Windows 2008 R2 – cryptosvc – the service name is invalid – windows backup fails – sfc fails – windows updates fail
The title of this article sounds ... well just terrifying. If you run into a system with this many issues, its likely easier to just rebuild it from scratch, right? WRONG! I'm stubborn and figure some things are worth the challenge. Ultimately, this was a fairly critical exchange server that would take a lot of work to rebuild.
To approach a problem like this, we follow the trail of issues.
First noticed issues: Windows Backups are failing and Windows Updates will not install.
The system is Windows 2008 R2 64bit Enterprise Edition with Exchange 2010 SP1.
1) Verify the system filesystem integrity using SFC
C:\>sfc /scannow
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
From this you would normally interpret corruption and seek out the affected files by using the following command:
C:\Windows\system32>findstr/C:"[SR] Cannot repair member file" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
The interesting thing in our case was the "findstr" command returned nothing. So we skipped this step and moved onto the next one for the time being. Who wants to dig through tens of thousands of lines? not me!
2) Diagnose and attempt to repair the Windows Backup issues
The Windows Backup utility was failing with "The operation was stopped. Detailed Error: The System Writer is not found in the backup". System State Backup Failed.
First thing to check is THAT exactly.
c:\> vssadmin list writers
You're looking for this:
Writer name: 'System Writer'
Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
Writer Instance Id: {05407ce0-b537-4973-a731-e7ed614a9a9e}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error
If your list does not include the "System Writer", that's a problem. A fairly common one at that. The windows backup utility requires this tool.
If you dig around online you'll find an arsenal of articles outlining permission errors on a specific set of windows folders that cause the System Writer to fail. We've done the research for you. The following script will reset permissions on those folders back to default.
Create a batch file called "fixPermissions.bat" and copy/paste the following:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\filemaps /a
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(F)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps /grant "BUILTIN\Users:(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps /grant "Administratoren:(RX)"
Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\* /a
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(F)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "BUILTIN\Users:(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "Administrators:(RX)"
Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /a
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant "Administrators:(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(F)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant "BUILTIN\Users:(RX)"
Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames\*.* /a
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames\*.* /grant "Administrators:(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames\*.* /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames\*.* /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(F)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames\*.* /grant "BUILTIN\Users:(RX)"
net stop cryptsvc && net start cryptsvc
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Run it from an elevated command prompt to ensure you have adequate permissions. As the impressive matrix like text runs down your screen, take notice to the very last command when it all finishes.
"net stop cryptsvc && net start cryptsvc"
You should see this:
The Cryptographic service is stopping..
The Cryptographic service was stopped successfully.
The Cryptographic service is starting.
The Cryptographic service was started successfully.
At this point reboot your system and run "vssadmin list writers" to verify if the "System Writer" is now listed. If so, you can test your backup again and it's likely to be working. If the VSS Writer is NOT Listed, but the "Net start cryptsvc && net start cryptsvc" was successful, you are experiencing a different issue and the following steps are not applicable (Please contact our support team if you require assistance).
In our case, the "cryptsvc" doesn't appear to be registered correctly. Instead or returning the successful stop/start on the Cryptographic service, we received:
The service name is invalid.
More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2185.
3) Verify the Cryptographic service is enabled and operating correctly
Start -> services.msc
Wait! "The service name is invalid" actually means it's not registered and you'll likely realize that when you can't find the service in the services list.
At this point you'll likely start wondering how the? where did it go? We honestly couldn't tell you, but it's really easy to fix. Using another Windows 2008 R2 System, export the missing registry values .
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\CryptSvc
If you load regedit and browse to this location, you'll notice the CryptSvc is missing. On your secondary system, right click the CryptSvc and export it to a file. You can then double click this file on your problematic system to import the missing values.
If you do not have access to another system, copy the content below into a registry file and double click to load.
File Name: cryptsvc.reg (use whatever you want as long as it ends in .reg)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\CryptSvc]
"DisplayName"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\cryptsvc.dll,-1001"
"ImagePath"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,\
74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,\
00,76,00,63,00,68,00,6f,00,73,00,74,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,2d,00,\
6b,00,20,00,4e,00,65,00,74,00,77,00,6f,00,72,00,6b,00,53,00,65,00,72,00,76,\
00,69,00,63,00,65,00,00,00
"Description"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\cryptsvc.dll,-1002"
"ObjectName"="NT Authority\\NetworkService"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000002
"Type"=dword:00000020
"DependOnService"=hex(7):52,00,70,00,63,00,53,00,73,00,00,00,00,00
"ServiceSidType"=dword:00000001
"RequiredPrivileges"=hex(7):53,00,65,00,43,00,68,00,61,00,6e,00,67,00,65,00,4e,\
00,6f,00,74,00,69,00,66,00,79,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,\
67,00,65,00,00,00,53,00,65,00,43,00,72,00,65,00,61,00,74,00,65,00,47,00,6c,\
00,6f,00,62,00,61,00,6c,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,\
65,00,00,00,53,00,65,00,49,00,6d,00,70,00,65,00,72,00,73,00,6f,00,6e,00,61,\
00,74,00,65,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,\
00,00
"FailureActions"=hex:80,51,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,14,00,00,\
00,01,00,00,00,60,ea,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\CryptSvc\Parameters]
"ServiceDll"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
63,00,72,00,79,00,70,00,74,00,73,00,76,00,63,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,\
00
"ServiceMain"="CryptServiceMain"
"ServiceDllUnloadOnStop"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\CryptSvc\Security]
"Security"=hex:00,00,0e,00,01
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Once you've loaded the registry file and repaired the missing data, reboot your system. You should now see the "Cryptographic Services" running in the "services.msc" list, "sfc /scannow" will return no errors, the "System Writer" will show up in the "vssadmin list writers" list, and your Windows Backup and Windows Updates will complete successfully.
