Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019 & 2022 How To’s
If you repeatedly see RESET SERVER NODE in your Windows Server Update Servers (WSUS) console we have found three things that resolve it: Reduce The Number Of Approved Updates This should not be a problem, but I have seen it be a problem repeatedly. You should reduce the number of Read more…
If you have problems with Internet Explorer like: IE will not launch IE crashes frequently IE will not refresh IE will not connect IE will only run when using RIGHT CLICK, RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR … We will go through the fixes from easiest and fastest to more technical solutions: Clear Read more…
If you have a Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server and you find some of the PC’s on your network are showing updates stuck at 0% Downloading, the problem may be with the WSUS server. After performing all the usual fixes for WSUS (restarting WSUS and BITS services, reboot, SERVER Read more…
When you see error 0x80244022 in Windows update or in the Windows Update log, it relates to a networking error. If you are using WSUS, it could be an indication that the IIS AppPool running your WSUS has stopped and needs to be started: Start IIS Manager Expand APPLICATION POOLS If Read more…
What Is the Windows Internal Database: Microsoft introduced the Windows Internal Database (WID) with Server 2008 and it has been included with every version of Windows Server since. It is designed to be used exclusively for use by Microsoft products and can not be purchased or downloaded separately. During its development it Read more…
This video demonstrates how to install Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) on Windows Server 2016. We also quickly show the Group Policies required to have your office PC’s use the WSUS server as their source for updates.
| Hardware | Low-end 500 or fewer clients | Typical 500–3,000 clients | High-end 3,000–20,000 clients, or rollup of 30,000 clients | Super high-end 10,000 clients, or rollup of 100,000 clients |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1 GHz | 1.5 GHz or faster | 3 GHz hyper threaded processor, x64 hardware | 3 GHz hyper threaded dual processor |
| Graphics card | 16 MB hardware accelerated PCI/AGP video card capable of 1-24*86*16bpp | 16 MB hardware accelerated PCI/AGP video card capable of 1-24*86*16bpp | 16 MB hardware accelerated PCI/AGP video card capable of 1-24*86*16bpp | 16 MB hardware accelerated PCI/AGP video card capable of 1-24*86*16bpp |
| RAM | 1 GB | 2 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB |
| Page file | At least 1.5 times physical memory | At least 1.5 times physical memory | At least 1.5 times physical memory | At least 1.5 times physical memory |
| I/O subsystem |
Fast ATA/IDE 100 hard disk or equivalent SCSI drives |
Fast ATA/IDE 100 hard disk or equivalent SCSI drives | Fast ATA/IDE 100 hard disk or equivalent SCSI drives | Fast ATA/IDE 100 hard disk or equivalent SCSI drives |
| Network card | 10 MB | 100 MB | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Hard drive—system partition | 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Hard drive—content storage | 20 GB | 30 GB | 30 GB | 30 GB |
| Hard drive—SQL Server installation | 2 GB | 2 GB | 2 GB | 2 GB |
To have the PC’s on your network use your new WSUS server you need to make a few simple registry entries which you can easily handle using the following Group Policy:
If you are updating the firmware on a Dell Server you and see “The Operation Failed Due To An Invalid Image File”, you likely have Dell Open Manage Server Administrator (OMSA) open and looking at one of the disks you are trying to update. The solution is to close Dell Read more…
Normally when you have a problem with Windows Update there are two processes you should go through: Download and install the Update manually (rather than relying on the Windows Update GUI) Reset your Windows Update: Launch SERVICES.MSC, and STOP both “WINDOWS UPDATE” and “BACKGROUND INTELLIGENT TRANSFER SERVICE” then set them Read more…
When I started working NIC Teaming I thought that “link aggregating” two NIC’s would double my throughput and while that is possible, it is not likely and here is why.
When you link aggregate or Team Network cards using the common standards of the last decade, each NIC will still only connect to one system at its maximum speed (often 1GB). Teaming / Link Aggregation lets that same server connect to a second system (say another server or a desktop PC) at it’s maximum speed (often 1GB). So, if you have a single 10GB connection on SERVER A, and SERVER B has two 1GB teamed NIC’s, those two servers will only talk at a 1GB maximum. The two 1GB NIC’s on SERVER B will not double the throughput to 2Gb.
Creating a network adapter team is generally an easy way to double triple or quadruple your throughput but there are a number of annoying roadblocks to get around with Broadcom NIC’s Broadcom NIC Teaming Gotchas: Install the latest Broadcom firmware and drivers Unplug your network cables while creating the team Read more…
Yes, you can run Server 2016 VM’s on Server 2012 R2 Host. In general Mircrosoft supports the release immediately after the host operating system (i.e. 2012 on 2008 R2, 2012 R2 on 2012 R1,…)
Windows Server 2016 is expected to be able to host Windows Server 2019 VM’s but as of today’s date the official line up for Server 2016 hosting VM’s is:
| Guest Operating System | Maximum Virtual Cores | Integration Services |
| Windows Server 2016 | 240 for generation 2 | Built-in |
| Windows Server 2016 | 64 for generation 1 | Built-in |
| Windows Server 2012 R2 | 64 | Built-in |
| Windows Server 2012 | 64 | Built-in |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 | 64 | Install all critical Windows updates after you |
| Windows Server 2008 with SP2 | 8 | Install all critical Windows updates after you set up the guest operating system. |
| Windows 10 | 32 | Built-in |
| Windows 8.1 | 32 | Built-in |
| Windows 7 with SP1 | 4 | Upgrade the integration services after you set up the guest operating system. |
Recently we have received a number of complaints from people that Microsoft Windows Server 2016 does not have Shadow Copies so Previous Versions no longer functions. While this is more or less true in Windows 10 (you need a second hard disk to make it work), it is not true Read more…
If you are running a default WordPress installation on IIS you will find that you can upload files into the MEDIA LIBRARY without any problem but if you try to download those files, you will see a 500 INTERNAL SERVER ERROR or a 500.50 URL REWRITE MODULE ERROR (depending on Read more…
If you are running WordPress on your own IIS server (i.e. Windows Server 2016 or Windows 10), you may find that the default 2MB size limit for media is very difficult to change following instructions for those that have WordPress installed on hosted sites. This short video provides the simple Read more…
A default install of IIS on Server 2008, 2012 or 2016 does support URL rewriting the way WordPress expects. This means that if you change the PERMALINK structure from the default (and ugly and SEO killing) page ID so your URLs look like: http://www.URTech.ca/?page_id=4 . If you do change the Read more…
Installing and configuring Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) on Server 2016 or Server 2012R2 is straight forward. There are four key steps:
To be clear, the process below will take you 20 minutes of work time to complete, but because you have to wait for the install to complete (5-15mins) and then the initial sync to complete (several hours), you will need a day to get your WSUS server functional.
To add the WSUS role launch SERVER MANAGER > MANAGE > ADD ROLES > then click next through to the ROLES and select WSUS. Then click NEXT to the end. Do NOT change the defaults.