I have an issue with an instance of Windows Server 2008 where Server Manager will not open, nor will powershell or anything else really. I've researched solutions and attempted a dozen or so fixes including replacing the machine.config with a known good in .NET/Framework/etcetc, running System Update readiness to repair corrupt files, DISM, the works. I believe the problem stems from a specific manifest file. Remote event log viewing shows dozens of SideBySide errors pointing to this manifest file claiming invalid XML, and upon closer inspection it looks like the thing is just straight up whitespace. I have a copy of the same manifest from a known good server configuration so I'm thinking of replacing it.
First: is this a dumb idea? Is there something I don't know that's going to blow up in my face?
Second: I can't seem to replace the manifest file. Permissions are against me. Upon closer inspection it seems TrustedInstaller is the only account to have write access and above on that folder, and those permissions are locked from me even though I'm running as Administrator with elevated access. I'm guessing this is to prevent me from shooting myself in the foot, but I neeeeeeeeed this to work. So second question: how do I elevate my permissions to access the manifests folder in C:\Windows\WinSxs\?
Thank you for your time in reading this far. I greatly appreciate your collective knowledge and assistance.
Nevermind, got it. I took ownership of the specific manifest file, opened it in notepad with elevated permissions, replaced the contents with the contents of the known good config, saved it. Voila, it works just fine. Restored SYSTEM permissions afterwards to clean up after myself.
Related
Running the pdf2htmlEX.exe Windows binary from the command prompt works as expected. While, running the pdf2htmlEX Windows binary in a wrapper (.Net in my case) I received an error like the one below.
__tmp_font1.ttf is not in a known format (or uses features of that format fontfo
rge does not support, or is so badly corrupted as to be unreadable)
Cannot load font C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\Temp\pdf2htmlEX-5RLDCX/__tmp_fo
nt1.ttf
This is a pretty ambiguous error, and appears to be frequent among users when using the windows binary version.
Apparently Lu Wang wasn't able to offer a solution for Windows users, as all posts related are marked 'insufficient info'. Unfortunately, the pdf2htmlEX project is also archived, and no new comments can be added, so I'm adding this information here in the hope that this may help someone else in the future.
In my scenario, the library is called via an ASP.Net wrapper method using System.Diagnostics.Process to convert uploaded files into HTML versions. The Pdf2htmlEX library would work without issue from the Command Prompt, and for some reason, would also work perfectly in my development environment, but not in a production environment (Both of which are Windows Server 2012R2).
My first assumption, and correctly so, was that there was a permissions issue. Pdf2htmlEX uses FontForge internally to handle fonts, and one or both use the Windows Temp directory by default to store resource files used in the creation of the HTML and/or other files. And, I 'believe' although not confirmed, that it also may use the active user's %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp folder...
When running test commands from Command Prompt, you are operating under your user context, and everything your user can do, Pdf2htmlEX can do. So everything works as expected.
In a server environment, the process is operating under the ApplicationPoolIdentity, a special IIS user type with limited permissions. Here it failed for me. While, I'd see folders and files created in the Windows Temp folder, they couldn't be opened by Pdf2HtmlEX to create the end files elsewhere.
Solution: (there may be other solutions for your individual case)
In my case, adding a new system user, adding that user to the Users group, and then setting the IIS worker process to that account resolved the issue. The reason I believe, is that the Users group has read/write access to the Windows Temp directory, and potentially other required areas of the system required for Pdf2htmlEX to complete.
I'd like to change object audit policy with vb.net. Like enabling Object Access auditing. Is that possible? If not, is powershell an option? I know I can get gpedit running on any version of Windows, but I want to be able to change the setting programmatically.
Also, I do know some settings can be changed by Registry, but I haven't seen one for audit policy.
http://www.lshift.net/blog/2013/03/25/programmatically-updating-local-policy-in-windows/
I found this, but will give it a try in a little while.
Update: It is possible to import, via VB (or probably any other language), but using REG IMPORT. Make sure you're putting the .REG file where System can access it (System does not have the same privileges as Administrator). You'd have to launch a separate app that runs as System and, on load, imports a registry key. You can run as System using PSTools (psexec), from Sysinternals. You can also do it by creating a service, running the service, then deleting the service: Running application as System (without PSTools)
I realized all the links I thought were the answer, were not. They all change the Audit Policy tab, and I can already do that programmatically. What I want to change is the global audit policy, which is only available in Group Policy (gpedit.msc). Of course, you can "install" it on any version of Windows, but I want a solution that doesn't require the end user to have to set it (aka not use gpedit.msc).
