Windows Storage Server Testing and Troubleshooting

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Applies To: Windows Storage Server 2012, Windows Server 2012

After you preinstall the Windows Storage Server 2012 operating system on the reference computer, and before you capture the image and deploy it to customer computers, you should test and, if needed, troubleshoot the reference installation.

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Testing storage appliance remote access

As a best practice, you should verify that the storage appliance can be accessed remotely over the network. To test this, you must configure a client appropriately.

Enable VDS tracing

If iSCSI Target Server is enabled on a computer running Windows Storage Server 2012, and if the Microsoft Virtual Disk Service (VDS) is installed on the application server (the iSCSI initiator), you can use the following procedure to enable VDS tracing to help in troubleshooting.

To enable VDS tracing

  1. On the computer running Windows Storage Server 2012, open a Command Prompt window. To exit all VDS clients and stop the VDS service, type: net stop vds

  2. To set a registry key to enable debug logging, type: reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vds\DebugLog /v Level /t REG_DWORD /d 31 /f

  3. Use one of the following methods to start VDS and reproduce the issue:

    1. Load the Diskpart.exe command interpreter.

    2. Run the Diskraid.exe command.

    3. Start another VDS client application.

    4. At a command prompt, type: net start vds

  4. Confirm that VDS has created a log file at %Windir%\System32\$vds$.log.

Troubleshooting ICT customization

The ICT user interface has the ability to handle assertions and collect tracing data that OEMs or developers can use to trap and diagnose error conditions that may occur when customizing the ICT window. Providing assertions and collecting tracing data are enabled by default. However, these settings can be adjusted as required for development purposes.

Important

If you have enabled the display of assertions or the collection of tracing data, you should disable it before you capture a completed installation as a master image.

When enabled, tracing output is captured in the default OEMOOBE.txt file, which is located in the %Windir%\System32\OEMOOBE folder. The file name can be adjusted if required. In addition, the file can be safely deleted when the ICT window is closed, and it will be automatically re-created the next time the ICT window runs.

To disable the handling of assertions or tracing data collection

  1. Open Notepad and then the OEMOOBE.exe.config file (located at %Windir%\System32\OEMOOBE).

  2. In the following line, change the value from true to false: <add key="AssertOnErrors" value="true" />.

  3. In the following line, change the value from All to Off: <source name="Microsoft.StorageManagement.OEMOOBE.Tracing" switchValue="All" />.

  4. Save your changes to the OEMOOBE.exe.config file. The changes made to this file will be read the next time OEMOOBE.exe runs, and the assertions and tracing data will not be displayed or collected.

To change the amount of tracing data collected

  1. Open Notepad, and then open the OEMOOBE.exe.config file (located at %Windir%\System32\OEMOOBE).

  2. In the following line, change the switchValue parameter from All to one of the values in the list that follows: <source name="Microsoft.StorageManagement.OEMOOBE.Tracing" switchValue="All" />.

    Off: Set this parameter if you do not want any tracing data to be collected.

    Error: Set this parameter if you want only system-level details when an error is reported.

    Warning: Set this parameter if you want system-level details when the ICT window reports an error or a warning.

    Information: Set this parameter if you want system-level details when the ICT window reports an error, a warning, or when a successful event has occurred.

    Verbose: Set this parameter if you want verbose system-level details whenever the ICT window reports an error or a warning, or when a successful event has occurred.

    All: Set this parameter if you want verbose system-level details whenever the ICT window reports an error or a warning, or when a successful event occurs. This parameter enables the collection of all activity tracing details. Because this setting creates large log files and it may consume larger amounts of system resources, this parameter should be set only when directed by Microsoft support personnel.

  3. On the Security tab, select Trusted sites, and then click Custom level.

  4. Under Settings, scroll down to Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe for scripting, and then click Enable or Prompt.

  5. Click OK to save the change to the security policy.

To change the name of the file that contains trace log data

  1. Open Notepad, and then open the OEMOOBE.exe.config file (normally located at %Windir%\System32\OEMOOBE).

  2. In the following line, change the switchValue parameter from OEMOOBE.txt to the desired file name: <add name="file" type="System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener" initializeData="OEMOOBE.txt"/>

  3. Save your changes to the OEMOOBE.exe.config file to change the name of the file that contains system logging data.

Troubleshooting Cluster Creation

Under certain circumstances, you may be unable to run the Create Cluster wizard. Specifically, this can occur right after both nodes are successfully joined to the domain but the second node name is not successfully written to the Windows registry. In this case, you will need to enter the name of the second node in the Data field for the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/OEMOOBE/RemoteNodeName  REG_SZ Data = <enter second node name here>

Afterwards, you can rerun the Create Cluster wizard and proceed to create the cluster.

Troubleshooting Cluster Storage Provisioning

If you choose to use Server Manager to provision cluster storage before the cluster has been created, you may need to tell the user to manually add each node to the Server Manager machine pool for provisioning to succeed. In Server Manager, users should click Manage and then click Add Servers as shown.

Troubleshooting the BulkException Error

You must have a Nic.config file in the Windows/System32/OEMOOBE folder, otherwise a BulkException error will be generated.