DPM 2012 R2 is backing up Hyper-V 2012 R2 in offline state

I upgraded our Hyper-V 2008 R2 failover cluster to Hyper-V 2012 R2, but since then some of the VMs are not able to be backed up in online state.

If you look at the event log on the Hyper-V host you will straight away find your answer there. 

As you can see from the error message above, it requires you to upgrade your Integration Services on your VM. You will have to restart your VM after the upgrade. 

Once you have done it, you will be able to backup your VM in online state

Sharepoint workflow - The email message cannot be sent

The issue really got me big time. I spent a long time trying to figure out what went wrong so I am hoping this post can help you. 

Our Expense Claim workflow was unable to send out email notifications and the error message was "The email message cannot be sent. Make sure the outgoing email settings for the server are configured correctly"

Synchronizing PDC time with Internet time

To synchronize your PDC emulator with the internet time server, please run the following command on your server which holds PDC emulator FSMO role.

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:internet-time-server /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes /update

Please replace the internet-time-server with the internet time server DNS name or IP address. If more then one is needed separate them with a space in between and don't forget the quotes: "time1.domain.com time2.domain.com"

List of Internet Time servers can be found here: http://www.pool.ntp.org

No chat history on Lync 2013 client

During our testing phase, we found out that the chat history is not working. We had the exclamation mark on the chat icon and there is nothing under it. The error was "there is an error communicating with Exchange Server". When I looked at the Lync Configuration Information (Ctrl - right click on Lync icon), I could see that both EWS information (internal & external) are blank and the EWS Information was telling me that it is not deployed.

Connectivity issue with DirectAccess 2012

Few months after we deployed DirectAccess solution into our infrastructure, we start getting hammered by people having issue with it. The one that drives me nuts is when someone says he couldn't connect, but someone else could connect without any issue. My first remedy is to ask them to restart the IP Helper service and Network Connectivity Assistant (only IP Helper for Windows 7). That doesn't always help. 

After a long time research on the internet, I found this link http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/lv/forefrontedgeiag/thread/20657310-1e2e-4f66-b002-21d2a5edcab8 - which describes the same issue we are facing. 

What we need to do was to run the following command to allow Teredo manage the connection instead of 6to4.

"netsh interface 6to4 set state disabled" from a command prompt on the laptop

I tested the solution on one of our laptops and it works great

Lync 2010 - "The address book is preparing to synchronize. Search results might not be current"

We got this message when we deployed Lync 2010 into our environment. 

This is how we solved it.

1. On Lync 2010 Server, launch Lync Server Management Shell and run this command: Update-CsAddressBook -verbose

2. Wait for a few minutes and you should see these events in your event logs. 

Event 21005 = Sync has started

Event 21010 = Sync has completed

Event 21056 = Details of the Sync

Event 21005 = Schedule for the next Sync

3. Because Lync client would randomly schedule the address book download at different intervals within a few hours; the Lync client can exhibit this same behavior. So if the steps above doesn't fix the issue then do the steps below

4. Run Regedit and navigate to HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\

Communicator

5. Create/edit the DWORD GalDownloadInitialDelay and set its value to 0

6. Close the Lync Client and delete GalContacts.db and GalContacts.db.idx files form that PC. You can find those files in the following locations:

Windows XP: %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Communicator\sip_<the_username@the_domain>\

Windows Vista/7: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Communicator\sip_<the_username@the_domain>\

7. Restart Lync.

Setting up DirectAccess Server 2012

I got a mission from my boss to set up a new way for external users to connect to our network. In the past they use Microsoft VPN to connect and the problem is there are places where this VPN port is blocked and they cannot connect.

We then decided to look at DirectAccess from Microsoft. This new version comes as a role that you need to enable in Windows Server 2012 from Server Manager