I knew that Process Monitor could monitor virtually anything going on in the background, and one link in my comments also was using Process Monitor (comments of my OP). So, I figured that was really my only way. Naturally, you'd think mmc.exe is the one to look for, but it's not. It does a TON of registry open/query/enum/closes. However, no setting or deleting. I decided to look a little before and after the large block of mmc operations (well and of course anywhere in between). Anything that wasn't mmc but happened in the exact timeframe. I found lsass had done some setting and deleting. It was changing the value of a Registry key that is owned by System. I used PSTools to run regedit as System, so I could access the key. I then used gpedit to switch back and forth (from No Auditing to Success), and found it always set the same values (something like 0 for off and 1 for on). I exported the keys when I changed the values in gpedit, and then imported them to test. I can confirm it works by reopening gpedit after importing, and the value changes. I can also confirm simply by enabling Auditing on a folder, and seeing logs in Event Viewer.
tl;dr
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY\Policy\PolAdtEv\(Default) is the you want.
Download the .reg files here
Run this in an elevated command prompt: psexec -i -s regedit
Import the .reg file you need.
Confirm by reopening gpedit.msc and checking Event Viewer (Security)
Don't trust the .reg files? Here are the values you if you'd rather create them yourself. Value type is REG_NONE, so #=hex(0).
No Audit: 00010000090000007e00000001000000030000000300010001000100000001000000000000000300000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001000100000000000000000001000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000fe7f05000a000e00030004000600060004000400
Success: 00010000090000007e00000001000000030000000300010001000100000001000000000000000300000001000100010001000100010001000100010001000100010001000100000000000000000000000000000001000100000000000000000001000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000fe7f05000a000e00030004000600060004000400
We have developed a somewhat diffuse system for handling component installation and upgrades across server environments in an automated manner. It worked happily on our development environment, but I've run into a new problem I've not seen before when attempting to deploy it to a live environment.
The environment in question comprises ten servers, five each on two different geographical sites and domains. Each server runs a WCF based windows service that allows it to talk to each of the other servers and thus keep a track of what's installed where. To facilitate this process we make use of machine level environment variables - and modifying these obviously means registry changes.
Having got all this set up, my first attempts to use the system to install stuff seemed to work, but on one box in particular I'm getting "Requested registry access is not allowed" errors when the code tries to modify the environment variables. I've googled this, obviously, but there seem to be a variety of different causes and I'm really not sure which are the applicable ones. It doesn't help that this is a live environment and that our system has relatively limited internal logging capability.
The only clue I've got is that the guy who did the install on the development boxes wrote a very patch set of documentation on the process. This includes an instruction to modify the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy value in the registry and set it to 1. I skipped this during the installation as it looked like a rather dubious security risk. Reading the documentation about this key, it looks relevant but my initial attempts at installing stuff on other boxes without this setting enabled worked fine. Sadly the author went on extended leave over the holidays yesterday and he left no explanation of why this key was needed, so we're a bit in the dark.
Can anyone help us toward the light?
Cheers,
Matt
I've seen this error when code tries to write to the event log using something like EventLog.WriteEntry() and a source that is not a registered event source is specified. When a source is specified that has not previously been registered, it will attempt to register the source, which involves writing to the registry.
I would suggest taking a look at SysInternals Process Monitor:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645
You can use this to monitor registry access and find out what key you're getting the access denied error on. This may give you some insight as to what is causing the problem.
Essentially he's disabling part of the Remote User Account Control. Without setting the value, Remote UAC strips administrative privileges from account tokens remotely accessing the machine. Yes, it does have security implications. See Description of User Account Control and remote restrictions in Windows Vista for an explanation.
Where would you write an error log file, say ErrorLog.txt, in Windows? Keep in mind the path would need to be open to basic users for file write permissions.
I know the eventlog is a possible location for writing errors, but does it work for "user" level permissions?
EDIT: I am targeting Windows 2003, but I was posing the question in such a way as to have a "General Guideline" for where to write error logs.
As for the EventLog, I have had issues before in an ASP.NET application where I wanted to log to the Windows event log, but I had security issues causing me heartache. (I do not recall the issues I had, but remember having them.)
Have you considered logging the event viewer instead? If you want to write your own log, I suggest the users local app setting directory. Make a product directory under there. It's different on different version of Windows.
On Vista, you cannot put files like this under c:\program files. You will run into a lot of problems with it.
