Custom domain Anywhere Access grayed out
Hello,
After years of running WSEE under Windows Server 2016, I had to re-install the OS.
When trying to set the same custom domain I used, (remoteaccess.myowndomain.com), I can’t as the only option available is to use Microsoft Service.
The custom domain is grayed out. I ran the install fresh, from both original OS disk and the MS online evaluation download, but to no avail.
I have the license for Server 2019, and I am wondering if use the WSEE installer, will I get the same issue? Any thoughts on what may be causing it?
If I continue with configuring using MS service, it gets stuck with the “An error occurred while setting up your domain name”. This apparently is a known issue, and I do not intend to use it permanently, but I can’t use it temporarily either.
Thanks
Adrian
- Adrian asked 3 months ago
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Unfortunately, the process for setting up a remotewebaccess.com Microsoft personalized domain name in Windows Server Essentials is broken once again. Anytime you try to set up a remotewebaccess.com domain name you will see that generic “unknown error occurred” issue. The problem is definitely happening over on Microsoft’s end.
I’m not exactly sure why Microsoft has such a difficult time keeping that functionality working. They’re constantly making silly changes to their backend infrastructure that ends up breaking it, folks start complaining about the problem, it takes Microsoft months and months to finally respond and fix the issue, and then the whole process just repeats itself over and over again. It’s very maddening to say the least.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing that I can do about it seeing as all of the Microsoft personalized domain name issuance stuff takes place over on Microsoft’s backend servers (and not from within Essentials itself). The only thing that you can do is either wait (possibly months) for Microsoft to be made aware of and fix the issue, or set up your very own custom/vanity domain name instead (which is HIGHLY recommended).
BTW, I’ve tried reporting the issue to Microsoft via this thread over on their support forums.
EDIT: The domain name “Set up” button will indeed be grayed out until you use the “Configure” button to set up a domain name on your Essentials server. If you had a custom/vanity domain name (or a Microsoft personalized domain name) previously set up on your Essentials server, then it appears to have been removed. That’ll definitely happen if you’ve reinstalled the OS seeing as doing so will overwrite everything on the server as far as Essentials is concerned (i.e. you’ll need to reconfigure it as I describe within my how to article mentioned above).
- Mike answered 3 months ago
- last edited 3 months ago
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Thanks, Mike. I had read before your hyperlinked post, but my problem is once I click on Configure, it gives me the “Set up Anywhere Access” but the dialog window does not have the checkbox for “Skip Doman Name setup…” -see screenshot
The only way to go past that windows is to hit Next, which ends up in the error with the “an error occurred while setting up your domain name anywhere access”.
I have always used my business subdomain for remote access, and it always worked.
Thanks. Adrian
- Adrian answered 3 months ago
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Interesting… That checkbox doesn’t show up if the wizard doesn’t detect an existing domain name (by Microsoft’s design). However, you should then be taken to the following panel of the wizard (where you can choose to configure your domain manually or set up a Microsoft personalized domain name) when clicking on Next:
I’m not exactly sure why you’re getting pushed directly to the “unknown error occurred” message (as that shouldn’t be happening and I’ve never encountered such an issue before). About all I can think of telling you to try would be to close the server Dashboard and then rename (or backup and delete) the following registry key on the server and see if that resolves the issue for you:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Server\Domain Manager\ActiveConfiguration
- Mike answered 3 months ago
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I do not seem to have that registry key. I wonder why it failed to create.
The Providers is also empty.
- Adrian answered 3 months ago
- Those registry keys will only get created when the wizard configures a domain name on the server. Thus, it appears that has never happened yet on your server. You mentioned that you had reinstalled the OS… Doing that most likely wiped out all of your existing Anywhere Access configuration settings. I’m not exactly sure why your getting an error when attempting to manually (re)configure your own custom/vanity domain name via the wizard though (as compared to getting an error when attempting to configure a remotewebaccess.com Microsoft personalized domain name, which is known to not be working right now). Probably something got messed up during the reinstall of the OS. Your best bet would be to start over from scratch with a brand new/clean install of the Essentials OS and then go from there. If you’re worried about your current AD DC settings then you could always do a domain migration over to a new/clean install of the Essentials OS.
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