Citrix logon page in Internet Explorer browser shows blank/black screen

When using a Citrix Access Gateway you will use a web address (URL) to access the logon screen. You will then enter your username and password and begin your Citrix session.

However, I recently encountered a problem whereby when I went to the web page I received a complete blank/black screen with no logon options.
If you are encountering the same problem you are in luck as I have found two ways of solving the issue.

Method 1 : Compatibility settings

Go to the Gear (or Cog) icon in Internet explorer and select compatibility view settings.


You will be presented with the following screen

You will see that your current URL will be in ‘Add the website’ field > Click Add

You will see that it is now added and will always use compatibility view in the future.
Untick ‘Display intranet sites in Compatibility View’.
Click Close

Your logon screen will now appear.
In addition, to these settings make sure that the following setting is un-ticked in your internet options.

If this is ticked it will wipe out your compatibility settings every time you close your browser, resulting in you having to repeat the above steps every time you wish to access the Citrix logon page.
Method 2 : Emulation and Document Mode

1. Access the Citrix Access Gateway website
2. Press F12 whilst in your browser
3. Under Emulation, select the Document mode to be 8, the Browser profile to be Desktop and the User agent string to be Internet Explorer 8.

I hope this was helpful.

Internet information server (IIS) HTTP 503 Error Server unavailable

Within my company we have a windows based client-server application which uses IIS at the backend.

For months (since we virtualised) we have randomly been experiencing a ‘503 server unavailable’ error which has stopped the application completely.

As we didn’t have a great deal of information on the problem and we had many users jumping up and down we resolved the issue temporarily by restarting IIS using the ‘IIS reset /noforce’ command. This would keep the issue at bay for a few days and then it would occur again. One day I had the problem 4 times in one day so I decided to get to the bottom of it.

I found that the problem was not being caused by an error but by a safety mechanism built into IIS application pools called Rapid Fail Protection. Here is an explanation I found as to why the default application pool was being disabled :

“Rapid-fail protection is unique in that it doesn't apply to recycles based on requests and resources. Instead, an application pool is placed into rapid-fail protection if the IIS 6.0 W3SVC fails to ping the worker process, if the worker process crashes, or if its startup or shutdown time limit is exceeded. This is a sign to the service that the worker process is no longer available and for health reasons should be shut down. When a pool is placed into rapid-fail protection, W3SVC actually stops the app pool, and HTTP.sys returns 503 responses to all queued requests and to all new requests to that pool.”

OK so this explains part of the problem :

1. Several worker processes encounter issues
2. W3SVC fails to get an adequate response.
3. W3SVC shuts the application pool down
4. Users get the ‘503 server unavailable’ error.

This is good as it explains what is happening but why has this started happening since we virtualised.

In our case it was a simple tick box. Before we virtualised we had the application running on a physical server which didn’t have a lot of RAM and we would often get ‘No system memory’ errors and our application would stop working.

When we virtualised one of our engineers tried to address the issue by limiting each worker process to a specified amount of RAM before it recycled itself.

Note : To access DefaultAppPool Properties – Open IIS on your server > expand Application Pools > Right click DefaultAppPool>Select properties> Recycling tab

As a result the worker processes would often use up their allocated memory and would terminate and not be contactable. In busy periods this would happen to several of the worker processes all at the same time which would cause Rapid Fail Protection to be triggered.

So the solution was to untick the ‘Maximum used memory’ setting and restart IIS. As we had virtualised and increased our memory we could afford to give the application free reign.

Mystery solved.

How to restart IIS without losing data

There may be a time where your webserver IIS (Internet Information Server) encounters a problem and you need to restart it.

If data is being written via a website or an application that uses IIS, a forced reboot on IIS may result in data loss.

To combat this there is a nifty command that can be used which will try and stop IIS but will wait until it has finished processing it's current task. In order to run this command do the following :

1. Open up a command prompt (Winkey + R and type cmd)
2. type in "iisreset /noforce"
3. You will see that it tries to stop IIS but fails. This is normal as it will wait for IIS to finish.
4. After 30 secs to a minute, try the command again and you will see that it stops the service and then restarts it without any data loss.

Windows 8.1 update – How to change the default keyboard language to UK (or any other)

Windows 8 has always been less than user friendly so with the 8.1 update I was expecting Microsoft to have thrown the users a life line. The ongoing theme of windows 8 seems to be “Where would the user expect this to be…”

“OK let’s move it from there !!”.

So it came as no surprise that shortly after I had installed the Windows 8.1 update (and the keyboard had defaulted to US English) I could not find a simple way to change it. On all other versions of Windows it was solved with a trip to the control panel >Languages >Input options and select from the keyboard options. However, this is how you do it in Windows 8.1.

1. Go to Control Panel.

2. Select Language

3. Click Options



4. Click ‘Add an input method’



5. Scroll down to keyboard layout you want to install, click Preview to check how it looks, click Addto add to the input methods.



6. Close the language window and Control Panel if it is no longer required and go back to the desktop.

7. In the notification area you will now see a language option appear. Select English (United Kingdom) and UK United Kingdom keyboard option.


Now your keyboard should be in the language of your choice.

Distributed File System (DFS) schedule not being replicated to receiving server

Today I had a situation where the replication to our data centre was causing our local users to experience slowness. This was the first big replication of files so I wanted to set up a schedule so that it would occur out of hours.

I went onto the local server and altered the schedule but noticed that files were still replicating to the data centre in ‘real time’. I looked at the schedule on the receiving server (in the DC) and noticed that it had not changed.

This was obviously a factor.

So here’s the solution/explanation.

1. When it comes to DFS replication of files it happens almost instantly, however when it comes to replicating a schedule from one host to another it takes much longer.

2. In order for the schedule to replicate the Active Directory Domain controllers must update each other.

3. Once the AD side of things is done, the DFS server must poll the Domain controller (This happens automatically).

4. After successful contact, the amended schedule will show on the receiving server. This took 1 and a half hours on my server.

5. Shortly after this (15 mins in my case) the files will stop replicating in real time which means the schedule is in place.

Sonicwall Global VPN Client – Unable to manage networking component. Operating system corruption may be preventing installation error.

Whilst recently trying to install the Sonicwall Global VPN Client I encountered the error “Unable to manage networking component. Operating system corruption may be preventing installation” and the installation failed.

The initial thought was that the firewall and antivirus were affecting the installation so these were disabled. Unfortunately, the installation still failed . After abit of google searching, I came across an article that referred to DNE. For the uninitiated DNE is the acronym for Deterministic Network Enhancer and is often associated with Citrix and Cisco VPNs.

Although, the problem wasn’t related to an installation of Citrix, I found the following fix in a Citrix forum and it worked perfectly for my sonicwall issue. Hopefully it will work for you too.

1. Go to the registry i.e Start > Run > type in regedit.
2. Go to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\MaxNumFilters’
3. If the value is showing as 8, set it to 14.
4. Reboot and retry the installation.

How to increase the size of a hard drive on VMware ESXi and MS Server 2012

Hard drives that hold varying amounts of data will need to expand as the volume increases.

For example, if a fileserver must accommodate 15 new users that need to add their data to the network you will want to extend the file storage by at least a few Gb. In a virtualised environment running MS Windows server 2012 this can be achieved very easily.

Step 1 – Increase the virtual hard disk capacity in VMware (on your ESXi server)

Step 2 – Use server 2012 to configure and recognise the extra space.

Following these steps will expand your current drive and you will not lose data.

Step 1 – Increase the size in VMware

1. Log into the Vmware vSphere client
2. Go to Inventory > Hosts and Clusters
3. Power down the server which requires increased disk space
4. In the left hand server list, right click the server > Go to Edit settings
5. Highlight the Hard disk you wish to increase
6. Under ‘Disk Provisioning’ increase the Provisioned size to your requirements.
7. Click OK and start the virtual machine (VM)

Step 2 – Expand/extend the disk size in Windows Server 2012

1. Log onto your server
2. Go to Computer Management > Disk Management
3. You will now see the existing drive and now some extra ‘Unallocated space’ next to it.
4. Right click on the existing drive and select ‘Extend Volume..’. The extend volume wizard will appear with the maximum disk space selected by default. Click Next
5. The wizard will then apply the change and expand the volume.

