About Me

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This is a blog for John Weber. One of my joys in life is helping others get ahead in life. Content here will be focused on that from this date forward. John was a Skype for Business MVP (2015-2018) - before that, a Lync Server MVP (2010-2014). I used to write a variety of articles (https://tsoorad.blogspot.com) on technical issues with a smattering of other interests. I have a variety of certifications dating back to Novell CNE and working up through the Microsoft MCP stack to MCITP multiple times. FWIW, I am on my third career - ex-USMC, retired US Army. I have a fancy MBA. The opinions expressed on this blog are mine and mine alone.

2017/02/17

Server 2012 R2 KB2919355–WTF?

Last week, I innocently decided to build myself a new Server 2012 R2 image – and then sysprep it so I could easily spin up a new host for whatever I needed.

Yes, I know I could use Server 2016 – but the vast majority of my customers are using 2012 R2 – and what good is a lab exercise if it does not reflect what you will be doing in production?  So, off I go to build myself my squeaky clean image.

The install went so easy.  And the then update nightmare begins.  I have no idea why it has to be so &^%#$@! difficult.  It’s not like I am trying to do something that is way out there.  I just want to get all the operating system updates applicable up to and including today.

As we should know by now, Server 2012 R2 will go through multiple iterations of updates for a variety of reasons.  One of them being what some people called SP1 to R2 – specifically KB2919355.  Roughly 800MB of (eh?) goodness.  After that is another 190+ updates.

For my new image, KB2919355 refused to be seen, let alone install.  Dang.  Last time this happened I had to throw the server away.  Oddly, and why I am ranting today, is that the next server build, like 5 minutes later, went right through with zero issues.  This time, I resolved to figure it out rather than give in. 

Here is what I found.  This may or may not work for you.  It may or may not trip your trigger – you may just wish to throw things away and start the Server 2012 R2 Update Roulette game over again.

After doing some reading about the well-known issue that is KB2919355, I downloaded the components of the KB separately.  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42334. I also downloaded KB2919442 separately from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42162.

Then I installed/ran them in the following order:

  • kb2932046
  • kb2934018
  • kb2937592
  • kb2938439
  • kb2959977
  • kb2919442
  • clearcompressionflag.exe
  • Chant, light the candles, and spatter the chicken blood.  Reboot
  • kb2919355

Oh joy.  Only 190 more to go.

image

 

YMMV

2017/02/16

SfB Persistent Chat ChannelService.exe high CPU

Twice in the last two weeks, I have seen an SfB Persistent Chat server go bonkers over a topology publish action.  Specifically, it would seem that the topology publish action caused channelservice.exe to peg the CPU at 100% with the predictable result of a very sluggish server.

Tangential input and possibly related data points:

The fix was easy enough, in one case I did a stop-cswindowsservice followed by start-cswindowsservice.  In the other case I had to boot the box because PowerShell opened but never responded to any input.

Such is life.

YMMV

test 02 Feb

this is a test it’s only a test this should be a picture