In .NET, you can find out this folder with this:
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData)
And the Event Log is fairly simple to use too:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.eventlog.aspx
Text files are great for a server application (you did say Windows 2003). You should have a separate log file for each server application, the location is really a matter of convention to agree with administrators. E.g. for ASP.NET apps I've often seen them placed on a separate disk from the application under a folder structure that mimics the virtual directory structure.
For client apps, one disadvantage of text files is that a user may start multiple copies of your application (unless you've taken specific steps to prevent this). So you have the problem of contention if multiple instances attempt to write to the same log file. For this reason I would always prefer the Windows Event Log for client apps. One caveat is that you need to be an administrator to create an event log - this can be done e.g. by the setup package.
If you do use a file, I'd suggest using the folder Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData rather than SpecialFolder.ApplicationData as suggested by others. LocalApplicationData is on the local disk: you don't want network problems to stop you from logging when the user has a roaming profile. For a WinForms application, use Application.LocalUserAppDataPath.
In either case, I would use a configuration file to decide where to log, so that you can easily change it. E.g. if you use Log4Net or a similar framework, you can easily configure whether to log to a text file, event log, both or elsewhere (e.g. a database) without changing your app.
The standard location(s) are:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MyApp
or
C:\Documents and Settings\%Username%\Application Data\MyApp
(aka %UserProfile%\Application Data\MyApp) which would match your user level permission requirement. It also separates logs created by different users.
Using .NET runtime, these can be built as:
AppDir=
System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData)
or
AppDir=
System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)
followed by:
MyAppDir = IO.Path.Combine(AppDir,'MyApp')
(Which, hopefully, maps Vista profiles too).
Personally, I would suggest using the Windows event log, it's great. If you can't, then write the file to the ApplicationData directory or the ProgramData (Application Data for all users on Windows XP) directory.
The Windows event log is definitely the way to go for logging of errors. You're not limited to the "Application" log as it's possible to create a new log target (e.g. "My Application"). That may need to be done as part of setup as I'm not sure if it requires administrative privileges or not. There's a Microsoft example in C# at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307024.
Windows 2008 also has Event Log Forwarding which can be quite handy with server applications.
I agree with Lou on this, but I prefer to set this up in a configuration file like Joe said. You can use
file value="${APPDATA}/Test/log-file.txt"
("Test" could be whatever you want, or removed entirely) in the configuration file, which causes the log file to be written to "/Documents and Settings/LoginUser/Application
Data/Test" on Windows XP and to "/Users/LoginUser/AppData/Roaming/Test on Windows Vista.
I am just adding this as I just spent way too much time figuring how to make this work on Windows Vista...
This works as-is with Windows applications. To use logging in web applications, I found Phil Haack's blog entry on this to be a great resource:
http://haacked.com/archive/2005/03/07/ConfiguringLog4NetForWebApplications.aspx
%TEMP% is always a good location for logs I find.
Going against the grain here - it depends on what you need to do. Sometimes you need to manipulate the results, so log.txt is the way to go. It's simple, mutable, and easy to search.
Take an example from Joel. Fogbugz will send a log / dump of error messages via http to their server. You could do the same and not have to worry about the user's access rights on their drive.
I personally don't like to use the Windows Event Log where I am right now because we do not have access to the production servers, so that would mean that we would need to request access every time we wanted to look at the errors. It is not a speedy process unfortunately, so your troubleshooting is completely haulted by waiting for someone else. I also don't like that they kind of get lost within the ones from other applications. Sure you can sort, but it's just a bit of a nucance scrolling down. What you use will end up being a combination of personal preference coupled along with limitations of the enviroment you are working in. (log file, event log, or database)
Put it in the directory of the application. The users will need access to the folder to run and execute the application, and you can check write access on application startup.
The event log is a pain to use for troubleshooting, but you should still post significant errors there.
EDIT - You should look into the MS Application Blocks for logging if you are using .NET. They really make life easy.
Jeez Karma-killers. Next time I won't even offer a suggestion when the poster puts up an incomplete post.
I have an SQL Server database where I have the data and log files stored on an external USB drive. I switch the external drive between my main development machine in my office and my laptop when not in my office. I am trying to use sp_detach_db and sp_attach_db when moving between desktop and laptop machines. I find that this works OK on the desktop - I can detach and reattach the database there no problems. But on the laptop I cannot reattach the database (the database was actually originally created on the laptop and the first detach happened there). When I try to reattach on the laptop I get the following error:
Unable to open the physical file "p:\SQLData\AppManager.mdf". Operating system error 5: "5(error not found)"
I find a lot of references to this error all stating that it is a permissions issue. So I went down this path and made sure that the SQL Server service account has appropriate permissions. I have also created a new database on this same path and been able to succesfully detach and reattach it. So I am confident permissions is not the issue.
