Initially, I had integrated Office 365 with Server 2012R2 so we could sync the passwords. This worked fine until recently. In the Windows Server Essentials Dashboard, all online accounts were shown as 'unknown', and when I tried to import online users (or do anything that required the online services) I got an error saying: "Cannot connect to Microsoft online services".

So, I thought I could remove the integration, and try to re-integrate it again. I removed the Azure Active Directory, and Office 365 integration. Which worked fine. However, when I want to integrate with Office 365 again, I get the error I used to get. To integrate Office 365, I took the following steps:

-Open the Windows Server Essentials Dashboard

-In Home, under Services, I went to "Integrate with Microsoft Office 365", and clicked on "Integrate with Microsoft Office 365".

-In the wizard I checked "I already have a subscription" and clicked next.

-I entered a valid user name/password combination and clicked next.

-I checked that I understand that the password policy will be set to strong and clicked next.

-Then a progress bar appears for a short while, and then I get the "Cannot connect to Microsoft online services" error again.

Does anybody know how I can resolve this?

This is a repost of a question I asked in the WSUS forum (wrong place)

Hello, 

I've been running WS2012R2 Essentials for 8 months or so without incident or problems until this morning.

I have 4 client computers which are backed up by the server (2 - Win 7 Pro &  2 - Win 10 Pro) as of this morning all 4 of the Machines are missing from the Devices tab.  As is the Server itself

The Windows connector icon on each machine shows the machine to be connected, and looking at the directory where the backups are stored it appears that the backups did occur. Also the server twice daily backups are functioning as well as observed by drive activity. 

I tried to disconnect one machine from the server and re-attach and get an error "cannot connect to the Windows Server Essentials Client Computer Management Service on your network computer"

I see there was a large update installed on the server during the night and suspect that this may have caused the issue.

This server is a Active Domain server.

Any ideas?

UPDATE:  Backups are not running - they last ran at 3:00 AM prior to the update which appears to have been applied arround 5:45 AM.  Before I start backing out the updates, has anyone experienced this ?

I have the same issue when installing connector on Win 7, 8 and now 10.  I can ping and connect to the server shares manually no problem at all but I can't get to any of the WSE 2012 r2 site/application.  Even localhost/connect from the server itself gives me that error below.  Looks like something is corrupted with IIS but the everything came back ok with the EssentialsTester.ps1 tool v2.02.  Ii feel that IIS (.NET and ASP) are at cause of the issue since I can't connect to the server website.  I did restart, IIS and all sites are running, etc...  

Any chance we can 'reset' IIS to default in WSE 2012?  Or if I spin a VM with WSE 2012 on it, can I use some files to rebuild IIS on my server and if yes which one?

BTW clientdeploy.log says download failed because it can't reach server.  see below:

any help would be greatly appreciated.  I can always reinstall but that would take lots of time to reconfigure GPO, apps, backup etc... so I would prefer if I can fix the web apps on that server instead.  also other pc with connectors already installed still works so it's really an issue with IIS.

cheers



I have two Dell rack mount machines which come with Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials pre-installed. One of the servers runs our application, the other 'server' is simply used to make an RDP connection to the first server. Of course Windows 10 would have been adequate for the RDP client machine but Dell only offer server versions of Windows on their rack mount servers.

Is there any problem having two 2012 R2 Essentials servers on the same network? Given that I'm only using the RDP client on the second server is that going to be an issue? Will the servers detect each other? What stops working if an additional server is detected? I have read about a 21 day grace period, will something stop working after 21 days?

Regards Andrew

Will someone help me with this error?

After appling the latest Windows 10 updates, I started receiving "Computer Monitoring Error".  This error is related to only one of the Windows 10 machines on the network.  This information comes from the Health Assessment Report.  More information below:

Can only partially assess the health of this computer. The failing components are: DeviceProviderReporting!DomainJoinStatusInfo

I have been running Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials on Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 (server core) for some time.  I have also been using a 2nd Hyper-V server as a replica.

I recently reconfigured the hard drives on my primary Hyper-V server and then copied the VHDX files from replica server to my new primary server.  (I did not have enough space to try and export the VM from the replica server first and simply copying the VHDX files seemed to work.)

But I've been having sporadic problems in which none of the Users can be seen from the dashboard.  In trying to find a solution I found a mention of restarting the Windows Server Essentials Management Service.  The service was already running, but I've found that restarting the service will temporarily allow me to see all the Users from the dashboard.  But they later disappear again from the Dashboard.

This doesn't seem to have any adverse impact upon the client computers.  The users are still able to access files and folders on the Essentials server.

I'm hoping to find a way to fix this problem without having to find extra hard drive space and export the Essentials VM from the replica server before re-installing it on my new primary Hyper-V server.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

Theokrat

First: yes, I have copied the "Drivers for Full System Restore" folder to the USB key I made to do the system restore.  That does not appear to help.

The system restore wizard is unable to access the Ethernet controller in the laptop.  It is an Intel Pro/1000 chipset, I believe.  Thus, I am unable to do a system restore from my server.

Does anyone know where I can find the right drivers and what I need to do to install them?

Thanks.

Yesterday I downloaded MS server 2012 r2 Essentials, activated it and proceeded to set it up, connect workstations, etc.  I was a happy camper!

Today I am no longer a happy anything.  This morning, as expected, updates were available so I started the download of the updates.  When done, it said some updates failed and that it would roll the back out.  It required a restart.  

The restart then failed with EC: 0xC004F01F (Activation kei invalid) !  Tried re-entering the key but no go.

Anyone run into this?  Any way to recover?  I did a lot of work yesterday.  I don't want to lose it.

HELP!!!!

I hope someone can help me with a licencing question.

Hello all,

I can't browse my own website from my own server running Windows Server 2012 Essentials. If I go to remote.lgc-siliconvalley.com it works and I can see Remote Web Access that I set up when I installed Windows Server 2012 Essentials.

I installed a wildcard certificate on my server and my Host (No-IP.com) I have it set up as *.lgc-siliconvally.com which I believe is recommended for wildcard.

I don't know what settings I need to change on my server so that it resolves when I just type the address lgc-siliconvalley.com and popup my website Remote Web Access. Not just typing remote.lgc-siliconvalley.com.

PS This was working normally earlier and I don't know what I did to make it not work anymore.

I get this on Chrome when I go to my website lgc-siliconvalley.com:

<!-- Web.Config Configuration File --><configuration><system.web><customErrors mode="Off"/></system.web></configuration>

<!-- Web.Config Configuration File --><configuration><system.web><customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="mycustompage.htm"/></system.web></configuration>

Please let me know what more info you guys need. Thank you.

Hi, although the system contains plenty of space in both the storage space and drive pool, my WS 2012 Essentials repported that their was a problem with a client backup and recommended repairing it.  I have done so, the repair apparently completed without complaint, but now when I check the client backups, all of my backups prior to 2016 are now marked "incompltete".  That is, the backups which consisted of drives C and D now only contain drive C.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Note also that the server backup process has been failing too (even though it has plenty of space0.

Windows Server 2012 Essentials R2.

Comcast Cisco DPC3939B modem/router/wifi.  No static ip.

Server set to 10.1.10.2.

Gw 10.1.10.1

Prior to Anywhere Access, I could log into router easily via 10.1.10.1, now I cannot.  Remote.mydomain.com doesn't seen to work either.

Used CAcert.org for root cert and installed cert etc via anywhere access wizard etc.  Opened ports 80, 443, 3389 and wizard finished successfully.

Tried going to remote.mydomain.com on my android note 3, anywhere access Web seemed to work briefly, now nothing...Something about cannot resolve name.  Maybe something in WSE R2 is messed up in the DNS or the router?

Also rebooted everything several times.  If I leave the server off and reboot workstations and router I can get into 10.1.10.1.  But cannot once server boots.

Thank you for any help... stumped.

To add to injury I have never been successful RDP (MS android app) to server externally even with port 3389 open.  Even tried with firewall down.  So hoping this certificate thing will allow this...obviously can RDP local network.

EDIT:

I followed this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXBiV3pQrLg

Hi all,

Since I have upgraded the Windows 10 clients to version 1511 the Essentials 2012 R2 dashboard shows offline but they are connected to the domain and work fine (but no Essentials Client backup since one month).

