Known Issues: File and Storage Services in Windows Server 2012

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This article includes information that can help you troubleshoot known issues that are associated with the File and Storage Services server role in Windows Server 2012.

File Services - General

Issue:
In Server Manager, you try to access a File Services-related snap-in (for example the Share and Storage Management snap-in) to manage a down-level computer such as Windows Server 2008 R2. You receive an error message similar to the following:

*Failed to start the Share and Storage Management console; no management tools are available. To install the management tools on a server, start the Add Roles and Feature Wizard, and then on the Features page, under Remote Server Administration Tools, select the appropriate tools. Or, on a client computer, download and install Remote Server Administration Tools.

Resolution:*
To resolve this issue, you must install the tool that is referenced in the error message on the computer from which you are running Server Manager. For example, to install the Share and Storage Management tool on a Windows Server 2012-based server, use the Add Roles and Feature Wizard, and then on the Select features page, expand Remote Server Administration Tools, Role Administration Tools, File Services Tools, and then select the Share and Storage Management Tool check box.

File Server Resource Manager

Issue:
On a server that has access-denied assistance enabled in File Server Resource Manager, you run a Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) scan. Although you have a firewall rule that blocks port 5985, for the BPA rule “Port 5985 must be allowed through the Windows Firewall for access-denied assistance,” you receive the incorrect compliance status of:

*The File and Storage Services Best Practices Analyzer scan has determined that you are in compliance with this best practice.
*
Cause:
This issue occurs if there is at least one firewall rule for port 5985 that is enabled, and is configured to allow the connection. For example, you may have a custom firewall rule that blocks TCP port 5985, but the Windows Remote Management (HTTP-IN) firewall rule may be configured to allow the connection. Although the blocking rule overrides the enabled rule, the BPA incorrectly determines that TCP port 5985 is open.

Workaround:
If you want to use the access-denied assistance feature, verify that there are no Windows Firewall rules that block TCP port 5985. For more information about access-denied assistance, see Scenario: Access-Denied Assistance.

Issue:*
When you try to run a File Management task at a command prompt using the task name that appears in the File Server Resource Manager user interface (UI), you receive the following message:

The specified file management task could not be found.

Cause:
This issue occurs because the task name in the File Server Resource Manager UI does not match the task name that you must use if you want to run the task at a command prompt. For example, you create a task that is named “1”. However, the full name of the task is “FileManagement-1.”

Workaround:
To work around this issue, use Task Scheduler to verify what the full task name is, and then use the full task name at a command prompt. To locate the full task name, follow these steps:

  1. From Server Manager, open the Task Scheduler tool.
  2. Expand Task Scheduler Library, Microsoft, Windows, and then click File Server Resource Manager.
  3. In the middle pane, verify the full task name in the Name column.
  4. Use the full task name when you run the task at a command prompt.

Important   File Server Resource Manager tools such as Storrept.exe are deprecated. We recommend that you use the Windows PowerShell cmdlets in the FileServerResourceManager module to administer File Server Resource Manager functionality. This issue does not occur if you use Windows PowerShell.

Issue:
When you use Windows PowerShell to set the value for the date property for a classification rule in the File Classification Infrastructure, you receive the following error message:

*New-FsrmClassificationRule : 0x80070057, The parameter is incorrect.
*
Resolution:
To resolve this issue, you must first convert the date value to the string representation of the Windows file time (that is, a UTC string), and then assign the date value. For example:

  1. Convert the date value to a UTC string:

    PS C:\Users\User1> $date = Get-Date

    PS C:\Users\User1> $date = $date.ToFileTimeUtc().ToString()

  2. Assign the date value to a classification rule (where the example classification property is named ‘testdate’):

PS C:\Users\User1> New-FSRMClassificationRule -Name 'testrule' -Namespace 'P:\test1' -Property 'testdate' -PropertyValue $date -ClassificationMechanism 'Folder Classifier'

**Note  ** Realize that the property value in the output is displayed in string format.

Issue:
The File Server Resource Manager tool fails with an unhandled exception error when you do the following:

  1. You use Server Manager or Remote Server Administration Tools to connect to a remote computer and run the File Server Resource Manager tool.

    The Add Snap-in dialog box appears.

  2. The File Server Resource Manager tool eventually opens, but the End Snap-in dialog box appears with a message that the snap-in is not responding.

  3. You immediately click End Now.

An Srmgui.dll dialog box appears, with an error message of “MMC has detected an error in a snap-in and will unload it”. When you click OK, an Unhandled Exception in Managed Code Snap-in dialog box appears, with an exception type of System.InvalidOperationException.

Cause:
This failure occurs if you click End Now instead of waiting for the File Server Resource Manager tool to stop trying to contact the remote server and return an “RPC server is unavailable” error message. An “RPC server is unavailable” error occurs if the firewall on the remote server has Remote File Server Resource Manager Management firewall settings disabled, or the remote server is offline or unreachable.

