How to find your KMS Servers. (Key Management Service)

I recently had a need to find our enterprise KMS servers.  Fortunately, this can be easily accomplished by one of the following two methods:

1. Run the following nslookup command:
nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp

2. On my Windows 8.1 machine,  I ran the following vbs script (included with my load).  This method presents you with a popup window with the KMS server info.
Slmgr.vbs /dlv

Once you have the KMS server, run the following to register your server.
slmgr /skms "kms server Hostname/IP"
slmgr /ato

Done Deal!

Rescan Disks option Grayed Out

I recently recieved a request from one of our DBAs to extend a drive on a VM.  No problem right?  We've done it 1000's of times.

The VM was running Windows Server 2012 R2.  I extended out the drive/vmdk in VMware and consoled into the VM.  However, this time, the Rescan Disks option was grayed out. (or grEyed out for all my UK friends)

I was about to give the server a reboot, but decided give the following Powershell command a shot.

update-hoststoragecache

This resolved the issue, I was able to successfully extend the drive.  No reboot required.

May 15th 2018 - Confirmed this works on Server 2016.

Adobe Flash Player - An ActionScript error has occurred. SecurityError: Error #2060

Recently I've been getting a ton of Adobe ActionScript errors in Internet Explorer:

***Update - Aug 18th 5PM Pacific*** It appears that Microsoft has released a patch sometime today:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3089023

You can use Window Update to install the patch or download the patch from the link above.  Fingers crossed:

Bottom line:
Here's the official Microsoft KB regarding this issue:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3087916

As of Aug 18th, this is a known issue with Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2. Microsoft is still resolving this issue.  I'm patiently waiting for an update from Microsoft.   Til then, I will continue use Google Chrome...

Additional Details:

Looks like Microsoft and Adobe issued the following Security Advisory on Aug 11th:
https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/2755801
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb15-19.html

Then, it appears that Microsoft pushed out the debug version of Adobe Flash by mistake.  Here's what I see on: https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player.html

I tried various downloads and they do not seem to work (Or they have already been installed. Ex: KB3079777).   Since the Adobe Flash Player is integrated with Internet Explorer in Windows 8,  I can not find an standalone install.

Azure Site Recovery (ASR) - CS registration with Azure vault has failed. Failed to register DRA. Error code:1.

I've recently started to play with Azure Site Recovery (ASR) to migrate our internal VMware VMs up to Azure.

During the install process, I received the following error: CS registration with Azure vault has failed.

I attempted to register the vault through the configuration server app and was prompted with the following: Failed to register DRA. Error code:1.

According to the logs possible solutions are:

1) Internet connection failure or Invalid/expired vault credentials file. Verify the proxy settings, regenerate the vault credentials file and retry the operation with the updated credentials file.

2) Machine being out of sync from the time zone. Ensure that your current machine time corresponds to the selected time zone.

It turns out, routing wasn't set up to use the ExpressRoute to get to Azure resources.

Troubleshooting: While attempting to register ASR through the config server app, run netstat -na in the command prompt to see if there are any entries with SYN_SENT

Once that was sorted, I was relieved to see: