Windows Server 2008 R2 stuck in Recovery Mode

Windows Server 2008 R2 stuck in recovery mode

Today, i came across an issue where the server Stuck in Recovery mode and not booting up. It is giving only 3 options.
1. System Image Recovery
2. Windows Memory Diagnostic
3. Command Prompt

Other than these options, i dont see aany other windows open after server powered on. I have tried to boot the server in Safe mode Or last known Or CMD win networking etc.. but none of the options were displaying.

Then i have tried below Methods one by one and tried.

Method 1:
===============
1. Put the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation disc into the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when the message indicating "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …". appears.
3. Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7. Type sfc /scannow, and then press ENTER.

Method 2:
===============
1. Put the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press any key when the message indicating "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …". appears.
3. Select a language, time, currency, and a keyboard or another input method. Then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7. Type Bootrec /RebuildBcd, and then press ENTER.

Method 3:
===============
1. Put the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation disc into the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when the message indicating "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …". appears.
3. Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7. Type BOOTREC /FIXMBR, and then press ENTER.
8. Type BOOTREC /FIXBOOT, and then press ENTER.
9. Type Drive:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All, and then press ENTER.

Note: In this command, Drive is the drive where the Windows Server 2008 R2 installation media is located.

For me 3rd Method worked fine and server came to normal login page.

One More : https://arcserve.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202771725-System-boot-into-Windows-recovery-mode-after-BMR

Rebuild BCD settings

o   Boot from a Windows 2008 r2 sp1 CD then enter recovery mode console

o   Run command below in order to reset BCD

Bootrec /fixmbr
Bootrec /fixboot
BCDBoot D:\Windows  --consider D drive is the system drive
Bootrec /rebuildbcd
Bootsect /nt60 all /force

Thank You !!!

Error while joining a server to Domain "Not enough storage is available to complete this operation"

Today, i cam across an error while joining a 2003 Server to Domain and the error is

Error message when you use a Windows Server 2003-based domain controller to join a Windows XP-based client computer to a domain: "Not enough storage is available to complete this operation"

There is no problem with the connectivity with the Domain Controller, DNS and Domain Admin Credentials. After some investigation on this and followed below steps to fix the error.

Cause : This problem occurs because the Kerberos token that is generated during authentication is more than the fixed maximum size. In the original release version of Microsoft Windows 2000, the default value of the MaxTokenSize registry entry was 8,000 bytes. In Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and in later versions of Windows, the default value of the MaxTokenSize registry entry is 12,000 bytes.

To resolve this problem, increase the Kerberos token size. To do this, follow these steps on the client computer that logs the Kerberos event.

1.Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\Kerberos\Parameters

Note If the Parameters key is not present, create the key. To do this, follow these steps:
Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\Kerberos
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key. Type Parameters, and then press ENTER.
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value. Type MaxTokenSize, and then press ENTER.

3.On the Edit menu, click Modify.
4. In the Base area, click Decimal, type 65535 in the Value data box, and then click OK.

Note The default value for the MaxTokenSize registry entry is a decimal value of 12,000. We recommend that you set this registry entry value to a decimal value of 65,535.

Exit Registry Editor.

Restart the computer.

Windows Activation Error "an unauthorized change was made to windows server 2008"

While logging into one Windows 2008 servers, i got below error message and not allowing me to login to the server. 

an unauthorized change was made to windows server 2008

Windows 2008 is showing error window, "an unauthorized change was made to windows windows server 2008".

You will no longer receive notifications, including those about your license or activation.

Error No. 0xC004D401

The security processor reported a file mismatch error.

This Server is not loging to Administrator.  It showing the message upto Preparing your desktop.  after that the same error is showing. As per the error I can see that the issue is with the Windows License\Activation problem.

So, i need to verify the windows licensing options on the server but server is not showing any other consoled other than error page.

Then, below steps were worked me to get the server back to normal mode.

1) Click the option that launches an Internet Browser

2) Type: %windir%\system32 into the address field

3) Find the file cmd.exe

4) Right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as Administrator

5) Type: cscript %windir%\System32\slmgr.vbs /ilc %windir%\System32\licensing\ppdlic\Security-Licensing-SLC-ppdlic.xrm-ms

6) Hit the Enter key

7) Reboot the server. 

After executing these steps on the server, it came to normal login console and allowed me to login. 

Thank You !!!

Active Directory Performance Counters Issue

Performance of Any application we can observe using Performance counters on windows server. These counters will install while installing the application on the server. If we install active Directory on the server it will install performance counters too.

Few cases we did not find the perf. counters on the servers. Most of the cases the issue withe enable or disable counters registry in registry keys. We have that option where we can enable/Disable performance counters in the registry keys. Registry path for the AD is as below:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS: in this registry we have one sub registry "DisablePerformanceCounters" key to enable or disable counters. If the value is set to 0 that means counters were enabled. We need to make sure that the value should be Zero to enable counters.

Once we done with the above registry we need reload the counters to Performance counters using the command "lodctr.exe /r" in Windows\System32 folder. Once we done with the loading counters we can see the counters in the performance counters.

To transfer these counters to WMI repository we need to use "WMIADAP.EXE /F" command. This ADAP (AutoDiscovery/AutoPurge) process will load the counters to WMI repository forcefully. Once we done with the above process we must restart the WMI service on the server. If you fail to restart the WMI service go for reboot and check.

Solution 2: If you are unable to find the above registry on the server we can export from any other Domain controller and import on the target server. These counters will differ based on the OS version of the server. We need to Import windows 2003 server AD registry keys to Windows 2003 server only. same for 2008 servers also.

Once you done with the above steps you will get missed performance counters on the server.

Unable to execute "msinfo32" command in Run

if we are unable to execute "msinfo32" may be the reason with "help and Support" service not installed on the server. In order to get the issue resolved we need to re-register "Help and Support service" on the server. Below us the procedure to fix the issue.

launch Command prompt and locate "C:\Windows\pchealth\helpctr\binaries"
folder by typing CD \windows\pchealth\helpctr\binaries
do run the following commands on it
Start /w helpsvc /svchost netsvcs /regserver /install
net start helpsvc