All Answers
Yes, WSEE can indeed be joined as a member server to an existing AD DC at any time (existing or virgin).
WSEE does not need to be (and should NOT be) also installed on the DC when going the member server route. Rather, the DC should, as you’ve said, just be a plain Jane Windows Standard AD DC.
Basically, you stand up a brand new/clean server instance that’s running Windows Server 2016, 2019, or 2022 Standard, and then you natively join it to your existing AD DC as a member server.
After doing that, you then install the Windows Server Essentials Experience (WSEE) server role on it using the Server Manager (if it’s Windows Server 2016 Standard), or via the WSEE Installer (if it’s Windows Server 2019/2022 Standard).
After WSEE has been successfully installed on the server, you will then need to run the “Configure Windows Server Essentials” wizard. When the wizard starts up, it should recognize that the server is already natively joined to the domain, as a member server, and offer to configure Essentials on the server accordingly. Do NOT proceed with the wizard if it doesn’t happen to recognize that the server is already domain joined for whatever reason (otherwise you’ll end up with two primary AD DCs).
As for your last question… I don’t foresee any issues (or “Got-ya’s”) there seeing as the old SBS 2011 domain should have already been upgraded to support the newer domain structure required (via the use of adprep.exe /forestprep and adprep.exe /domainprep) when you successfully migrated it up to Windows Server 2019. That being said… You should make sure that you have a working backup of your existing domain controller before proceeding just in case (i.e. as a safety fallback measure).
Best of luck!
- Mike answered 4 years ago
- last active 4 years ago
Sounds like you’re on the right track…
Go ahead and enable the Internet connection on the server, install all of the latest Windows Updates on it, and then run the WSEE Installer.
Basically, you want to start off with a brand new/clean (i.e. straight out-of-the-box) Windows Server install as your base. Do NOT install any server roles, features, or applications on the server until after you’ve installed WSEE and have completed the “Configure Windows Server Essentials” wizard.
After doing that, you can run the “Windows Server Essentials Connector” software on your client PCs (by opening a web browser window on them and going to http://<YourServerName>/connect) in order to connect them to the server (for client backups, etc.). Since you’re a WHS 2011 user, you may not want your client PCs domain joined to your Essentials server, and in that case, you can simply use Microsoft’s “SkipDomainJoin” connection method in order to stop that from happening (and hence make them behave more like WHS 2011 did). For more info on that see:
Connect computers to a Windows Server Essentials server without joining the domain
Best of luck.
- Mike answered 4 years ago
- last active 4 years ago
If you’re talking about the Windows Server Essentials Launchpad, then you should indeed be able to make a desktop shortcut to it by simply creating a new shortcut on the desktop (i.e. right-click on the desktop and choose New -> Shortcut) and pointing its location to:
“C:\Program Files\Windows Server\Bin\Launchpad.exe”
- Mike answered 4 years ago
WSE RemoteApp 2016 works under multiple versions of the Windows Server operating system (i.e. Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022, and vNext). Therefore, some releases of the add-in can be applicable to only specific versions of Windows Server, while others can be applicable to all versions of Windows Server.
Additionally, I sometimes release very minor updates for the add-in that don’t necessarily need to be applied to already installed versions of the add-in. Hence, you may not always get a notification that a newer version of the add-in is available, when your installed version is already “up-to-date” (based upon the version of Windows Server that you’re using it on, etc.).
Of course, you’re always free to manually download the latest update WSE RemoteApp 2016, and install it on your server if so desired (seeing as the current release will always work across all of the different versions of Windows Server that the add-in is applicable to).
As of today’s date, the current release of WSE RemoteApp 2016 for Windows Server 2016 is Version 1.255.1939.0, for Windows Server 2019 and 2022 it’s Version 1.255.1944.0, and for Windows Server vNext it’s Version 1.255.1945.0.
Lastly, the changelog for WSE RemoteApp 2016 can be downloaded from here (if you’d like to know what’s changed between the various released versions of the add-in):
- Mike answered 4 years ago
Mike,
Thanks for the explanation. I guess I wasn’t aware of how you have the updates setup for newer server releases, or I forgot, which is highly likely!
I appreciate the quick response.
Steve
- Slione answered 4 years ago
- last active 3 years ago
I assume that you mean that Microsoft’s “Configure Windows Server Essentials” wizard is failing there (and not the WSEE Installer itself). If so, then I’m not exactly sure what could be happening there seeing as I’ve just tested installing WSEE on a brand new/clean (straight out-of-the-box) installation of Windows Server 2019 (with all of the latest Windows Updates installed, and no other server roles, features, or applications installed), and everything is working just fine for me here. I’m also not seeing any other users reporting such an issue at this time.
About all I can tell you to do is to try starting over completely from scratch again with a brand new/clean installation of Windows Server 2019 and see what happens.
