WSEE Catastrophic Issue
I’ve had WSEE running since yesterday without issue. I’d done some testing, connected a couple clients and done backups, had all of my shared folders connected to client PCs and media players.
This afternoon I did my final configuration setting up my 3 primary client PCs – they all had at least one complete backup via WSEE.
I configured the server backup as desired.
I restarted the server and noted it took excessively long from the boot completion to the logon screen to come up.
I started Windows Servers Essentials Dashboard and instead of just popping open, it hung on the Windows Server Essentials splash screen for 3 or 4 minutes before the dashboard appeared.
When it finally showed up, I find:
Users – none
Devices – none
Storage – all normal; I can access the shared folders from client PCs and the media players can access the media shares.
Trying to reconnect (http://server/connect) from a client gives an error that the server is not available.
In the event log, I find “Windows Server Essentials Management Service terminated unexpectedly…It has done this 77 times….restart the service”
Manually restarting the service just results in a repeat of the unexpected termination.
I know WSEE isn’t supported and I don’t know if there are other relevant discussions (despite numerous attempt I am unable to register an account) that might be beneficial.
Alternatively, what is the simplest way to uninstall WSEE while retaining the underlying Windows Server Standard installation??
Thanks for any suggestions,
Wyatt
- Wyatt York asked 1 month ago
- last edited 1 month ago
- You must log in to post comments.
It is common for the server Dashboard to take an extended period of time to start, and then be missing devices, users, etc., when one or more of the required Windows Server Essentials services are not running.
IMHO, uninstalling/reinstalling WSEE on the server won’t do anything for you. You’re much better off either standing up a new server from scratch, or spending the time chasing down what’s causing the Windows Server Essentials Management Service to repeatedly terminate on your Essentials server.
You can take a look in the Essentials “Logs” folder over on the server to see if you can find any additional info on what could be causing the problem (look in Dashboard.log, etc.). The Essentials “Logs” folder is located (both on the server, and on the client computers) at:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Server\Logs
I typically sort the folder by date modified so that the log files that have been written to most recently appear up at the top of the folder. You can then open them up, one-by-one (in Notepad, etc.), and take a look. The newest entries will appear down at the very bottom of the log files.
That being said… WSEE can indeed be removed from the server by uninstalling the “Windows Server Essentials Experience” via the Control Panel’s “Program and Features” applet. However, before doing that, you will need to run Microsoft’s Windows Server Essentials Clean up wizard in order to prepare the server for removal of the WSEE server role. The clean up wizard is located on the server at:
C:\Windows\System32\EssentialsRoleCleanupWizard.exe
Again though, I don’t recommend uninstalling WSEE from the server as doing so will most likely just end up causing you even more grief in the long run. It’s far better to either restore the server from backup (back to a point in time where you know things were working properly), or start over from scratch again (if you’re unable to locate the cause of your issue).
BTW, I have no idea what the clean up wizard does (as I’ve never spent any time looking at it). It’s part of the WSEE server role that’s provided, and written, by Microsoft.
- Mike answered 1 month ago
- You must log in to post comments.
