Mike Says Meh The blog of Sys Admin Mike Kauspedas

Remote into your workgroup Windows 2012 Core server with Powershell

PS101 ...

In the corner of my basement is a media server running Windows 2012 core. I never have to log into it, I never have to update it, I never have to do much with it. The server simply runs, which is the whole point of core right? Unfortunately there was another thing that I thought I never had to maintain ... backup (which happens to be something else my server does). That's supposed to work automatically with no human intervention right? And for some reason the backup drives aren't being detected. Ugh, now I have to shut it down and connect monitors and stuff and fix it. Life is so hard in Mike's first world basement.

This presented another dilemma. How does one remote into a server with powershell to run the shutdown command? (No domain so shutdown /m \\SERVER doesn't work). Sure, I could just hit the power button but that's not proper. Plus, remoting in with powershell is pretty damn easy, as most everything in powershell is.

1. Make sure you trust your server. Run this to add it to your trusted hosts.

Set-Item wsman:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts SERVERNAME -Concatenate -Force

If you don't trust the server you'll get an error like this.

Connecting to remote server SERVER failed with the following error message : The client
cannot connect to the destination specified in the request. Verify that the service on the destination is running and
is accepting requests. Consult the logs and documentation for the WS-Management service running on the destination,
most commonly IIS or WinRM. If the destination is the WinRM service, run the following command on the destination to
analyze and configure the WinRM service: "winrm quickconfig". For more information, see the
about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic.

2. Now you can remote in, but wait, you're in a workgroup so it's not going to just let you in willy nilly. But you can pass it your credentials easy enough.

Enter-PSSession -ComputerName SERVERNAME -Credential "SERVER\USER"

3. It will ask you for your password. Once in you can shutdown the server with the following command.

shutdown /t 0 /f /s

/t 0 = shutdown immediately.
/f = force
/s = shutdown. You can use /r to reboot instead of shutdown

4. I like to run a ping -t to watch for it to go down as well.

ping X.X.X.X -t or ping servername -t

How to fix: SCVMM 2012 The remote computer could not authenticated due to problems with its security certificate

Getting this error in your System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2012 console?

This is because the certificate for the host the VM resides on is not trusted. All you have to do is install the certificate into your trusted root on the machine you are connecting from and the connection will work. Here's how.

1. When you get the error, click on view certificate then install.

2. Choose local machine and then make sure to install into your Trust Root Certificate Authorites.

3. Now just reconnect to the console and it should work.

If you have multiple hosts in a cluster or stand alone , you will need to do this for each host you connect to.

Remove unwanted features in Windows Server 2012

Here is my horribly long powershell command to remove a bunch of unwanted features from Windows Server 2012. This saved 1.8GB of disk space. Why is under 2GB of disk space signifcant in today's world? Well, without talking about SSDs multiply that by a 100 VHDs and you save 180GB. That's significant on expensive SAN storage.This removes a LOT features but you can get them all back, in fact they should even download from windows update.

All of AD is removed.
DNS, DHCP, Fax
Update services
Backup
Remote Desktop services

If you want to know a full list check out this post.

Remove-WindowsFeature AD-Certificate,AD-Domain-Services,AD-Federation-Services,ADLDS,ADRMS,DHCP,DNS,Fax,Hyper-V,NPAS,Print-Services,RemoteAccess,Remote-Desktop-Services,VolumeActivation,WDS,UpdateServices,BitLocker,BitLocker-NetworkUnlock,BranchCache,NFS-Client,Data-Center-Bridging,EnhancedStorage,GPMC,InkAndHandwritingServices,Internet-Print-Client,IPAM,ISNS,LPR-Port-Monitor,ManagementOdata,Server-Media-Foundation,MSMQ,NLB,PNRP,qWave,CMAK,Remote-Assistance,RDC,RSAT,RPC-over-HTTP-Proxy,Simple-TCPIP,SMTP-Server,SNMP-Service,Subsystem-UNIX-Apps,Telnet-Client,Telnet-Server,TFTP-Client,Biometric-Framework,WFF,Windows-Identity-Foundation,Windows-Internal-Database,WAS,Windows-Server-Backup,Migration,WindowsStorageManagementService,WSRM,Windows-TIFF-IFilter,WinRM-IIS-Ext,WINS,Wireless-Networking,XPS-Viewer -Remove