Hopefully this helps you avoid a complete re-installation!
Samsung SyncThru Web Service default Username and Password
We had some fun getting in touch with someone at Samsung who actually knew what we were talking about.
As such, hopefully this saves you all some time.
Username/ID: admin
Password: sec00000 (that's 5 zeros)
The session setup from the computer %% failed to authenticate. The following error occurred: Access is denied.
Event ID: 5805
The session setup from the computer %computername% failed to authenticate. The following error occurred:
Access is denied.
We ran into a client with PCs that would not authenticate to his domain controllers.
After further investigations, the client had configured an RODC for a remote office and had not yet added the specific user or computer groups to the trusted list.
Just for those how are not aware, EVERY COMPUTER in a domain has an account (just like a user account, except it ends with $).
Add User & Computer Security Groups to the RODC Cache:
Active Directory Users & Computers -> Right Click -> Properties of the RODC -> Password Replication Policy -> Add
Choose the Computers individually or add the entire "Domain Computers" security group, or even better, create a new security group for the specific computers you would like this RODC to authenticate.
Once you've added them to the "allow" status in this window, reboot the PC and allow 15+ minutes for replication to the RODC to complete.
Voila!
Sharepoint Foundation 2010 Search returns no results
SharePoint foundation 2010 includes basic searching features. Despite all rumors and recommendations to upgrade to higher level searching packages, the basic SharePoint search works quite well ... and it's very useful.
If your SharePoint server is not returning search results, the following may help you resolve the issue. It's important to create the right accounts, enable the right services, assign the accounts to these services and finally attach the search server to your web applications.
Let's begin ...
1) You need to create (2) domain accounts for Searching and Crawling. Using the Farm Account (or default accounts) is not recommended. In our example we will use "spSearch" and "spCrawl". Use complex passwords!! These domains accounts should only be standard users, no administrative privileges should be applied.
2) Log into the SharePoint Central Administration Page
3) CA > Security > General Security > Configure Managed Accounts > Register Managed Account.
- Enter in "domain\spSearch" and the password you chose
- Click "OK".
- You should now see this account in the Managed Account list
3) CA > System Settings > Servers > Manage Services on Server > SharePoint Foundation Search -> Start.
- Service Account -> "Domain\spSearch"
- Content Access Account (Crawl) -> "Domain\spCrawl" and the password you chose
- Leave everything else as defaults (you can change the Database Name if you are having issues)
4) CA > Security > General Security > Configure service accounts
- Choose "Windows Service -> SharePoint Foundation Service"
- Choose "Domain\spSearch" for the account selection
- Click "OK"
5) CA > Application Management > Manage Content Databases
- This is important! For each site you want automatically crawled, you must assign the search server.
- In the top right corner under "Web Application", choose the web applications to be crawled, one at a time followed by a click on the "database name" column once they are loaded.
- In the profile page, change the "Search Server" and "Preferred Server for Timer Jobs" to your server.
- Click "OK"
- Repeat for any other Website Applications you wish crawled
6> CA > Monitoring > Timer Jobs > Review Timer Jobs > SharePoint Foundation Search Refresh
- Choose "Run Now" to begin indexing your web applications (sites)
- This can take several hours depending on the size of your database(s). Please be patient.
7> If you're feeling eager and have a background in SQL, you can use the SQL Management Studio to check the progress. If you are not familiar with SQL, don't be a hero ... this can cause major damage.
- Load the SQL Management Studio
- Expand the search database created in the earlier steps (typically WSS_Search_%hostname%)
- Right click the database -> new query
- Enter in the following Query:select * from msscrawlhostlist
(execute)
You will be presented with a table of results including a column for Hostname and SuccessCount.
