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Windows 2008 r2 sp2 snafu

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 3:21 pm
by steelcity_ballin
We have a particular server at work that was originally designated as a team foundation server. Something happened, what, I can't say. The result however was a necessary restore. Since that restore, all the shortcuts are busted, and anytime you try to access a page served by that server's IIS, you get prompted for credentials.

I tried the normal google-fu but nay, it was weak. The only way I can even get into IIS is through the run prompt and the command for it. Any ideas what could have happened? I'm more of a programmer these days and not a systems admin or IT guy unless it's hardware related. Thanks in advanced.

Re: Windows 2008 r2 sp2 snafu

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 5:06 pm
by Chrispy_
What kind of restore? I'm not pretending to be an IIS expert, but I have also had system restore (using backup exec) completely fail to correctly recover a web server running on IIS in a working, page-serving state.
Since I was doing something pretty experimental on the server I'd already done a clonezilla disk image of the whole damn server to a USB drive and ended up using that to restore it to a working state.

Now, I don't know what you used to do your backup/restore but IIS whatever it is, IIS DOES NOT LIKE YOU YOUR BACKUP METHOD !

If I were in your shoes (and in the absence of any actual expert advice) I would be checking certificates and CA's first.
If that sheds no light think about removing IIS + sharepoint (I assume TFS is a sharepoint-y thing, not having actually used it) from that server and trying to restore just the site data rather than the whole machine. Can't hurt to try since it's already bust and you've still got the original backup, by the sound of it.....

Re: Windows 2008 r2 sp2 snafu

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 7:51 am
by steelcity_ballin
Thanks for the reply - I'm not sure what warranted the restore in the first place, but I was told it was a restore from tape or some other backup, not just a rollback via a restore point. Since then, all the shortcuts are missing or don't work. And any administration tools such as IIS also do not work. If I were to use INETMGR from a command line that does work, furthering my idea that just the shortcuts are all borked. So bizarre!

Re: Windows 2008 r2 sp2 snafu

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 10:12 am
by LaChupacabra
It could the the account that you are using to log in to the server. I've had some experience like this with MMC consoles. The locally cached profile somehow gets corrupt and you can't access the administrative tools, but the services themselves are running fine. Try making a new account with administrative privileges and logging in with that. If IIS and the other admin stuff load you know you need to recreate the administrator profile (which, I've never actually done but should be easy enough).

Re: Windows 2008 r2 sp2 snafu

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 2:24 pm
by steelcity_ballin
Thanks again for your reply. After some more investigating today, the issue may be farther reaching than I'd like. I looked into the registry for common file associations like .bat and similar. Not only are they not associated, they aren't even listed as in the designation does not exist. Someone seriously screwed this thing up. The profile is hosed and the registry looks likes it's on it's way. I'm getting Symantec endpoint errors every few minutes so who knows :s

Re: Windows 2008 r2 sp2 snafu

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 6:14 pm
by Chrispy_
If the profile looks hosed, it could well be what LaChupacabra suggested.

Worst-case, go back to the guys doing your backups/restores and check how they did the restore. When restoring a server, even overlooking simple things like different MAC addresses (for a rebuilt VM) or the AD container/machine SID/effective group policy inheritance can screw things up - especially to certificate and credential-depenedant things like IIS.

I know it's not that simple but for me a restore is a restore to a working state. If your restored machine is still busted, then the guys who took your backup/snapshot need to get involved.

Re: Windows 2008 r2 sp2 snafu

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 1:22 pm
by chetan_savade
@ steelcity_ball

What errors you are facing every few minutes?

Could you please confirm SEP verison and error details.

Re: Windows 2008 r2 sp2 snafu

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 1:31 pm
by steelcity_ballin
chetan_savade wrote:
@ steelcity_ball

What errors you are facing every few minutes?

Could you please confirm SEP verison and error details.



Basically no matter who connects to the machine RDP or otherwise, there are entire file types not handled at all. Worse, I tried to look into fixing the registry thinking they were somehow disassociated from the correct program to handle them however they don't exist at all. I managed to fix a separate problem with credentials and sharepoint on this server but the original problem of most programs and administrative tools cannot open and have lost association to anything that might have launched them. For example, IIS will not open without using the run prompt and typing 'INETMGR'. I will mostly likely have to restore these 1 at a time.

Re: Windows 2008 r2 sp2 snafu

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:18 pm
by BE_zee
Hi,
I am a Backup Exec support engineer and wanted to help with your restores if this is a Backup Exec issue. Let me know.

Thanks

Re: Windows 2008 r2 sp2 snafu

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:45 am
by chetan_savade
steelcity_ballin wrote:
chetan_savade wrote:
@ steelcity_ball

What errors you are facing every few minutes?

Could you please confirm SEP verison and error details.



Basically no matter who connects to the machine RDP or otherwise, there are entire file types not handled at all. Worse, I tried to look into fixing the registry thinking they were somehow disassociated from the correct program to handle them however they don't exist at all. I managed to fix a separate problem with credentials and sharepoint on this server but the original problem of most programs and administrative tools cannot open and have lost association to anything that might have launched them. For example, IIS will not open without using the run prompt and typing 'INETMGR'. I will mostly likely have to restore these 1 at a time.


Hi,

You got any success after system restore? are you still seeing Symantec errors & if yes could you please share with us.

Re: Windows 2008 r2 sp2 snafu

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:48 am
by steelcity_ballin
A system restore did not fix the problem. I was able to resolve my issue with IIS but that's about it. Because it's a busy time for my company, we are unable to take the time to do a proper file-by-file restore as well as restoring the proper file associations. It's a production machine too, so I'm unsure of how anyone could have gummed it up so bad as only a handful of us have access as it is.