The big list of Windows Features in Server 2012

In an effort to create a tiny sysprepped Windows 2012 VHD I wanted to uninstall all the roles I know I won't be using. (And even if I do need them they are easy to put back.) Tiny VHD's equal less disk space and much faster VM builds. First thing I wanted was a simple list of all the Windows Features installed. Easy enough, just run get-windowsfeatures from powershell and it spits out a nice list, output that to text and you're good to go. I'll save you the 30 seconds though and list them here.

Next I'm going to work on a script to remove these.

Get-windowsfeature |ft -auto > c:\winfeatures.txt

Display Name                                                               Name
------------                                                               ----
[ ] Active Directory Certificate Services                                  AD-Certificate
[ ] Certification Authority                                            ADCS-Cert-Authority
[ ] Certificate Enrollment Policy Web Service                          ADCS-Enroll-Web-Pol
[ ] Certificate Enrollment Web Service                                 ADCS-Enroll-Web-Svc
[ ] Certification Authority Web Enrollment                             ADCS-Web-Enrollment
[ ] Network Device Enrollment Service                                  ADCS-Device-Enrollment
[ ] Online Responder                                                   ADCS-Online-Cert
[ ] Active Directory Domain Services                                       AD-Domain-Services
[ ] Active Directory Federation Services                                   AD-Federation-Services
[ ] Federation Service                                                 ADFS-Federation
[ ] AD FS 1.1 Web Agents                                               ADFS-Web-Agents
[ ] AD FS 1.1 Claims-aware Agent                                   ADFS-Claims
[ ] AD FS 1.1 Windows Token-based Agent                            ADFS-Windows-Token
[ ] Federation Service Proxy                                           ADFS-Proxy
[ ] Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services                        ADLDS
[ ] Active Directory Rights Management Services                            ADRMS
[ ] Active Directory Rights Management Server                          ADRMS-Server
[ ] Identity Federation Support                                        ADRMS-Identity
[ ] Application Server                                                     Application-Server
[ ] .NET Framework 4.5                                                 AS-NET-Framework
[ ] COM+ Network Access                                                AS-Ent-Services
[ ] Distributed Transactions                                           AS-Dist-Transaction
[ ] WS-Atomic Transactions                                         AS-WS-Atomic
[ ] Incoming Network Transactions                                  AS-Incoming-Trans
[ ] Outgoing Network Transactions                                  AS-Outgoing-Trans
[ ] TCP Port Sharing                                                   AS-TCP-Port-Sharing
[ ] Web Server (IIS) Support                                           AS-Web-Support
[ ] Windows Process Activation Service Support                         AS-WAS-Support
[ ] HTTP Activation                                                AS-HTTP-Activation
[ ] Message Queuing Activation                                     AS-MSMQ-Activation
[ ] Named Pipes Activation                                         AS-Named-Pipes
[ ] TCP Activation                                                 AS-TCP-Activation
[ ] DHCP Server                                                            DHCP
[ ] DNS Server                                                             DNS
[ ] Fax Server                                                             Fax
[X] File And Storage Services                                              FileAndStorage-Services
[ ] File and iSCSI Services                                            File-Services
[ ] File Server                                                    FS-FileServer
[ ] BranchCache for Network Files                                  FS-BranchCache
[ ] Data Deduplication                                             FS-Data-Deduplication
[ ] DFS Namespaces                                                 FS-DFS-Namespace
[ ] DFS Replication                                                FS-DFS-Replication
[ ] File Server Resource Manager                                   FS-Resource-Manager
[ ] File Server VSS Agent Service                                  FS-VSS-Agent
[ ] iSCSI Target Server                                            FS-iSCSITarget-Server
[ ] iSCSI Target Storage Provider (VDS and VSS hardware providers) iSCSITarget-VSS-VDS
