.Net 3.5 Installation on Server 2012 (Prerequisite for SharePoint 2013)

I've worked with computers for a long time.
I cut my teeth on NT4. Windows 95.
Then Windows 2000.
Windows 2003 was a game changer, a polished OS that we installed here there and everywhere. After each installation I would copy the CD (I386 files) to the C drive. There would always be one server you were working on that didn't have it (and I would protest that I did not install that one!)
I remember hearing that in Server 2008 those days were gone. Setup would copy the DVD to the C drive for you. Brilliant....

Today I was installing SharePoint 2013 on a Windows Server 2012 box. All RTM versions.

The prerequisite check kept failing for installing the IIS Role. No problem. I can do it myself. It worked. However the prerequisite check STILL failed on IIS.

I then thought, I bet it needs .Net 3.5. Add it in as a Feature. It failed. Turns out, you need to "Specify (an) Alternative Source Path"

 

 

Which actually means you have to type in %dvddrive%\sources\SxS - not even inserting the ISO would sort this one out.

 

Innovation. One step forward. Two back.

 

(oh and don't forget the reboot) :)



Find out Office 2013 Help About Version Number

It's a simple one.

Click File
then
Office Account
then
About

Done.

CRM 2011 / ADFS Renewed Certificates

CRM 2011 is a very particular beast.


I had an issue where the ADFS server was passing the credentials to the CRM box but CRM was not accepting them. A Windows Authentication Box kept popping up then eventually a 401 not authorised error would appear.

The event viewer moaned about a few things, but what's new with CRM?

It turned out that the ADFS Certificates for Token-decrypting and Token Signing, adfs.*.local had expired and my trusty ADFS farm had renewed them for me, because when they were installed we used the switch /autocertrolloverenabled.

However, CRM dislikes not being told about the new cert and requires you to set up Claims and IFD again!
To fix it, I had to follow this process: Obviously do your snap shots first, backup etc

• Open CRM Deployment Manager, Right Click "Microsoft Dynamics CRM" and then click Disable Claims Based Authentication.
• IISReset both front end servers (web farm.)
• Open CRM Deployment Manager, Right Click "Microsoft Dynamics CRM"  and click Configure Claims Based Authentication and follow the wizard (with the defaults as they come from the Database.)
• Then Right Click "Microsoft Dynamics CRM" and click Configure Internet Facing Deployment and follow the wizard .
• IISreset both web servers.
• Cross fingers.
• Cross toes.
• On the ADFS Server, Open ADFS 2.0 Management, Under Trust Relationships click Relying Party Trusts and then right click the URL's and chose Update From Federation Meta Data for all URL's here (relating to CRM.)

CRM 2011 ADFS Time Out

I needed to change the time out for the IFD / ADFS to 10 hours (not as secure as I'd like it!) in CRM 2011.

On the ADFS farm in PowerShell....

Get-ADFSRelyingPartyTrust -Name "externalname.com"

which listed TokenLifeTime: 480....so I changed it to....

Set-ADFSRelyingPartyTrust -targetname"externalname.com" -TokenLifetime 600

CRM 2011 TMG 2010 Error 500 12217

Just installed CRM 2011 published via a TMG box.

Some pages had the 500 Error "the request was rejected by the http filter. (12217)"

Turns out we needed to change the TMG Rule - Under Traffic, then Filtering, Configure HTTP, un-tick the "Verify normalization"

all sorted. good job.

Exchange 2010 SP1 UM Upgrade

Here are a few simple steps to upgrade your UM server to SP

Remove any language pack other than en:US

To find out which ones you have installed, open Exchange Management Shelltype in get:umserver to see what languages you have installed

Then from the source DVD or sources directory run in command prompt
i.e. in my case:c:\sources\exchange%22010\setup.com /removeumlanguagepack:en-gb

Then download and install the following (search for the latest version)
Microsoft Speech Platform Runtime
Microsoft UC MA Runtime x64

Now run the SP1 update!

Afterwards run the UM Language Update (in my case) en:GB

Windows Server 2008 SP1 and More Than 121 LUNS

We have a few large servers here that require more than 121 LUNS in a mount path scenario.

Guess what? Windows Server 2008 SP1 has a bug and can only handle 120 LUNS. What happens is the Performance Counter crashes (!) which prevents the installation of certain software, namely Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1. The only way of getting a work around is to turn off the Disk Performance Counter using the tool Exctrst. However, this means that we can no longer monitor Disk Performance!
Looking forward to seeing whether SP2 (which RTM earlier this week) fixes the problem...