remote desktop gateway server is temporarily unavailable

I've been playing with RD Web this week, and was getting the following error when attempting to Connect to a remote PC - "remote desktop gateway server is temporarily unavailable" on my Server 2012 R2 test rig.

I'm able to use Remote Desktop Connection if I manually specify my gateway server settings. 
After much Googling it occurred to me that it could be because I'm running my RDWeb server on an unusual external port. I've already had to configure the HTTP and UDP Transport settings to match my bespoke port (RD Gateway Manager properties), so I drilled down into the Application Settings in IIS Manager and added :PORT# to the end of my FQDN in the DefaultTSGateway field.

I've ended up with something along the lines of:    rdw.domain.com:1234

This subtle change (after a refresh of the REWeb portal in the browser) seems to have done the trick.

samba reload - how not to drop existing connections

I had a requirement to make changes to a live samba server, where there were many many open files with locks reported by smbstatus

Previously I have forced users to close files so that configuration changes can take place, or done them out of ours (yawn!)

I stumbled across this Ubuntu forum post from 2008 in which bdowne01  imparts their wisdom and explains how to make the changes active without dropping open file locks.
I have successfully followed the advice and reloaded the smb.conf changes with 82 locked files open!

Thanks bdowne01 (Brian Downey?)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=903896

Re: samba restart without connection loss ?

 Originally Posted by dmizer 

A samba server MUST be stopped and then started before any new changes to smb.conf can be made available. There is no way to keep samba active and initiate changes to smb.conf. Most server services function in this way.

This is why I mentioned failover. If you need 100% uptime, you need a backup to your server.

No, no, no. This is absolutely false. I registered on this forum to reply to this message specifically. To get samba to recognize changes to its smb.conf *without restart*, as root:

1) First test your configuration file for errors:
# testparm /path/to/smb.conf; echo $?

If it exits '0' you're good to go.

2) Find the parent SMBD
# ps -ef | grep smbd

In the list find the process parented by Init, or process 1. This is the parent smbd daemon to the other servicing children.

#) Issue that pid a SIGHUP:

kill -1 <yourPID>

Done. This is regularly performed and confirmed to work without interruption a Samba cluster hosting thousands of clients.

Softether VPN client default route

Softether VPN Client

I've been using the built in Windows VPN client (L2TP) to connect to my VPN server, but had a problem with the MAC Address changing, thus was unable to assign a static one via DHCP.

To overcome this, I swapped to using the Softether Client, but discovered another issue.

I wasn't able to stop the VPN becoming my default route. It became THE gateway for all of my internet traffic... Something that I didn't want to happen. I'm using this to provide remote access to servers, not to hide my internet traffic, so I don't want it going half way across the world before getting out of the building.

There doesn't seem to be an obvious toggle to change this behaviour in the client software unlike the nice tick box that Microsoft provide, but I have discovered a work-around.

This is working for myself and a colleague, but YMMV. If there is a better way, please do let me know!

It involved a couple of steps:

• In softEther VPN Client Manager edit the Properties of your VPN. On the Advanced Settings... button, tick the No Adjustments of Routing Table under Other Configurations.
• Run ncpa.cpl (Network Connections from Control Panel)
• Edit the Properties of your VPN Client Adapter. Change the IPv4 TCP/IP settings; under Advanced change the Interface metric to 100 (for example)
• Edit the same value for the NIC you want to use for your internet and change it to a really low number. I used 1 for LAN and 2 for WiFi.

Test! You can check the routes and metric values from a command prompt using route print

This certainly worked for me and doesn't seem to have impacted my LAN sessions, even when the VPN is not connected.

It's not ideal, but if you find yourself in the same situation, it might just help!

AF Token present before mount (Reason is AF Token File Exists before AF Mount)

Hadn't seen this one before, so thought I'd better get it written down, before I forget how to fix it!

Microlite edgemenu giving the following error:

AF token present before mount

This is another historic site using af0/fsp0 attached file systems, and not SharpDrive.

I can't be fussed to change the config, I just need it to work.

In this example the fsp0 gets mounted onto af0. 

Our af0 is /usr/lib/edge/system/mnt/af0

Change directory to your af0 folder and then check with an ls -al

I expect you to see a .edge_af file - delete it!

rm .edge_af

Test!

Update Oct 2014:
I also had the same but the message was:

Reason is AF Token File Exists before AF Mount 

My mount path has also changed in v3 to :
/opt/microlite/backupedge/system/mnt/af0/

Reason is SharpDrive token file exists before mount

More fun fun fun with Microlite BackupEDGE.

A variation on the theme today and again, one that didn't seem to be covered by the FAQ on their support site.

Failed to initalise my disk :

Reason is SharpDrive token file exists before mount

Turns out that somehow I've managed to get a .edge.token in the directory where the disk gets mounted, but prior to the mount taking place!

For me it was 

/usr/lib/edge/system/mnt/sd.sdc1

ls -lt shows me that I had a token file there, even without the disk mounted.

A quick rm and problem is sorted!

Failed to schedule Software Protection service for re-start

I have been running Windows 8 for a while now, upgraded from 7.

I've been seeing the following error in my Event Viewer for a while and decided to look into it:

Failed to schedule Software Protection service for re-start at 2113-02-08T11:19:03Z. Error Code: 0x80070002.

After much searching I found this thread on Technet that covers deleting and reinstalling the offending scheduled task.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/winservergen/thread/6f986797-0db9-454d-9979-dbc625f09b82

So, with thanks to Yan Li I was able to stop the error occurring, but I did encounter a different error when attempting to import the task from my backup:

(24,9): Priority

The error message isn't very helpful, but comparing the XML with that of SvcRestartTaskLogon, I noticed that the following section in SvcRestartTask

<RestartOnFailure>
      <Priority>3</Priority>
      <Priority>PT1M</Priority>
</RestartOnFailure>

in SvcRestartTaskLogon is

<RestartOnFailure>

      <Interval>PT1M</Interval>

      <Count>3</Count>

</RestartOnFailure>

I changed the offending lines in SvcRestartTask and it now imports correctly.

Microlite BackupEdge again...

Info: Restore Failed With Exit Code 64

Helpful error message when attempting an Expert restore today - pulling back an inadvertently deleted file from last nights backup created with Microlite BackupEdge

What it actually meant to say was :

Info: Restore Failed - unable to create directory in restore location.

If you try to restore without selecting Flat Restore AND if a file with the same name as the folder you're attempting to restore exists in the Restore To: path, you'll get this error.