[ ] Server for NFS                                                 FS-NFS-Service
[X] Storage Services                                                   Storage-Services
[ ] Hyper-V                                                                Hyper-V
[ ] Network Policy and Access Services                                     NPAS
[ ] Network Policy Server                                              NPAS-Policy-Server
[ ] Health Registration Authority                                      NPAS-Health
[ ] Host Credential Authorization Protocol                             NPAS-Host-Cred
[ ] Print and Document Services                                            Print-Services
[ ] Print Server                                                       Print-Server
[ ] Distributed Scan Server                                            Print-Scan-Server
[ ] Internet Printing                                                  Print-Internet
[ ] LPD Service                                                        Print-LPD-Service
[ ] Remote Access                                                          RemoteAccess
[ ] DirectAccess and VPN (RAS)                                         DirectAccess-VPN
[ ] Routing                                                            Routing
[ ] Remote Desktop Services                                                Remote-Desktop-Services
[ ] Remote Desktop Connection Broker                                   RDS-Connection-Broker
[ ] Remote Desktop Gateway                                             RDS-Gateway
[ ] Remote Desktop Licensing                                           RDS-Licensing
[ ] Remote Desktop Session Host                                        RDS-RD-Server
[ ] Remote Desktop Virtualization Host                                 RDS-Virtualization
[ ] Remote Desktop Web Access                                          RDS-Web-Access
[ ] Volume Activation Services                                             VolumeActivation
[ ] Web Server (IIS)                                                       Web-Server
[ ] Web Server                                                         Web-WebServer
[ ] Common HTTP Features                                           Web-Common-Http
[ ] Default Document                                           Web-Default-Doc
[ ] Directory Browsing                                         Web-Dir-Browsing
[ ] HTTP Errors                                                Web-Http-Errors
[ ] Static Content                                             Web-Static-Content
[ ] HTTP Redirection                                           Web-Http-Redirect
[ ] WebDAV Publishing                                          Web-DAV-Publishing
[ ] Health and Diagnostics                                         Web-Health
[ ] HTTP Logging                                               Web-Http-Logging
[ ] Custom Logging                                             Web-Custom-Logging
[ ] Logging Tools                                              Web-Log-Libraries
[ ] ODBC Logging                                               Web-ODBC-Logging
[ ] Request Monitor                                            Web-Request-Monitor
[ ] Tracing                                                    Web-Http-Tracing
[ ] Performance                                                    Web-Performance
[ ] Static Content Compression                                 Web-Stat-Compression
[ ] Dynamic Content Compression                                Web-Dyn-Compression
[ ] Security                                                       Web-Security
[ ] Request Filtering                                          Web-Filtering
[ ] Basic Authentication                                       Web-Basic-Auth
[ ] Centralized SSL Certificate Support                        Web-CertProvider
[ ] Client Certificate Mapping Authentication                  Web-Client-Auth
[ ] Digest Authentication                                      Web-Digest-Auth
[ ] IIS Client Certificate Mapping Authentication              Web-Cert-Auth
[ ] IP and Domain Restrictions                                 Web-IP-Security
[ ] URL Authorization                                          Web-Url-Auth
[ ] Windows Authentication                                     Web-Windows-Auth
[ ] Application Development                                        Web-App-Dev
[ ] .NET Extensibility 3.5                                     Web-Net-Ext
[ ] .NET Extensibility 4.5                                     Web-Net-Ext45
[ ] Application Initialization                                 Web-AppInit
[ ] ASP                                                        Web-ASP
[ ] ASP.NET 3.5                                                Web-Asp-Net