When you return to the Computer Management interface you will see that your original drive has increased as required.

How to resolve the ‘Parameter is not a valid backup job or group’ error in Fbackup

I recently installed FBackup software on my server and configured it to do daily, weekly and month end backups. Each night after the daily backup had completed successfully I would come into the office to find the error ‘Parameter “New Backup” is not a valid backup job or group’.

There was no backup in the FBackup interface with the name “New Backup” so I assumed it was a remnant of the initial configuration that had been changed or deleted.



This error will occur after each backup unless the following fix is applied :

Go to C:\Windows\Tasks and remove the backup that has the same name as the one mentioned in the error message. In my case it was “New Backup” and the file I had to delete in the tasks folder was ‘fba_New Backup’.

I deleted this file and the error was never produced again.

Change a product key in Microsoft Server 2012

When installing Microsoft Server it may be necessary to change the product key. An example of this would be installing an evaluation copy for testing and then purchasing a full license for when the server goes into production.

There is no obvious link to add or overwrite a product key so it can be achieved in the following way :

1. Go to the Home Screen of Server 2012 (if you are on the desktop) by pressing the Windows key or point to the lower-right corner of the screen, and then click Search.
2. Type Slui.exe 0x3
3. click the Slui.exe 0x3 icon
4. This will give you the option to enter your new product key. Enter the key and then click Activate.

Your new product key will now be active on your server.

How to delete an organisational unit (OU) that is protected against accidental deletion

When a new organizational unit (OU) (object) is created in ‘Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)’ there is an option called ‘Protect container from accidental deletion’. If this is ticked at the point of creation then you will receive the following message when you try to delete the OU at a later point.

“You do not have sufficient privileges to delete <OU Name>, or this object is protected from accidental deletion”.

Although, this is a useful safe guard it may become necessary to delete an OU that is no longer required. In order to do this, the following work around can be used :

1. Open ‘Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)’.
2. Click on View > Advanced features (ADUC will refresh)
3. Navigate to the OU that is to be deleted > Right click > properties > Object tab
4. Untick ‘Protect object from accidental deletion’ >Click Apply > click OK.
5. Highlight the OU and delete

The OU will now be deleted from ‘Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)’.

How to check the Microsoft Server 2012 Product key and Windows activation status on your server

It may be necessary to check the licensing status of a server after it has been configured and activated. As an administrator you may also need to check your current list of product keys against the actual entries registered on the server.

To access this information, do the following :

1. Go to the Home Screen of Server 2012 (if you are on the desktop) by pressing the Windows key or point to the lower-right corner of the screen, and then click Search.
2. Type Slui.exe
3. click the Slui.exe icon
4. This will show the status of the activation and also show the last 5 characters of the windows server product key.

Win 7 XP Mode – Integration features unavailable

A user today complained that she was unable to open an application that was installed via XP Mode. The error being produced was “Integration features unavailable”.

After trying to start the VM from the Win7 program menu it produced the error and gave the option to retry or continue. If you retry it produces the same error, if you continue the VM opens with a blank (black) screen.

I managed to resolve the issue, so if you receive the error “Integration features unavailable” or "Could not enable integration features" here is the fix.

1. On the Win7 machine, go to All programs > Windows Virtual PC > Windows Virtual PC.
2. Right click the Windows Virtual PC icon > Select ‘Settings’.
3. Under the ‘Close’ option (on the left), Change the ‘Automatically close with the following action : ‘ from ‘Hibernate’ to Shutdown’ and click OK.
4. Try to open the Virtual PC again and wait until it produces the error, when it gives you the option ‘Retry’ or ‘Continue’, select continue until the Virtual PC with the blank screen is displayed.
5. Go to the top left of the window and choose Action > Close. It will ask if you want to force the shutdown. Select Yes.
6. Once the virtual PC is showing as ‘Shut down’, try to re-open the application and it should work !.
If this helped you or you have an alternative fix, please leave a comment for others.