Other than that, you can try looking within the server’s “Logs” folder to see if any of the log files in there happen to list something that gives you a clue as to why the config wizard is getting stuck at 89%. You can find the Logs folder at the following location on the server:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Server\Logs
I typically sort the folder by date modified and then start looking through the log files from top down. You can open the log files in Notepad, and the newest entries will be listed down at the very bottom of the file (so start there and then move upwards looking for any clues as to what might be causing the problem).
You can also try opening the Event Viewer applet (Control Panel → Administrative Tools → Event Viewer) and taking a look in the Windows Logs → Applications and Applications and Services Logs → Microsoft → Windows → Server Essentials Deployment → Deploy log files just to see if they happen to show anything in there as well.
- Mike answered 4 years ago
Hello Mike, thanks for the response, and for your work putting this tool out there for us.
But it seems it is just not working for me. I have tried this now 6 or 7 times, each time from scratch, fully updated, no roles or features added, as you specify – I just let the install run, and then each time @89%, failure with “An error occurred while configuring Windows Server Essentials. Please try again.”. The last two times from scratch I even formatted the disk before starting to make sure ‘clean’ was really ‘clean’!
As you say, the installation itself seems to go ok, then
- launches ‘Configure Windows Server Essentials’,
- I enter the Co name, domain name, admin name, password, etc. restarts,
- asks for permission for Windows Server Essentials Server Role Configuration Wizard’ to launch (with your name as certifier), restarts again,
- comes back with ‘applying computer settings’, (for fair few minutes…)
- returns to ‘Updating and preparing your server’ until it gets to 89% when it fails.
In the log files, the only one which may be of interest perhaps is an ‘error’ log file that states “FATAL: InitializeStorage:” I understand the statement but not what it refers to and if it is related? (It’s a 1Tb disk so definitely not a space issue.)
The event viewer logs you specify show nothing but information markers as would be expected – no errors.
I have run out of ideas. Just gone through it all again from scratch (to script the above) and exactly the same result again.
I have no idea where to go from here.
Neil
- Neil answered 4 years ago
- last active 4 years ago
Is the 1TB system drive formatted as NTFS? If not, then try formatting it as a NTFS drive instead.
Are you using Storage Spaces, or any other drive pooling software? If so, then try eliminating it.
If your SATA controller is running in ACHI mode, try switching it over to RAID mode instead (from within the BIOS).
Maybe try deleting the partition table on the drive and recreating it.
Try using a different drive altogether.
From the sounds of it, there appears to be some kind of a hardware/software based drive/storage issue going on there, which doesn’t really have anything to do with the WSEE Installer per se I’m afraid.
- Mike answered 4 years ago
- last active 4 years ago
Thanks, Mike.
Although the things you suggested were already as suggested, you did inadvertently point me to the problem. The disk was set to Dynamic. This did not stop the 2019 Server Std from being installed correctly, but it clearly did not agree with the Essentials elements.
Reset it to Basic, and away it went, all sorted. Just thought I’d let you know.
Neil
- Neil answered 4 years ago
- last active 4 years ago
As stated within the error message, have you tried restarting both your server and client machines?
Other than that, you can try manually adding the following .NET Framework TLS settings to the registry of both your server and clients (and then reboot them!) to see if that helps you out any:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v2.0.50727]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v2.0.50727]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001
Lastly, I have an article posted here, that walks you through enabling TLS 1.2 on Windows Server Essentials using the WSE RemoteApp add-in. WSE RemoteApp takes care of setting everything up for you on the server (and provides a link to download the above registry settings as a .REG file allowing you to easily add them to your client PCs).
- Mike answered 4 years ago
Unfortunately, there’s probably no easy way to correct that particular issue. Once the Essentials IIS settings have been trashed like that, you’ll either need to restore the server from backup (back to a prior point in time before you installed the Intel AMT Web Management program on it – Hopefully you have server backup enabled on your Essentials server), or simply stand up a brand new server from scratch again. All of the required Essentials IIS settings are configured when the WSEE server role is first installed/configured on the server, and AFAIK, there isn’t any way to “repair” them.
Other than that, you’ll need to set up a fresh/clean Windows Server Essentials installation (on a different box, or in a VM, etc.), and then go through and manually compare all of the various settings for yourself.
Sorry that I don’t have a better answer for you on this one.
- Mike answered 4 years ago
Thanks Mike,
The issue turned out to be the order of ciphers I used to try and resolve the client connector issues I’m having.
It seems if you change to order of the ciphers in GPO it causes the WSSE to fail SSL/TLS. Once I changed the order back to the default and cleared the alert in the dashboard – after reboot, WSSE validation connection was restored.
I still haven’t solved the client connection issue – but I will get there eventually.
BTW, thank you for your commitment to this project – outstanding work !
- Brendan answered 4 years ago
- last active 4 years ago
HI Marc, I have the same issue. Did you resolved it?