Further investigation reveals that I cannot rename, copy or move the data files as Windows thinks they are locked - even when the SQL Server service is stopped. Process Explorer does not show up any process locking the files.
How can I find out what is locking the files and unlock them.
I have verified that the databases do not show up in SSMS - so SQL Server does not still think they exist.
Update 18/09/2008
I have tried all of the suggested answers to date with no success. However trying these suggestions has helped to clarify the situation. I can verify the following:
I can successfully detach and reattach the database only when the external drive is attached to the server that a copy of the database is restored to - effectively the server where the database is "created" - lets call this the "Source Server".
I can move, copy or rename the data and log files, after detaching the database, while the external drive is still attached to the Source Server.
As soon as I move the external drive to another machine the data and log files are "locked", although the 2 tools that I have tried - Process Explorer and Unlocker, both find no locking handles attached to the files.
NB. After detaching the database I tried both stopping the SQL Server service and shutting down the Source Server prior to moving the external drive - still with no success.
So at this stage all that I can do to move data between desktop and laptop is to make a backup of the data onto the external drive, move the external drive, restore the data from the backup. Works OK but takes a bit more time as the database is a reasonable size (1gb). Anyway this is the only choice I have at this stage even though I was trying to avoid having to go down this path.
Crazy as it sounds, did you try manually granting yourself perms on the files via right-click / properties / security? I think SQL Server 2005 will set permissions on a detached file exclusively to the principal that did the detach (maybe your account, maybe the account under which the SQL Server service runs) and no-one else can manipulate the file. To get around this I have had to manually grant myself file permissions on MDF and LDF files before moving or deleting them. See also blog post at onupdatecascade.com
Can you copy the files? I'd be curious to know if you can copy the files to your laptop and then attach them there. I would guess it is some kind of permissions error also, but it sounds like you've done the work to fix this.
Are there any attributes on the file?
Update: If you can't copy the files then something must be locking them. I would check out Unlocker which I haven't tried but sounds like a good starting point. You might also try taking ownership of the files under the file permissions.
When you are in Enterprise Manager or SSMS, can you see the name of the database that you are talking about? There might be a leftover database in a funky state. I'd make sure that you have a backup or a copy of the mdf somewhere safe. If this is the case, maybe try dropping the database and then re-attaching it.
I would try backing up the database on the desktop, and then see if it will restore successfully on the laptop. Doesn't explain your issue but at least you can move forward.
Run sqlservr.exe in debug mode with the /c switch and see what happens starting up. Any locking or permissions issue can be put to bed by making a copy of the file and transfering the copy to the origional.
Also check the associated log file (.ldf) .. If that file is missing or unavaliable you will not be able to mount the database to any sane/consistant state without resorting to emergency bypass mode.
I've had a similar issue. Nothing seemed to resolve it - even tried to reboot the machine completely, restarting SQL services etc. ProcMon and ProcessExplorer were showing nothing so I figured - the "lock" is done by OS.
I resolved it by DELETING the file and restoring it back from the drive mounted under another drive letter.
PS. My database file was not on a USB drive, but on a TrueCrypt-drive (in some you can say it's a "removable drive" as well)
Within SQL Server Configuration Manager, look in SQL Server Services. For all your SQL Server instances, look at which account is selected in the Log On Tab - Log On As:. I've found for instance, changing it to the Local System account resolves the issue you've had. It was the only thing that actually worked for me - and certainly, no shortage of people have had the same problem.
It's a security issue on -file level security - you have detached db with different credential and attaching it with other credential - just browse the article http://www.sqlservermanagementstudio.net/2013/12/troubleshooting-with-attaching-and.html
And try copy pasting it to different location.
I solved similar issue by granting system administrator to all permissions:
right click > properties
security tab
in group or usernames click edit.
click add > advanced
click find now to list all available permissions.
choose administrator and add it to list.
grant it to has full permission.
I had the same issue. Someone had detached the files and left, and we were unable to move it to another drive. But after taking ownership of the file (security-->advanced-->take ownership to your login id), and then adding your login id to the security tab and giving access on the file, was able to move.