 at 07:43 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Left hand, meet right hand.

  Thanks to Cliff Hogan, who’s awake while we all sleep.

  InfoWorld Woody on Windows

  UPDATE: Following on a tip from Rod Trent, over at WindowsITPro, Microsoft has reported on the issue and marked it closed:

  [Resolved] Service Restored
   
  (Started on 5/3/2016 8:53:00 PM UTC)
   
  5/4/2016 8:19:08 AM (UTC)
   
  Final Status: Engineers identified that the Intune service was unable to synchronize with recently deployed Microsoft updates. Engineers deployed a fix to the affected updates, which resolved the issue. User Impact: There was no end-user impact; impact was limited to administrators only. Affected administrators may have been not receiving recently published updates through Microsoft Update or Windows Update. Scope of Impact: Many customers appeared to be impacted by this event. For those customers affected, this issue potentially affected any administrator attempting to access or use the affected feature. No customer reports of the issue were identified during this event. Incident Start Time: Tuesday, May 3, 2016, at 9:53 PM UTC Incident End Time: Wednesday, May 4, 2016, at 7:45 AM UTC Preliminary Root Cause: An issue has occurred that prevented update synchronization. Please consider this service notification the final update on the event.
  I count that as a 10-hour WSUS disruption.
  It’d be interesting to know if the source of the problem was ESD encryption.
  Windows Patches/Security KB 3148812, Server 2012 R2, WSUS

• Microsoft comes clean on ‘weird things’ in Windows Server 2012 R2, Server 2003

  Posted on July 30, 2014 at 05:43 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Best Microsoft explanation I’ve seen online in years. Well done.

  InfoWorld Tech Watch

  Windows Patches/Security clarity, Server 2003, Server 2012 R2