How to rename an email account on iPad or iPhone

One of my colleagues had configured a new exchange email account on their iPhone but hadn’t changed the name as they were going through the setup.

As a result the name of the email account showed up as ‘Exchange’ rather than ‘Support’ which is our IT support inbox. The way to change this is not immediately evident so once I had changed it for him I decided to write this post for others.

So here is how you rename an email account on iPad or Iphone.

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Tap your Exchange account (in this case it was ‘Exchange’) > Tap on your exchange email address (i.e. ‘support@supportingtechblogspot.com’) > scroll down to Description (past Username and Password), then enter the new name in there (in this case it was ‘Support’).

Yes, it is slightly strange that the ‘Name’ of the email account is actually labelled ‘Description’ in the UI but I guess Apple can’t get it right all the time !.

How to access the BIOS on a HP PC

I recently had to work on a Windows 7 PC that required XP Mode enabled. In order to do this I had to access the BIOS and enable virtualisation. Theoretically this was easy to do but when I

rebooted to access the BIOS, the HP start up screen didn’t have any option to enter ‘Setup’ or ‘BIOS’ like you would expect to see. The only option I had was ‘Press Escape for start up menu’, which I did with little success.

The PC in question was a HP Pro 3405 tower but this shouldn’t be any reason for it not to have the option. The usual method would be to use F1 but it turns out that the answer is :

TO PRESS F10 WHEN THE PC IS BOOTING UP

I don’t know why HP don’t display this as an option but thankfully it still works anyway.

How to unregister and register a DLL or OCX file in Windows

If you work as an IT professional or system developer you would have encountered DLL (Dynamic Link Library) and OCX OLE Control Files files. Typically you have discovered them as a result of problems.

Although, these files are extremely useful providing functionality within the operating system (OS) and providing custom functions for applications, the OS can get confused at times and you will need to remove them from the mix (not deleting them) and re-apply them.

Thankfully, this is a very easy process :

1. Open up a command prompt. You can do this by going to Start menu > Run or using the keyboard shortcut of Winkey + R.

2. Type “cmd” (without the quotation marks) .

 

3. Press enter and a Windows Command Prompt will be displayed.

4. Navigate to the exact location of the DLL or OCX. A DLL has been used for this example.

5. Type “regsvr32 /u filename.dll” where “filename” is the name of the DLL that you are trying to unregister.

6. Press enter.

7. There will be a brief pause after pressing enter and then you will receive the message : “DllUnregisterServer in (File name) succeeded”

To register a DLL or OCX file

1. Repeat steps 1-4

2. Type regsvr32 filename.dll” where “filename” is the name of the DLL that you are trying to unregister.

3. Press enter

4. After a brief pause you will receive a success message.

Allow/Enable copy and paste between PC to server via VMware vSphere client

We recently virtualised our systems and noticed that by default we were unable to copy and paste from our PCs to the virtual servers via the vSphere client.

Some quick investigation revealed that this feature is actually disabled by default for security reasons.

You can get around the problem by using RDP to get onto the server in question but if you want to allow copy and paste within the vSphere client you can do so by following the steps below :

1. Log into a vCenter Server system using the vSphere Client and power off the virtual machine.
2. Select the virtual machine and click the Summary tab.
3. Click Edit Settings.
4. Navigate to Options > Advanced > General and click Configuration Parameters.
5. Click Add Row.
6. Type these values in the Name and Value columns:
   Name Value
   • isolation.tools.copy.disable    false
   • isolation.tools.paste.disable   false

7. Click OK to close the Configuration Parameters dialog, and click OK again to close the Virtual Machine Properties dialog.
8. Power on the virtual machine.

You will now be able to copy and paste directly to the server.