[ ] ASP.NET 4.5                                                Web-Asp-Net45
[ ] CGI                                                        Web-CGI
[ ] ISAPI Extensions                                           Web-ISAPI-Ext
[ ] ISAPI Filters                                              Web-ISAPI-Filter
[ ] Server Side Includes                                       Web-Includes
[ ] WebSocket Protocol                                         Web-WebSockets
[ ] FTP Server                                                         Web-Ftp-Server
[ ] FTP Service                                                    Web-Ftp-Service
[ ] FTP Extensibility                                              Web-Ftp-Ext
[ ] IIS Hostable Web Core                                              Web-WHC
[ ] Management Tools                                                   Web-Mgmt-Tools
[ ] IIS Management Console                                         Web-Mgmt-Console
[ ] IIS 6 Management Compatibility                                 Web-Mgmt-Compat
[ ] IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility                               Web-Metabase
[ ] IIS 6 Management Console                                   Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console
[ ] IIS 6 Scripting Tools                                      Web-Lgcy-Scripting
[ ] IIS 6 WMI Compatibility                                    Web-WMI
[ ] IIS Management Scripts and Tools                               Web-Scripting-Tools
[ ] Management Service                                             Web-Mgmt-Service
[ ] Windows Deployment Services                                            WDS
[ ] Deployment Server                                                  WDS-Deployment
[ ] Transport Server                                                   WDS-Transport
[ ] Windows Server Update Services                                         UpdateServices
[ ] WID Database                                                       UpdateServices-WidDB
[ ] WSUS Services                                                      UpdateServices-Services
[ ] Database                                                           UpdateServices-DB
[ ] .NET Framework 3.5 Features                                            NET-Framework-Features
[ ] .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)                     NET-Framework-Core
[ ] HTTP Activation                                                    NET-HTTP-Activation
[ ] Non-HTTP Activation                                                NET-Non-HTTP-Activ
[X] .NET Framework 4.5 Features                                            NET-Framework-45-Features
[X] .NET Framework 4.5                                                 NET-Framework-45-Core
[ ] ASP.NET 4.5                                                        NET-Framework-45-ASPNET
[X] WCF Services                                                       NET-WCF-Services45
[ ] HTTP Activation                                                NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45
[ ] Message Queuing (MSMQ) Activation                              NET-WCF-MSMQ-Activation45
[ ] Named Pipe Activation                                          NET-WCF-Pipe-Activation45
[ ] TCP Activation                                                 NET-WCF-TCP-Activation45
[X] TCP Port Sharing                                               NET-WCF-TCP-PortSharing45
[ ] Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)                         BITS
[ ] IIS Server Extension                                               BITS-IIS-Ext
[ ] Compact Server                                                     BITS-Compact-Server
[ ] BitLocker Drive Encryption                                             BitLocker
[ ] BitLocker Network Unlock                                               BitLocker-NetworkUnlock
[ ] BranchCache                                                            BranchCache
[ ] Client for NFS                                                         NFS-Client
[ ] Data Center Bridging                                                   Data-Center-Bridging
[ ] Enhanced Storage                                                       EnhancedStorage
[ ] Failover Clustering                                                    Failover-Clustering
[ ] Group Policy Management                                                GPMC
[ ] Ink and Handwriting Services                                           InkAndHandwritingServices
[ ] Internet Printing Client                                               Internet-Print-Client
[ ] IP Address Management (IPAM) Server                                    IPAM
[ ] iSNS Server service                                                    ISNS
[ ] LPR Port Monitor                                                       LPR-Port-Monitor
[ ] Management OData IIS Extension                                         ManagementOdata
[ ] Media Foundation                                                       Server-Media-Foundation
[ ] Message Queuing                                                        MSMQ
[ ] Message Queuing Services                                           MSMQ-Services
[ ] Message Queuing Server                                         MSMQ-Server
[ ] Directory Service Integration                                  MSMQ-Directory
[ ] HTTP Support                                                   MSMQ-HTTP-Support
[ ] Message Queuing Triggers                                       MSMQ-Triggers
[ ] Multicasting Support                                           MSMQ-Multicasting
[ ] Routing Service                                                MSMQ-Routing
[ ] Message Queuing DCOM Proxy                                         MSMQ-DCOM
[ ] Multipath I/O                                                          Multipath-IO
[ ] Network Load Balancing                                                 NLB
[ ] Peer Name Resolution Protocol                                          PNRP
[ ] Quality Windows Audio Video Experience                                 qWave
[ ] RAS Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK)                       CMAK
[ ] Remote Assistance                                                      Remote-Assistance
[ ] Remote Differential Compression                                        RDC
[ ] Remote Server Administration Tools                                     RSAT
[ ] Feature Administration Tools                                       RSAT-Feature-Tools
[ ] SMTP Server Tools                                              RSAT-SMTP
[ ] BitLocker Drive Encryption Administration Utilities            RSAT-Feature-Tools-BitLocker
[ ] BitLocker Drive Encryption Tools                           RSAT-Feature-Tools-BitLocker-RemoteAdminTool
[ ] BitLocker Recovery Password Viewer                         RSAT-Feature-Tools-BitLocker-BdeAducExt
[ ] BITS Server Extensions Tools                                   RSAT-Bits-Server
[ ] Failover Clustering Tools                                      RSAT-Clustering
[ ] Failover Cluster Management Tools                          RSAT-Clustering-Mgmt
[ ] Failover Cluster Module for Windows PowerShell             RSAT-Clustering-PowerShell
[ ] Failover Cluster Automation Server                         RSAT-Clustering-AutomationServer
[ ] Failover Cluster Command Interface                         RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface
[ ] IP Address Management (IPAM) Client                            IPAM-Client-Feature
[ ] Network Load Balancing Tools                                   RSAT-NLB
[ ] SNMP Tools                                                     RSAT-SNMP
[ ] Windows System Resource Manager RSAT [Deprecated]              WSRM-RSAT
[ ] WINS Server Tools                                              RSAT-WINS
[ ] Role Administration Tools                                          RSAT-Role-Tools
[ ] AD DS and AD LDS Tools                                         RSAT-AD-Tools
[ ] Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell             RSAT-AD-PowerShell
[ ] AD DS Tools                                                RSAT-ADDS
[ ] Active Directory Administrative Center                 RSAT-AD-AdminCenter
[ ] AD DS Snap-Ins and Command-Line Tools                  RSAT-ADDS-Tools
[ ] Server for NIS Tools [DEPRECATED]                      RSAT-NIS
[ ] AD LDS Snap-Ins and Command-Line Tools                     RSAT-ADLDS
[ ] Hyper-V Management Tools                                       RSAT-Hyper-V-Tools
[ ] Hyper-V GUI Management Tools                               Hyper-V-Tools
[ ] Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell                      Hyper-V-PowerShell
[ ] Remote Desktop Services Tools                                  RSAT-RDS-Tools
[ ] Remote Desktop Gateway Tools                               RSAT-RDS-Gateway
[ ] Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnoser Tools                   RSAT-RDS-Licensing-Diagnosis-UI
[ ] Remote Desktop Licensing Tools                             RDS-Licensing-UI
[ ] Windows Server Update Services Tools                           UpdateServices-RSAT
[ ] API and PowerShell cmdlets                                 UpdateServices-API
[ ] User Interface Management Console                          UpdateServices-UI
[ ] Active Directory Certificate Services Tools                    RSAT-ADCS
[ ] Certification Authority Management Tools                   RSAT-ADCS-Mgmt
[ ] Online Responder Tools                                     RSAT-Online-Responder
[ ] Active Directory Rights Management Services Tools              RSAT-ADRMS
[ ] DHCP Server Tools                                              RSAT-DHCP
[ ] DNS Server Tools                                               RSAT-DNS-Server
[ ] Fax Server Tools                                               RSAT-Fax
[ ] File Services Tools                                            RSAT-File-Services
[ ] DFS Management Tools                                       RSAT-DFS-Mgmt-Con
[ ] File Server Resource Manager Tools                         RSAT-FSRM-Mgmt
[ ] Services for Network File System Management Tools          RSAT-NFS-Admin
[ ] Share and Storage Management Tool                          RSAT-CoreFile-Mgmt
[ ] Network Policy and Access Services Tools                       RSAT-NPAS
[ ] Print and Document Services Tools                              RSAT-Print-Services
[ ] Remote Access Management Tools                                 RSAT-RemoteAccess
[ ] Remote Access GUI and Command-Line Tools                   RSAT-RemoteAccess-Mgmt
[ ] Remote Access module for Windows PowerShell                RSAT-RemoteAccess-PowerShell
[ ] Volume Activation Tools                                        RSAT-VA-Tools
[ ] Windows Deployment Services Tools                              WDS-AdminPack
[ ] RPC over HTTP Proxy                                                    RPC-over-HTTP-Proxy
[ ] Simple TCP/IP Services                                                 Simple-TCPIP
[ ] SMTP Server                                                            SMTP-Server
[ ] SNMP Service                                                           SNMP-Service
[ ] SNMP WMI Provider                                                  SNMP-WMI-Provider
[ ] Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications [Deprecated]                     Subsystem-UNIX-Apps
[ ] Telnet Client                                                          Telnet-Client
[ ] Telnet Server                                                          Telnet-Server
[ ] TFTP Client                                                            TFTP-Client
[X] User Interfaces and Infrastructure                                     User-Interfaces-Infra
[X] Graphical Management Tools and Infrastructure                      Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra
[ ] Desktop Experience                                                 Desktop-Experience
[X] Server Graphical Shell                                             Server-Gui-Shell
[ ] Windows Biometric Framework                                            Biometric-Framework
[ ] Windows Feedback Forwarder                                             WFF
[ ] Windows Identity Foundation 3.5                                        Windows-Identity-Foundation
[ ] Windows Internal Database                                              Windows-Internal-Database
[X] Windows PowerShell                                                     PowerShellRoot
[X] Windows PowerShell 3.0                                             PowerShell
[ ] Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine                                      PowerShell-V2
[X] Windows PowerShell ISE                                             PowerShell-ISE
[ ] Windows PowerShell Web Access                                      WindowsPowerShellWebAccess
[ ] Windows Process Activation Service                                     WAS
[ ] Process Model                                                      WAS-Process-Model
[ ] .NET Environment 3.5                                               WAS-NET-Environment
[ ] Configuration APIs                                                 WAS-Config-APIs
[ ] Windows Search Service                                                 Search-Service
[ ] Windows Server Backup                                                  Windows-Server-Backup
[ ] Windows Server Migration Tools                                         Migration
[ ] Windows Standards-Based Storage Management                             WindowsStorageManagementService
[ ] Windows System Resource Manager [Deprecated]                           WSRM
[ ] Windows TIFF IFilter                                                   Windows-TIFF-IFilter
[ ] WinRM IIS Extension                                                    WinRM-IIS-Ext
[ ] WINS Server                                                            WINS
[ ] Wireless LAN Service                                                   Wireless-Networking
[X] WoW64 Support                                                          WoW64-Support
[ ] XPS Viewer                                                             XPS-Viewer

System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager error (0x8033803b)

Getting this error when trying to refresh a host in system center 2012 virtual machine manager?

Error (2927) A Hardware Management error has occurred trying to contact server meh.local :a:DestinationUnreachable :The WS-Management service cannot process the request. The service cannot find the resource identified by the resource URI and selectors. . Unknown error (0x8033803b) Recommended Action Check that WinRM is installed and running on server meh.local. For more information use the command "winrm helpmsg hresult".

And when you run that nifty command on the remote machine are you getting this?

C:\Windows\System32>winrm helpmsg 0x8033803b

The WS-Management service cannot process the request. The resource URI is missing or it has an incorrect format. Check the documentation or use the following command for information on how to construct a resource URI: "winrm help uris".

FIX: Then run this command on the host server. (from this KB)

sc config winrm type= own

This solved my issue and I was able to refresh the host.  One note is that I have two hosts, one is also a domain controller and it was the one I could not refresh. It saw the VMs but would not refresh the host info and I could not control the VMs. After running the command above it resolved it. that KB contains a number of fixes though so a different fix may apply to you.

0x80072ee2 Windows Update “Operation Timed Out” error in Hyper-V virtual machine

Sometimes I like to stump my future self by making a random change along the way that will eventually cause problems. By stump I mean spitting mad. Trolling myself? Perhaps. Anyway I made some bonehead change in my virtual lab at some point that was allowing everything but Windows Update and Activation through on my virtual machines. Every time I ran it I got the error code 0x80072ee2 "Operation Timed Out". One would think this would be a firewall issue, but even after disabling the firewall it still wouldn't work. the host could connect some of the time so I thought maybe a network issue but it wasn't that either. Eventually I found out one of my older VM's could still connect so I dug into what made it different. After a few hours of testing network settings I finally realized I should check the MAC address. Occasionally dynamic MAC addresses don't assign uniquely and you get two VMs sharing the same MAC. Even that wasn't the issue. The only difference in the machine was it was using a legacy network adapter. I'm still not sure why, but switching the problem VMs to legacy network adapters allowed to connect to Windows Update. Keep in mind they could connect to everything else on the internet just fine, and my local network.

So, if you're running a virtual machine that won't update and you're getting the error below, try switching the NIC to legacy in Hyper-V.

0x80072ee2 Windows Update "Operation Timed Out"

How to switch the NIC to legacy in Hyper-V:
*Warning, this will remove your network card settings such as the IP address. Make sure you have this info handy.

1. Shut down the virtual machine

2. Right click on the machine in Hyper-V Manager and go to settings.

3. Click on the existing NIC and click remove.

4. Click apply. After the settings are applied click on Add Hardware and then click on Legacy Network Adapter and add.

5. Connect it to your network, start the VM back up, and apply your TCP/IP settings such as IP address, etc.

Windows Server 2012 VM on a 2008R2 host with dynamic memory

One of the great things about Hyper-V 2.0 on Windows Server 2008 R2 is dynamic memory. It allows you to oversubscribe the host and plop more VMs down then the machine can physically handle. It then dynamically (hence the name) allocates memory based on demand from the virtual machines. What a great feature for a fledgling lab server with finite resources. However, it doesn't always play nice and I found this out as I started building Windows 2012 VMs. For whatever reason Windows Server 2012 as a virtual machine on Hyper-V 2.0 does not play well with dynamic memory. The 2012 VMs I created were excruciatingly slow because they never got more than 512MB of memory (which was my starting value). Once I set them to static memory they were happy.

I'm going to experiment some more and see if maybe the integration services were not installed and that's why. Or perhaps there is a patch or hotfix I need for the host. Regardless, the simple fix is to disable dynamic memory on your Windows Server 2012 virtual machines running on a Windows Server 2008 R2 host.

Server Upgrade

Yesterday I bought some RAM for my server to double it from 8GB to 16GB. RAM is dirt cheap, in fact 16GB was only $54 at the local Microcenter and I had a bad drive I needed to return for the same price. After swapping one type of memory for another I gleefully drove home excited to be able to run all my virtual machines at once only to find out that the motherboard only takes 8GB of RAM. Well, I'd been thinking about swapping parts between my less used gaming PC which has a 3 core AMD proc and 4 DDR3 slots with support for 32GB. While I was contemplating how well Windows would handle a complete chipset and platform swap my decided to commit suicide. I literally jumped in my seat when the power supply popped. Great, I had no spare power supplies. Back to Microcenter in rush hour traffic ... After a few hours of swapping, backing up, imaging, and loading drivers I managed to switch both a Windows 2008 and Windows 7 server and PC to completely different CPU platforms. The server went from Intel --> AMD and vice versa for the Win7 PC. I had no issues at all. I don't recommend it, but I really didn't want to reload either.

Here's what I ended up with.

Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows 7 PC

Yay! More rams and cpus