I have reinstalled and reconfigured the Essentials connector for Windows 10 KB2790621 but same problem occurs.

Can somebody help me ?

Many thanks in advance.

Bruno.

Hi,

I'm attempting to install the DHCP role on my WS2012 Essentials server, and it fails with error 0x800f0922. I've tried the usual reboots, etc., to no avail. Other roles have successfully installed.

Here is what looks like the pertinent section in the c:\windows\logs\DISM\dism.log file:

Any help would be appreciated, as I can't cut over operations from another server to this Essentials server until I get DHCP working.

I apologise in advance form the seemingly basic question, and thank you for the time spent in answering it - here goes....

I am looking to setup a small office and want to setup a remote desktop connection to a server in the office. Which version of Server OS do I need? There will be one person in the office using a 'client' PC to connect internally to the server and I will use RDC - there may be a maximum of one other remote user - but seriously no more than that.

I am so confused by Server 2012 Std v's Essentials and User and device CALs. My needs are small but my head is spinning with people trying to sell me stuff I will never need.

Many thanks

Hi All,

Windows Essentials 2012 R2, it is home server with 1 client PC at this time. It is also the domain controller.

I asked a question here awhile ago about moving server to new hard drive and got some very good advice however the common requirement was to have the original installation files so I could boot the server and restore full back to new drive. Problem is I don't have them and I have searched on and off for the past few weeks trying to find instruction on creating a bootable flash drive and can't find anything. I found one article about using DistPart but all that got me was an empty formatted flash drive.

I thought I would try a different approach and wanted to ask if this would work before starting.

1. Create full backup

2. Install new drive as a 3rd HD , format and restore full backup to it

3. Swap new drive for old drive 

If this will not work if someone could please give some advice as how I would create/get flash drive to boot the server so I can restore backup to new drive

Thanks for any and all help

Steve

Thanks Steve

Hello! 

I have win server 2012 ess. How I can log users access to it? I need control access to files "read/write/deleting"

Hey there to everyone.

Here goes nothing. So I was able to create that file and put it on iso and system automatically reads file and everything is ok, well almost last part kills me....... I don't know how many retries already been through. Maybe some of you already had that problem.........

Is it possible that parameter <AdministratorPassword> is not passed correctly or i made wrong adjustment?

System Windows 2012 r2 essential.

ps. yes I'm fully aware that drive is different that was what I wanted achieve....

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <OEMInformation>
                <Manufacturer>zzz</Manufacturer>
                <SupportURL>www.yyy.com</SupportURL>
            </OEMInformation>            
            <UserAccounts>
                   <AdministratorPassword>
                     <Value>not_real_password_just_value_for_forum:)</Value>
                      <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                   </AdministratorPassword>
            </UserAccounts>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="en-US" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            
            <SetupUILanguage>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
            <InputLocale>en-US</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
        
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="en-US" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <DiskConfiguration>
                <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                <Disk wcm:action="add">
                    <CreatePartitions>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <Size>500</Size>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Active>true</Active>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>System Reserved</Label>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>SYSTEM</Label>
                            <Letter>R</Letter>
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
            </DiskConfiguration>
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                    <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>
            <UserData>
                   <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>    
                    <ProductKey>
                          <Key>zxcxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</Key>
                          <WillShowUI>Never</WillShowUI>
                       </ProductKey>
            </UserData>
        </component>
    </settings>
</unattend>

Following the advice of others, when computer backups routinely failed on my Win 8.1 machine to the server running essentials 2012 (R1), I disconnected the computer from the server, uninstalled the connector software and tried to start again.  I attempted to download the connector software from the server itself htp://servername/connect and was able to download it but when running the Windows server essentials connector configuration wizard, the program continually crashes after entering a user name and password. The error is "Windows server client deployment Wizard has stopped working"-- A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.  Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available- .  

Should I or can i upgrade to R2 (or do I need to buy a different license)? Any suggestions on how to get the computer connected again?

Hello all,

I cannot able to login into domain controller as Administrator or another user which having administrator permission. Error is "Your account is disabled"

server os is Windows server 2012 R2 also its having raid configured.

Please help me.

Thanks in advance.

RICK