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.

enable ping replies from Windows Server 2008

I had a Windows 2008 R2 server that would not reply to pings.  This server was not the member of a domain (it was a standalone Hyper-V host).  I fixed this by running this from an elevated command prompt:

netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8

I got this from this page:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/082d0229-4137-4210-8b1a-580187c375aa/cannot-ping-windows-server-2008-r2-machine-from-inside-the-network?forum=winserverNIS

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.

all DCs in a small environment should be a global catalog server

I'm reading through some documentation that recommends that, in small networks, all domain controllers should be global catalog servers as well.

To make a domain controller a GC server, follow these steps:

1. Start the Active Directory Sites and Services snap-in.
2. In the console tree, double-click Sites, and then double-click the sitename where
your server resides.
3. Below the Site, double-click Servers, double-click your domain controller, right-click
NTDS Settings, and then click Properties.
4. On the General tab, click to select the Global catalog check box to assign the role of
global catalog to this server if it is not already enabled.