13 posts tagged with "PowerShell"

Distributed File System (DFS) has some service dependencies - so if those don't start the DFS Namespace service will also not start.

The dependencies are:

• Remote Registry
• Security Accounts Manager
• Server
• Workstation

I have seen the Remote Registry service become the culprit of the DFS-N service not starting.

In my experience, this had been caused by antivirus software changing the Remote Registry service to Disabled start-up type so when the DFS-N server restarts, one of the dependency services:

Remote Registry does not start so if you have issues with the DFS-N service not starting – check the Remote Registry Start-up type is configured to Automatic and click Start to confirm there are no errors and try starting the DFS-N service again.

Note: RemoteRegistry – although it is Automatic, will only Start when it is being used so don't be alarmed if it is in a 'Stopped' state.

I have also created a PowerShell script to do some general checking for the DFS namespace service – which sets the Remote Registry service to Automatic startup then gets the other DFS dependency services and changes the startup type to Automatic and starts them and finally tries to start the DFS Namespace service.

#requires -Version 2.0

<#
.SYNOPSIS
  Starts the DFS service

.DESCRIPTION
  Changes the Remote Registry service to Automatic start-up and Start the DFS NameSpace service dependencies, then start the DFS namespace service. 
  If the service does not start, it will retrieve the last 10 event log items from the DFS log.

.NOTES
  Version:        1.0
  Author:         Luke Murray (Luke.Geek.NZ)
  Creation Date:  20/03/17
  Purpose/Change: 
  20/03/17 - Initial script development
  11/06/18 - Updated script formatting

.EXAMPLE
  ./Start-DFS-Service.ps1
  
#>

#---------------------------------------------------------[Script Parameters]------------------------------------------------------

$ServiceName = 'DFS'
$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

#-----------------------------------------------------------[Execution]------------------------------------------------------------

Try 
{
  Get-Service -Name RemoteRegistry | Set-Service -StartupType Automatic
}
Catch 
{
  Write-Verbose -Message 'There is an issue changing the Remote Registry Service to Automatic Startup Type' -Verbose
}
Try
{
  $ServiceDependency = Get-Service -Name $ServiceName -DependentServices
  $ServiceDependency | Set-Service -StartupType Automatic | Start-Service
  Write-Verbose -Message "$ServiceName dependencies have started. Will now try starting the $ServiceName service.." -Verbose
}
catch [Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ServiceCommandException]
{
  [Management.Automation.ErrorRecord]$e = $_

  $info = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property @{
    Exception = $e.Exception.Message
    Reason    = $e.CategoryInfo.Reason
    Target    = $e.CategoryInfo.TargetName
    Line      = $e.InvocationInfo.ScriptLineNumber
    Column    = $e.InvocationInfo.OffsetInLine
  }
  Write-Verbose -Message 'Opps! There was an error:' -Verbose
  $info
}
Catch 
{
  Write-Verbose -Message "There was an issue starting $ServiceName dependencies" -Verbose
}

try
{
  Try
  {
    Start-Service -Name $ServiceName
    Write-Verbose -Message "The $ServiceName service has started." -Verbose
  }
  Catch 
  {
    Get-WinEvent -LogName Microsoft-Windows-DFSN-Server/Operational | Select-Object -Last 10
  }
}

catch
{
  [Management.Automation.ErrorRecord]$e = $_

  $info = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property @{
    Exception = $e.Exception.Message
    Reason    = $e.CategoryInfo.Reason
    Target    = $e.CategoryInfo.TargetName
    Line      = $e.InvocationInfo.ScriptLineNumber
    Column    = $e.InvocationInfo.OffsetInLine
  }
  Write-Verbose -Message 'Opps! There was an error:' -Verbose
  $info
}

Note: Script is also hosted on my Github repository. Feel free to clone/recommend improvements or fork.

Microsoft Azure has a good user portal where you can do most things, however when it comes to automation, gathering a lot of information at once and more in-depth scenarios that the Portal doesn’t quite offer – PowerShell is used.

Before you can use PowerShell to connect to Microsoft Azure, you need to install the Azure Resource Manager modules first – follow the guide below:

• Install and configure Azure PowerShell

Once the Az modules has been installed – you can now connect to Azure.

Usually you would have to go through the process of logging in to Azure, finding what subscription you need to connect to and then selecting that manually, however I have created a little function that will connect to Azure and automatically populate a list of the subscriptions that your account has access to in a window which you can then select to connect to which makes the process easier without having to remember different Azure subscription names or ids. This function can easily be used in any environment. I have it loaded as part of my PowerShell profile script so the function can be run from the second I open up a new PowerShell prompt.

Note: Script is also hosted on my Github repository. Feel free to clone/recommend improvements or fork.

Option 1​

1. Open My Computer/Computer
2. In the URL or address bar paste: %windir%\system32\GroupPolicy
3. Right click and delete the: Machine and User folders to clear local group policy cache
4. Restart the computer to reapply the group policies

Note: You can also run: gpupdate /force on the machine to force the policy to reapply.

You can also run the little PowerShell oneliner as Administrator to remove the Group Policy folder and all files below:

#requires -Version 1.0
#Requires -RunAsAdministrator

Remove-Item "$env:windir\system32\GroupPolicy" -Force -Recurse

Option 2​

1. Delete the “HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft Key (looks like a folder).
2. Delete the “HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft Key
3. Delete the “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects Key.
4. Delete the “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies Key.

Option 3​

1. Remove the computer from the domain (change to a Workgroup)
2. Restart computer
3. Run gpupdate /force
4. Rejoin the domain