Workaround:
To avoid this error, wait several seconds (after you see the “RPC server is unavailable” error) before you click End Now. Or, click Cancel. To avoid this issue altogether, on the server that you want to remotely manage, click the Windows Firewall item in Control Panel, click Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall, select the check box next to Remote File Server Resource Manager Management, and then select the desired profile check boxes (Domain, Private or Public).

Storage - iSCSI

Issue:
In a mixed language environment, where the domain name contains international characters, you run the New iSCSI Virtual Disk Wizard from a domain-joined Windows Server 2012 computer that uses a different character set. In the wizard, you create a new iSCSI target. On the Specify access servers page, when you try to add an iSCSI initiator by using the Query initiator computer for ID option, you select a computer, where the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) includes the domain with international characters. When you click OK, you receive an error message that is similar to the following:

*Unable to determine IQN for <FQDN>.
*
This issue also occurs when you use the Query initiator computer for ID option in the following locations:

  • The Import iSCSI Virtual Disk Wizard
  • The Assign iSCSI Virtual Disk Wizard
  • The Initiators tab of the Properties page for an iSCSI target

Workaround:
To work around this issue, follow these steps on the computer on which you are trying to add an iSCSI initiator:

  1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor (Gpedit.msc).

  2. Under Local Computer Policy, expand Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, and then click Name Resolution Policy.

  3. In the Create Rules area, click Suffix, and then enter the namespace to which the rule applies (for example, contoso.com).

  4. On the Encoding tab, select the Enable Encoding check box, and make sure that UTF8 without Mapping is selected.

  5. Click Create.

    The rule appears in the Name Resolution Policy Table.

  6. Click Apply, and then close the Local Group Policy Editor.

***Issue:
***Consider the following scenario:

  1. You create an iSCSI target on a stand-alone computer (for example Computer1), and create one or more virtual disks.
  2. You add iSCSI initiators for Computer1, and for a second computer (Computer2).
  3. From Computer2, you connect to the iSCSI target, create a cluster, and add the iSCSI disks to the cluster.
  4. You then try to add Computer1 as a second cluster node.
  5. After you do this, the cluster disk shows as offline. When you try to bring the disk online, you receive the following error:

The operation has failed
Failed to bring the resource ‘cluster disk name’ online.
Error Code: 0x8007174b
Clustered storage is not connected to the node

*Cause:
*This behavior is by design. You cannot switch the iSCSI target from a stand-alone computer to a failover cluster. This removes the iSCSI target configuration.

Resolution:
You should create the failover cluster first, and then create the highly available iSCSI target.

 

Storage - Storage Pools

Issue:
If you have a failover cluster with a highly available storage solution that uses LSI MegaRAID controllers, and you are using Server Manager to manage the storage using the LSI SMI-S storage provider, the associated physical disks may not appear correctly in Server Manager when you create storage pools or virtual disks from the storage pools. For example, with a two-node cluster, the following symptoms may occur:

  • When you first create a storage pool, the pool shows as shared (as in all cluster nodes are listed in the Managed by column). Under PHYSICAL DISKS, the physical disks that you selected during pool creation are listed. However:
    • If you run the Get-StoragePool cmdlet on both nodes, the storage pool shows up on only one node.
    • If you run the Get-PhysicalDisk cmdlet on both nodes, one node shows that the CanPool property equals True even though the disks are already associated with a storage pool.
  • If you refresh the Server Manager UI, and then click the storage pool, the list of associated physical disks under PHYSICAL DISKS may show the correct disks, or it will be empty.
  • If you reopen Server Manager, only one node shows as the owner in the Managed by column. Under PHYSICAL DISKS, the list of associated physical disks for the storage pool may show the correct disks, or it will be empty.
  • If you create another storage pool, disks that are already allocated to a storage pool may appear as available. However, if you select disks that are already in use and then try to commit the changes, you receive the following error message:

Could not create storage pool. One of the physical disks specified is not supported by this operation. Extended information: Failed: DiskDrives specified are already in use by one or more Concrete Pools

  • After you create a virtual disk from the pool, the same issue occurs. Depending on which node Server Manager connects to, the pool sometimes shows no associated physical disks.

Cause:
This issue occurs because the LSI provider recognizes the storage pool on only one cluster node. The physical disks that are shown depend on which cluster node that Server Manager connects to when you view a storage pool or a virtual disk. If it connects to the node where the pool was created (the node that is automatically designated as the owner in the New Storage Pool wizard), the correct physical disks are displayed. If it connects to a different node, no physical disks are listed.

Workaround:
To work around this issue, after you have created at least one virtual disk from a storage pool, run the following Windows PowerShell cmdlet on all nodes, and then refresh the Server Manager UI:

Update-StorageProviderCache –DiscoveryLevel Full

 Additional References: