Monthly Archives: July 2014

SYSVOL and Group Policy out of Sync on Server 2012 R2 DCs using DFSR

Recently while making changes to group policy, I noticed a slew of issues between clients not accepting the policy. This eventually led me to the discovery that two of the DCs in this particular environment were not replicating properly and were resulting in inconsistent SYSVOL shares.

Symptoms

On the clients we were seeing the following errors when executing the gpupdate command:

Event Viewer Logs

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy
Date: 7/25/2014 10:46:45 AM
Event ID: 1096
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: mymachine.mydomain.local
Description:
The processing of Group Policy failed. Windows could not apply the registry-based policy settings for the Group Policy object LDAP://CN=Machine,cn={CF25ED30-3895-4147-8EB7-38789553F6A0},cn=policies,cn=system,DC=mydomain,DC=local. Group Policy settings will not be resolved until this event is resolved. View the event details for more information on the file name and path that caused the failure.

On the DCs we were seeing the following events inside of Event Viewer -> Applications and Service Logs -> DFS Replication

Log Name: DFS Replication
Source: DFSR
Date: 7/25/2014 1:04:30 PM
Event ID: 4612
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: DC02.mydomain.local
Description:
The DFS Replication service initialized SYSVOL at local path C:\Windows\SYSVOL\domain and is waiting to perform initial replication. The replicated folder will remain in the initial synchronization state until it has replicated with its partner DC01.mydomain.local. If the server was in the process of being promoted to a domain controller, the domain controller will not advertise and function as a domain controller until this issue is resolved. This can occur if the specified partner is also in the initial synchronization state, or if sharing violations are encountered on this server or the sync partner. If this event occurred during the migration of SYSVOL from File Replication service (FRS) to DFS Replication, changes will not replicate out until this issue is resolved. This can cause the SYSVOL folder on this server to become out of sync with other domain controllers.

Additional Information:
Replicated Folder Name: SYSVOL Share
Replicated Folder ID: 2276C68D-BC24-46BF-B492-067919163EDA
Replication Group Name: Domain System Volume
Replication Group ID: D50C64AE-0A01-4F97-B838-069F0BCBE369
Member ID: 7ADF2D7C-7947-412C-A619-C0C0D72F6A9C
Read-Only: 0

Log Name: DFS Replication
Source: DFSR
Date: 7/25/2014 1:04:30 PM
Event ID: 5002
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: DC02.mydomain.local
Description:
The DFS Replication service encountered an error communicating with partner DC01 for replication group Domain System Volume.

Partner DNS address: DC01.mydomain.local

Optional data if available:
Partner WINS Address: DC01
Partner IP Address: 192.168.1.5

The service will retry the connection periodically.

Additional Information:
Error: 1753 (There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper.)
Connection ID: D50C64AE-0A01-4F97-B838-069F0BCBE369
Replication Group ID: 4DCE6A8E-6271-48B6-A0D0-5447718B8FAB

Solution

We ended up having to manually preform an authoritive synchronization between the two DCs. As you may know, DFSR no longer uses the same steps as FSR to do an authoritive sync. Below are my notes and expereinces on completing an authoritive DFSR sync. You can find the ofificial notes from Microsoft here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2218556/en-us

Logon to your primary DC
Stop the DFS Replication service
1. Click on the Start menu, select Administrative Tools, and then click Services
2. In the Name column, right-click DFS Replication or Netlogon, and then click Stop
Open up ADSI Edit
Open up the Default naming context
Navigate to the following
1. CN=SYSVOL Subscription,CN=Domain System Volume,CN=DFSR-LocalSettings,CN=<the server name to replicate from>,OU=Domain Controllers,DC=<domain>
Change the following attributes to the following values
1. msDFSR-Enabled=FALSE
  msDFSR-options=1
  
  Both values applied
  1. Note: If you cannot see msDFSR-options, uncheck Show only attributes that have values
On the ALL other DCs, change the msDFSR-Enabled attribute to False
Force Active Directory replication throughout the domain (ensure all sync resposnes terminate with no errors).
1. repadmin /syncall primary_dc_name /APed
  1. NOTE: Here is a list of what the switches mean
    1. /A: Perform /SyncAll for all NC's held by <Dest DSA> (ignores <Naming Context>)
    2. /P: Push changes outward from home server (default: pull changes)
    3. /e: Enterprise, cross sites (default: only home site)
    4. /d: ID servers by DN in messages (instead of GUID DNS)
Start the DFSR service back up on the authoritive DC
1. Click on the Start menu, select Administrative Tools, and then click Services
2. In the Name column, right-click DFS Replication or Netlogon, and then click Start
Open up event viewer and navigate to Applications and Services Logs -> DFS Replication. Verify you see Event ID 4114.
Navigate back to the following in ADSI
1. 1. CN=SYSVOL Subscription,CN=Domain System Volume,CN=DFSR-LocalSettings,CN=<the server name to replicate from>,OU=Domain Controllers,DC=<domain>
Set the value of msDFSR-Enabled to TRUE
Execute the following via an elevated command prompt
1. DFSRDIAG POLLAD
  1. NOTE: This is a utility apart of DFS Managment Tools. I completed the guide successfully without running this command, but Microsoft recommends you do run this command.
Force Active Directory replication throughout the domain
1. repadmin /syncall primary_dc_name /APed
Wait a few minutes and you should see Event ID 2002 and 4602
Navigate back to each of your secondary DCs and change the value of msDFSR-Enabled to TRUE
Execute the following via an elevated command prompt
1. DFSRDIAG POLLAD
  1. NOTE: This is a utility apart of DFS Managment Tools. I completed the guide successfully without running this command, but Microsoft recommends you do run this command. Force Active Directory replication throughout the domain
Verify you see Event ID 2002 and 4602 on each of the secondary DCs

At this point, try running a gpupdate on your client. If all has gone well, each of your shared SYSVOL folders on your DCs should contain the same amount of policies and your client should successfully pull down all policies.

System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager – Deploying Endpoint Protection

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This guide is in continuation to my guide on deploying system center 2012 r2 configuration manager, as found here.

In this tutorial, we will cover basic deployment/configuration of Endpoint Protection to client workstations. This tutorial is largly based off of user anyweb's guide on windows-noob.com Make sure to give him some credit over on his forum 🙂 Adding the Endpoint Protection role, configure Alerts and custom Antimalware Policies

Definition

Per the following Technet article (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh508781.aspx) Endpoint Protection in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager provides security, antimalware, and Windows Firewall management for computers in your enterprise.

When you use Endpoint Protection with Configuration Manager, you have the following benefits:

You can configure antimalware policies and Windows Firewall settings to selected groups of computers, by using custom antimalware policies and client settings.
You can use Configuration Manager software updates to download the latest antimalware definition files to keep client computers up-to-date.
You can send email notifications, use in-console monitoring, and view reports to keep administrative users informed when malware is detected on client computers.

Creating Endpoint Protection Hierarchy via Folders

Launch the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console
On the Assets and Compliance pane, select Device Collections, and then right click and select Create Folder
Enter Endpoint Protection for the folder name and click OK
Select your Endpoint Protection folder under Device Collections and create two more folders called Endpoint Protection Managed Clients and Endpoint Protection Managed Servers

Create Device Collections to categorize devices managed by SCCM

Launch the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console
On the Assets and Compliance pane, select Device Collections, Endpoint Protection Managed Clients, and right click select Create Device Collection
Enter Endpoint Protection Managed Desktops for the name and then a comment describing what the group will hold (Desktops in this example), and then click Browse...
Select All Systems and click OK
Click Next >
Click Next >
Click OK on the dialog box explaining we have set no rules
Click Next >
Click Close
Repeat steps 2-9 to create another group for Laptops
Select Endpoint Protection Managed Servers and repeat steps 2-9 to create the following groups
1. Note: This step is optional, this i more for organization. If you don't have all of these services/servers deployed in your environment, you don't have to create these Collections.
  1. Endpoint Protection Managed Servers - Configuration Manager
  2. Endpoint Protection Managed Servers - DHCP
  3. Endpoint Protection Managed Servers - Domain Controller
  4. Endpoint Protection Managed Servers - Exchange
  5. Endpoint Protection Managed Servers - File Server
  6. Endpoint Protection Managed Servers - Hyper-V
  7. Endpoint Protection Managed Servers - IIS
  8. Endpoint Protection Managed Servers - Operations Manager
  9. Endpoint Protection Managed Servers - SharePoint
  10. Endpoint Protection Managed Servers - SQL Server

