Installing Server OS on a Dell with a DRAC card and without a DVD Drive

Simple process for installing a server OS on a Dell server that came with a DRAC card (which I recommend in all cases).  

Download the ISO for the installation DVD (typically from the MS VLSC) such as the Windows 2012 R2 DVD ISO.

I recommend that you boot up the server and go through RAID configuration using Control - R to set up your RAID array before continuing.  RAID is not configurable inside Windows setup.

Open the DRAC web interface (default location is 192.168.0.120 with a username/password of root/calvin).  

Open a virtual console.

In the virtual console.

Click Virtual Media -> Connect Virtual Media

Click Virtual Media -> Map CD/DVD

Choose the ISO file from your local machine (the ISO file should be located on your phsyical machine - not at all on the server).  I highly recommend you do this over a wired connection.  It'll take 20+ minutes over a wired connection to transfer the contents of a 6 GB ISO file and more than an hour over wireless.

In Next Boot, choose virtual CD/DVD/ISO.

Hyper-V VM stuck on stopping

On my Windows 2012 (not R2) Standard server, I run several VMs.  In the process of trying to shut them down, I consistently find an issue where insead of shutting down, the virtual machine get stuck saying "stopping"

In this helpful thread, people say that the problem is actually Routing and Remote Access (RRAS) being on the same server as the VMs.  As such, I had luck restarting the RRAS service on the affected server.  For me, this worked.  I've tried the other suggestions of killing the process - to no avail.

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/c55f8c8b-958e-449b-95fd-05834c806580/hyperv-vm-stuck-in-stopping-state

Virtual Network Queuing causes poor performance on Dell servers

In troubleshooting some poor network card behavior on my Dell PowerEdge T420 running Windows Server 2012 with three virtual machines on it, I came across these articles that describe problems with virtual network queues enabled on Broadcom NICs.

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2902166/EN-US?wa=wsignin1.0

http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Server/Windows_Server_2008/Q_27985670.html

I upgraded to the latest drivers and disabled the virtual machine queues.  My sample size was small and problems intermittent, so it's hard to say if I resolved the issues, but it's worth noting.

DFS replication status indeterminate

In Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012, if your DFS replication closes abnormally (or so it thinks) for some reason, the replication will stop.  If you run the Diagnostic Report from the DFS Management Console, you'll see the status for the replication group is 'indeterminate' as noted below:

If you look in the DFS event log, you should see event id 2213.  It notes the problem and gives you the exact command you need to run in an elevated command prompt to fix the issue.

Run the command and you're back in business.  To make sure that files are not inadvertently overwritten by older versions, Microsoft recommends that you back up the share that was out of contact before putting it back in place.  Frankly, to be super duper safe, you should back up all the shares.

Installing .net 3.5 on Server 2012 - error '“Do you want to specify an alternate source path? One or more installation selections are missing source files…”

I was installing DirSync on a Server 2012 server (in the process of doing a staged migration to Office365 from an SBS 2008 machine) and DirSync required .net 3.5.  It should be easy, but when using Server Manager to install the feature, I got this error:

Do you want to specify an alternate source path? One or more installation selections are missing source files…

I followed these excellent instructions to install it:
http://www.danielclasson.com/install-net-framework-35-server-2012/

In my case, I downloaded the ISO file and unzipped just the sources folder and modified the path.

removing XP Antivirus 2012

I've found XP antivirus 2012 to be easier to remove than most other of the fakealert viruses.

With XP antivirus 2012, you can use control-alt-delete to end task. Then run an rkill. Then run quick malwarebytes scan and remove everything, but don't reboot. Then run a full malwarebytes scan. You may find that the virus restarts even after an rkill after 3 or 4 minutes. Just close the program again and run an rkill and let the quick malwarebytes scan to keep the virus from restarting. Then run the full scan to completely get rid of the virus.