SuccessCount increases as it indexes each page. - You can also lookup the crawl summary with:select * from MSSCrawlURLLog
- And should there be any error codes in the MSSCrawlURLog, they can be referenced with:select * from MSSCrawlErrorList where ErrorID = '<ERRORID>'
If you run into issues where things are still not being crawled, i would suggest deleting the spCrawl and spSearch from SharePoint and Active Directory, re-creating them from scratch, repeating this entire process, and changing the "database" value in step 3). This will re-create the crawling database from scratch.
Good luck!
PDF icon missing in Sharepoint 2010
The default installation of SharePoint 2010 does not include an icon for PDF documents.
Here's how to fix that:
- Log onto the sharepoint server
- Browse to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES"
- Save the following image into this folder:
(right click to save to your PC) - Browse to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML"
- Edit "DOCICON.XML"
- Add the following line '<Mapping Key=”pdf” Value=”icpdf.png”/>' into the existing items
- Save the modified XML file
- Start -> Run -> iisreset /noforce
That's it!
PDF icon will now show up whenever a PDF document is listed.
Win XP RDP client fails to print Calibri font correct when connected to Win 2008 Server
Windows XP users using RDP to a Windows 2008 server may experience issues printing documents that contain Calibri. Locations that are not formatted with Calibri will print normally. This issue persists when using the Easy Print feature with XPS.
This is a known issue and Microsoft has released a hotfix for it.
Sadly, as you read the attached hotfix info you will notice that you have to call them to get the file.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946411
We located it here:
http://thehotfixshare.net/board/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=9930
(although we recommend calling microsoft to get it, you can likely find it online somewhere)
After installation, the RDP clients were printing Calibri correctly.
(BES) Blackberry Enterprise Activations – SMTP/Whitelist for in-bound activation e-mails
When adding a new user to your Blackberry Enterprise Server, a very specific e-mail is sent to the user's inbox with an activation password. The e-mail is NOT sent locally within your network. Your local BES server will issue the request through one of the many external blackberry servers housed all over the world. To ensure the mail arrives, add the following networks to your spam whitelist to allow delivery.
| IP Address | Netmask |
| 206.51.26.0 / 24 | 255.255.255.0 |
| 193.109.81.0 / 24 | 255.255.255.0 |
| 204.187.87.0 / 24 | 255.255.255.0 |
| 216.9.240.0 / 20 | 255.255.240.0 |
| 93.186.16.0 / 20 | 255.255.240.0 |
| 68.171.224.0 / 19 | 255.255.224.0 |
| 206.53.144.0 / 20 | 255.255.240.0 |
| 67.223.64.0 / 19 | 255.255.224.0 |
| 74.82.64.0 / 19 | 255.255.224.0 |
| 173.247.32.0 / 19 | 255.255.224.0 |
| 178.239.80.0 / 20 | 255.255.240. |
If you do not whitelist these networks and you do filter spam, don't say we didn't warn you!
Quickbooks 2011 – Firewall Ports
If you are deploying Quickbooks in a client/server fashion and you have an active firewall on your server, the following ports must be opened for the client PCs to successfully connect.
TCP/IP Ports: 55333-55342, 56719, 56720, 8019
Happy accounting!
Resetting a Cisco UC520 to factory defaults by CLI
There are two components to reset.
Voicemail CUE reset:
- Service-module Integrated-Service-Engine 0/0 session. (Hit ‘enter’ twice to get a prompt).
- Type ‘offline’ to go into the offline mode
- Type in ‘y’ when you are prompted with ‘Are you sure you want to go offline[n]?’
- Type in ‘restore factory default’
- Type in ‘y’ when you are prompted with ‘Do you wish to continue[n]?’
- Press the Enter key when prompted to ‘Press any key to reload:’ (This reset can take 5-10 minutes. Wait until the CUE message ‘SYSTEM ONLINE’ is displayed before proceeding.)
- Exit the CUE by typing ‘exit’
iOS Reset:
- Get into IOS command line mode.
- Type 'enable' mode (default password is 'cisco').
- Type in 'show flash:'
- Page down and look for something like ... UC520-8U-4FXO-K9-FACTORY (this is the factory default configuration...never copy TO this file!!)
- Type in 'copy flash: <filename you found> startup' . (This will copy your default config file TO the startup-file in NVRAM.)
- Once that is complete, type 'reload'
- Type 'Y' twice.
Once rebooted, plug a laptop into one of the internal ports and set it for DHCP. You will be provided a 192.168.1.X address. Connect to 192.168.10.1 with your CCA and you can start the wizards.
Thanks to Phil @ UC500.com for this. Used it 6 times. The CCA on 3.0 is just HORRIBLE to reset. Failed every time.
Update: There have been instances where the reset does not take properly. If you successfully reset the Voicemail CUE, try resetting the iOS config only again. If this fails, run the entire process again. Both parts. If you cannot connect to the service-module to reset the Voicemail CUE, revise the ACL for the Voicemail system to allow all incoming/outgoing. It's generally ACL 101.