Enable the Endpoint Protection Role

Launch the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console
Select Administration, Site Configuration, Servers and Site System Roles, and right click on your Primary site and select Add Site System Roles
Click Next >
Click Next >
Check Endpoint Protection point
Click OK on the Configuration Manager dialog
Click Next >
Check I accept the Endpoint Protection license terms and click Next >
Check Advanced membership and click Next >
1. Note: MAPS can be joined with a basic or an advanced membership. Basic member reports contain the information described above. Advanced member reports are more comprehensive and may include additional details about the software Endpoint Protection detects, including the location of such software, file names, how the software operates, and how it has impacted your computer. These reports, along with reports from other Endpoint Protection users who are participating in MAPS, help Microsoft researchers discover new threats more rapidly. Malware definitions are then created for programs that meet the analysis criteria, and the updated definitions are made available to all users through Microsoft Update. See http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh508835.aspx for full details.
2. My thoughts on this are to go with Advanced. If you are using the AV product, may as well help contribute towards making the product detect anomalies more accurately (I'll turn my Microsoft fan-boyness off now :))
Click Next >
Click Close

Configuring Endpoint Protection Alerting

Email Alerting
Device Collection Alerting

Configure SUP for Endpoint Protection

Launch the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console
Select Administration, Overview, Site Configurion, Sites and select Settings, Configure Site Components, Software Update Point
Select the Products tab and then check Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 and click OK
Select Software Library, expand Software Updates and right click on All Software Updates and select Synchronize Software Updates
Click Yes on the Run Synchronization dialog box

Configure SUP to deliver Definition Updates using an Automatic Deployment Rule

Create a new shared folder called EndpointProtection in your WSUS directory
Share the folder with the Everyone group
1. Right click on the folder and select Properties
2. Select the Sharing tab and then click the Share... button
3. Type Everyone and then click Add. Ensure the Permission level is Read and then click Share
Launch the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console
Select Software Library, Expand Overview, Software Updates, and select Automatic Deployment Rules. Right click and select Create Automatic Deployment Rule
Enter in a Name and Description for your Automatic Deployment Rule and then click on the Browse... button
Select one of the Device Collections we made prior back and then click OK
Click Next >
Click Next >
Check Date Released or Revised and and Product, set Date Released or Revised to Last 1 day and Product to Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 and click Next >
Check Run the rule on a schedule, click the Customize... button, and then select 1 days at 12:00AM, and click Next >
Set Time based on UTC and set Installation deadline As soon as possible and click Next >
Check Servers on Device restart behavior (this will prevent a server from restarting from an update), and click Next >
Check Generate an alert when the following conditions are met and click Next >
1. NOTE: This is an optional step. If you would like to set an alert to be triggered when X% of your clients do not have the latest virus definitions, use this option. If you do not wish to be alerted leave the box unchecked and click Next > In this particular example, after 15% of the clients have virus definitions out of date will receive an alert.
Check Download software updates from distribution point and install, check Download and install software updates from the fallback content source location, and click Next >
1. Optionally, you can check If software updates are not available on preferred sitribution point or remote distirbution point, download content from Microsoft Update, to always ensure your client has a source to download the latest virus defitions.
Enter Endpoint Protection Definition Updates for the Name, the following Description: This new deployment package will contain our Endpoint Protection defition updates. We will run this automatic deployment rule only once and then retire it. We do this in order to create the Deployment Package. In the next automatic deployment rule we will select this package instead of creating a new deployment package., and type in the share path to your sccm folder (\\sccm\EndpointProtection). Click Next >
Click Add, Distribution Point
Check your site and click OK
Click Next >
Ensure Download software updates from the Internet is checked and click Next >
Check the languages you want to support and then click Next >
Click Save As Template..., click Browse... and enter Endpoint Protection Managed Servers and click Save
Click Next >
Click Close
Right click on your Endpoint Protection rule and select Disable
Repeat steps 3-23, using Endpoint Protection Managed Servers as a template in Step 4 for each of the Device Collection groups we created.

Configure custom antimalware policies

In this section we will configure how Endpoint Protection will function on the client machines.

Launch the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console
Select Assets and Compliances, Endpoint Protection, and then click the Create Antimalware Policy button
Set a Name and Description for your Endpoint Protection Antimalware Policy, and then check each of the boxes for the options you wish to configure. Go through each of the tabs and customize how you wish the agent to run. Then click OK
Right click on your custom policy and click Deploy
Select the group you wish to target (in this case, configuration manager), and click OK

Configure Custom Device Settings

In this section we will configure the client policy to tell the machine it is managed by Endpoint Protection.

Launch the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console
Select Administration, Client Settings, and then click on Create Custom Client Device Settings
Enter in a Name (Custom Client Device Settings - Endpoint Protection Managed Servers - Configuration Manager), Description (Custom client device settings for servers related to configuration manager), and check Endpoint Protection
On the Endpoint Protection tab use the following settings and then click OK
1. Manage Endpoint Protection client on client computeres: Yes
  Allow Endpoint Protection client installation and restarts outside maintenance windows. Maintenance windows must be at least 30 minutes long for client installation: Yes
Right click on your new Custom Client Device Settings policy and select Deploy
Select the group of machines you want to deploy the agents to and select OK

Verify the client shows the policy

Open the Endpoint Protection agent and select About
Verify you see your custom antimalware policy

System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager - Client Web Service Point and Deploying the SCCM Agent

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This guide is in continuation to my guide on deploying system center 2012 r2 configuration manager, as found here.

This guide will go over installing the Application Catalog to allow users to choose software they may wish to download and install (that you have already approved), configuring the SCCM client options, deploying the client, and verifying the client has been installed.

Configuring Application Catalog

Launch the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console
Click on Administration in the bottom left corner
Expand Site Configuration and select Sites and right click on your site and select Add Site System Roles
Click Next >
Click Next >
Check Application Catalog Web Service Point, Application Catalog Website Point, and click Next >
Click Next >
1. NOTE: If you have a PKI environment, go ahead and check HTTPS and hit Next > to encrypt your network traffic
Click Next >
Enter your Organization name, select a Website theme, and click Next >
Click Next >
Click Close
Verify you can access the website from a remote machine (you will need Silverlight in order to browse the page)
1. https://sccm.mydomain.com/cmapplicationcatalog

Configuring SCCM Agent Settings

Launch the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console
Click on Administration in the bottom left corner
Click Client Settings, right click on Default Client Settings, select Properties
Select Computer Agent and then click on the Set Website... button near Default Application Catalog website point
Select the value that matches your intranet FQDN and click OK
Select Yes under Add default Application Catalog website to Internet Explorer trusted site zone
Click on Software Updates and schedule software updates to happen every 1 days
1. NOTE: We want software updates to scan every day to deploy Endpoint Protection (antivirus) defitions to all of our clients. If you will not be using Endpoint Protection, you may want to leave this at 7 days or however frequently you wish to push updates.
Click on User and Device Affinity and set Allow user to define their primary devices to Yes
1. NOTE: What is User Device Affinity? User device affinity in Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager is a method of associating a user with one or more specified devices. User device affinity can eliminate the need to know the names of a user’s devices in order to deploy an application to that user. Instead of deploying the application to all of the user’s devices, you deploy the application to the user. Then, user device affinity automatically ensures that the application install on all devices that are associated with that user. More info can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg699365.aspx
Click OK

Preparing deployment credentials to install SCCM Agent to clients

Launch the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console
Click on Administration in the bottom left corner
Select Site Configuration, Sites, and then click Settings->Client Installation Settings->Client Push Installation
Check Enable automatic site-wide client push installation and check all options to under System types to cover all machines in your environment
1. NOTE: This step is optional. If you wish to manually deploy the SCCM client every time you add a machine to your environment, leave this option unchecked.
Select the Accounts tab and then click the yellow star and select New Account
Enter in the SCCMCP user credentials (that have local admin privileges on the remote machines), click the Verify button, and type in the path to one of the shared folders on your machine.
Click Test Connection and hit OK on the Configuration Manager dialog
1. NOTE: If this step failed, ensure your folders are being shared properly. The sharing properties on this folder should have been configured automatically when WSUS was being installed.
Click OK

Deploy the SCCM Agent to clients

Launch the System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager console
Select Devices, right click on the client you wish to deploy the agent to and select Install Client
Click Next >
Check Always install the client software optionally check the others and click Next >
1. Note: Since we only have one site, the Install the client software from a specific site option will default to your only site and in this case, since we aren't installing the agent on a domain controller, the first checkbox won't be applicable during installation.
Click Next >
Click Close

After about 5 minutes or so, you should see an entry in your start menu called Software Center. If you see this, you have successfully deployed the SCCM client! 🙂

Jack Stromberg

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