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Showing posts from September, 2020

Incorrect IP address is returned when you ping a server by using its NetBIOS name

I was pinging from Windows 2012 R2 machine to a Windows 2016. Both are multi-homed boxes, Windows 2012 R2 have 3 NIC cards, Windows 2016 got 4.  Windows will try to figure out the best interface to use by determining the quality of network connection - which eventually shows up as the metrics of the interface. The lower the metric number the higher the order of preference.  In one case, I had 2 network interfaces on flat network (no routing) and one interface that is routed but has the lowest metric. The issue was that that one network thinks it has the IP of the given NetBIOS name but was actually pointing to wrong IP, it seems like one of the routers have cached the IP incorrectly. Tracing where it was cached is not easy specially so if you don't have control of the network.  Anyway, since the box actually have 3 direct connections to the other unit and it refuses to use the other network interfaces, the best option was to modify hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts)

Installing Storyboard add-in on PowerPoint 365

The Storyboard add-in (TFS Office Integration 2017.9) still works on Office 365 although it is already deprecated.  Anyway, install Office 365 (tested using 64-bit version 2002 Build 12527.21104 Click-to-Run). Then install TFS Office Integration 2017.9 from either the following links: https://download.visualstudio.microsoft.com/download/pr/f1fa3a6c-228c-4169-a7a8-22ba2495fd09/7db1b3150f3d2847f305b3451760e56a/tfs_officeint2017.9_enu.exe https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=832491&clcid=0x409 Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/boards/backlogs/office/storyboard-your-ideas-using-powerpoint?view=tfs-2018

SQL Server ERRORLOG shows Starting up database over and over again

Observed this on Microsoft SQL Server 2014 (SP2) but is probably true for any SQL Server versions. I am seeing a lot of lines like below in ERRORLOG: 2020-09-11 09:45:00.87 spid20s     Starting up database 'DatabaseName'. The reason for this repeated logs is that the AUTOCLOSE property of the database is set to TRUE. When AUTOCLOSE is set once the last connection to the database closes it will also close the database and release all the resources associated with it. This can be useful to conserve precious resources on the server, unfortunately this can also impact performance and I have seen cases that it actually depletes the resources on the server when the server is under memory pressure combined with maximum server memory is reached. To disable AUTOCLOSE , open database properties using SSMS and set Auto Close to False under Options page. Reference: https://blog.sqlauthority.com/2016/02/20/sql-server-starting-up-database-why-multiple-times-in-errorlog/  

Error Code 80092004 when installing KB4516065

Issue KB4516065, 2019-09 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems (KB4516065), fails to install on a newly created VM (did this around 09/2020). Solution : Install 2019-03 Servicing Stack Update for Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems (KB4490628), windows6.1-kb4490628-x64_d3de52d6987f7c8bdc2c015dca69eac96047c76e.msu. Use this link to download from Windows Catalog - http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4490628

Licensing Windows 2008 Sp2 in year 2020

Yes, I am still using Windows 2008 SP2, silly me.  Anyway, I tried to activate Windows 2008 SP2 recently (August 2020) but failed with the following error message: --------------------------- Error Details --------------------------- The following information was found for this error: Code: 0x80072F8F Description: A security error occurred --------------------------- OK --------------------------- Not very useful, eh? Anyway, to fix this install  SHA-2 code signing support update for Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008: September 23, 2019 ( link ). Essentially, download  windows6.0-kb4474419-v4-x86_fd568cb47870cd8ed5ba10e1dd3c49061894030e.msu , install, reboot. Licensing should work after this. Note that this is also applicable to Windows Server 2008 R2 in which case you have to use windows6.1-kb4474419-v3-x64_b5614c6cea5cb4e198717789633dca16308ef79c.msu.