- Gianmarco Gabrieli answered 4 years ago
- last active 4 years ago
Behavior such as this would have nothing whatsoever to do with installing WSEE via the WSEE Installer. Rather, it’s just an oddity (bug?) in Essentials itself (which I didn’t write/create), and so these types of questions would probably get more exposure if you posted them over on Microsoft’s Windows Server Essentials forum instead (although I wouldn’t mention that you’re running WSEE on anything but Windows Server 2016 over there in order to avoid the naysayers and critics).
That being said… Have you tried reconnecting the client PCs back up to the server again (via http://YourServerName/connect), and then going through the “Customize Backup for the computer” wizard that’s located on the “DEVICES” tab of the server Dashboard (after you highlight/select the client PC within the list of connected client computers) to see if that gets the automatic backups going for you once again?
- Mike answered 4 years ago
- last active 4 years ago
I’m not exactly sure what’s going on there seeing as I’m unable to reproduce that one (under the latest Version 1.255.1953.0 release), and to date, no one else is reporting a similar issue that I am aware of. WSE RemoteApp does have code in place that checks its assemblies for a valid digital signature (in order to ensure that they haven’t been tampered with), but I am unaware of any issues with that portion of the code (which has been in place for many years now).
Out of curiosity have you tried restarting your server just to see if that helps shake things loose for you? Other than that, does your server have all of the latest Windows Updates installed on it, and does it have a working Internet connection?
- Mike answered 4 years ago
- last active 4 years ago
The VPN feature of Essentials belongs entirely to Microsoft, and has nothing to do with the WSEE Installer I’m afraid (i.e. it’s their feature/code and has nothing to do with me nor the WSEE Installer). AFAIK, the VPN feature works as designed (by Microsoft) when the WSEE server role has been installed under Windows Server 2019/2022/vNext (via the WSEE Installer).
I personally, don’t use the VPN feature of Essentials because it does not work when your client computers have been connected to the Essentials server via the SkipDomainJoin method (i.e. it requires that your clients be domain joined to the server in order to function), but AFAIK, it does indeed work.
The only caveat to this is when running under Windows Server 2019… Apparently, under Windows Server 2019 (only), Microsoft seems to have introduced some bugs that prevent VPN from working properly under that platform. For info on how to correct those issues see here.
I hope that helps you out some.
SEE ALSO:
Understanding VPN configuration in Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials
Troubleshooting Common VPN issues on Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials
Windows Server 2012 Essentials VPN without port 1723? (and Remote Domain Join)
- Mike answered 4 years ago
- last active 4 years ago
I didn’t think it had anything to do with WSEE Installer, but I didn’t want to break anything in WSEE by installing roles suggested in the Microsoft docs.
I use SkipDomainJoin, as well, but may test joining a laptop to see if I can get the VPN to work. If I can, I think enabling the VPN may outweigh the disadvantages of joining a domain if, indeed, there are any that matter to me.
This is just for personal use but we travel a lot with extended times away from home, often on public WiFi. Having a secure VPN that I own and control is not a bad thing.
- SomebodyInGNV answered 4 years ago
The RADC web feed and multiple simultaneous connections features of WSE RemoteApp are not available during the 21-day trial period. If you want to trial either (or both) of those features, then you will need to go ahead and purchase a license for WSE RemoteApp. That being said… All of our software has a 30-day no-questions-asked refund policy, and so if it ends up not working out for you, then you can always just request a full refund (so long as you do so within 30 days of your date of purchase).
- Mike answered 4 years ago
I did indeed look into porting the media streaming functionality from Windows Server Essentials 2012 R2 over to Windows Server 2016 Essentials, and while it probably could be done, there’s quite literally hundreds of codecs in the package that would need to be updated (by Microsoft) in order to make the package work properly under the newer 2016 platform. At the time, I didn’t feel that the enormous effort it would take me to perform the port would be utilized by enough people to justify the amount of work that would be required (which is probably the same reason why Microsoft didn’t port it over themselves). As you’ve mentioned, there are much better (actively supported) supported streaming solutions out there that can be used instead.
I’m sorry that I don’t have a better answer for you on this one.
- Mike answered 4 years ago
I appreciate the response regardless! I’m playing around with it in a couple of test vm’s. Even with the appropriate roles/services installed on 2022 and inputting the registry key to show the media pack as installed so it shows in the registry, it says that the windows media player sharing service is not available because desktop experience or windows search service is not enabled. I might poke around a little more, but i don’t have much hope of getting it to work. I really only used the Media stuff through RWA for pictures as the audio/video support was ok at best.
On another note, I’ve been trying to change the color scheme on the dashboard and am not having much luck. Mainly just trying to implement a psuedo dark mode that’s easier on the eyes. Is the official documentation from Microsoft still relevent(link below) If so can you provide some guidance on what I may be doing wrong? I’ve created the registry key and xml file, but no changes to the colors, even after a reboot. I remember getting it working on 2012 ages ago, just cant remember exactly what i did.
Sorry for the random questions, I appreciate your time
Change the Color Scheme of the Dashboard and Launchpad | Microsoft Docs
- homeserverdude answered 4 years ago
