Question

"RPC Server is unavailable" error when remotely managing Hyper-V Server 2008.

Asked by: AdoBeebo

I've setup a workgroup for the purposes of testing Hyper-V Server 2008, the free download version from Microsoft that is, not the Server Core version.

I have followed the instructions and prerequisites in John Howard's blog (if you are familiar with it) for configuring a remote management PC to connect to the Hyper-V Server. This includes allowing WMI and MMC through the client and server firewall, adding a local user to DCOM and admin groups on client and Server machines, and modifying the client DCOM permissions to allow for ANONYMOUS to launch remotely.

I can connect to the Server via Computer Management but whenever I attempt to modify the WMI Security settings I receive the following error "RPC Server is unavailable". Just prior to that it alerts that it couldn't determine if the Server is part of a domain or not.

I can only connect to the server via IP address, receiving a "(null)" error when using the Server hostname. There is no DNS server configured in the workgroup, but the router handles DNS and has logged the Server hostname in its client table. As things stand I cannot connect to the Server using the the Hyper-V MMC.

There is no domain available to join either the workstation or Server to, and there are no other machines available for this project. Please post back if you can suggest a solution.

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Asked On
2008-12-08 at 02:28:09ID23965353
Tags

Hyper-V

,

2008

,

RPC

Topics

Hypervisor

,

Microsoft Virtual Server

,

Windows Server 2008

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: MPECSIncPosted on 2008-12-08 at 16:43:10ID: 23125889

Hyper-V Server 2008 = Server Core with Hyper-V role installed - some additional features of full Server Core.

You may need to further configure the firewall. See:
http://blog.mpecsinc.ca/2008/10/server-core-firewall-netsh-command-line.html
http://blog.mpecsinc.ca/2008/05/server-core-from-scratch-to-hyper-v.html
http://blogs.technet.com/server_core/archive/2008/01/14/configuring-the-firewall-for-remote-management-of-a-workgroup-server-core-installation.aspx

Otherwise from the CL:
Open up the firewall for firewall settings remote management:
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Windows Firewall Remote Management" new enable=yes

Use the Vista MMC to add the Firewall Management (attached screenshot) for the Hyper-V Server. You should be able to fine tune the firewall settings from there.

Philip

 

by: MPECSIncPosted on 2008-12-08 at 16:44:29ID: 23125900

Oops ...
:)

Philip

 

by: bhanukir7Posted on 2008-12-09 at 03:11:33ID: 23128254

hi,

confirm if you are using vista to manage the hyper-v box you have applied the latest update for managing hyper-v from vista running on x64 with sp1

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=88208468-0AD6-47DE-8580-085CBA42C0C2&displaylang=en

if this is windows 2008 box from which you are connecting to the hyper-v server then ensure that all the latest update are applied on the windows 2008 box as when you try to manage a hyper-v machine from windows 2008 you get errors with xml and rpc errors


bhanu

 

by: AdoBeeboPosted on 2008-12-10 at 05:15:38ID: 23138520

Hi bhanukir7
It's Vista SP1 with the Hyper-V component downloaded last Sunday from Microsoft, so assume the latest.

 

by: AdoBeeboPosted on 2008-12-10 at 05:17:50ID: 23138544

Hi MPECSInc:
I'm about to read through the links you posted - thanks. I did try stopping the firewall on both machines to see if that was a causal factor, but since read that if the firewall was only stopped it would still block ports? Can you coroborate?

 

by: bhanukir7Posted on 2008-12-10 at 06:08:28ID: 23138932

if the firewall is stopped on both sides no ports will be blocked. Also check if there are any hardware firewalls and turn them off.

additionally check if the remote  procedure call(rpc) & remote procedure call(rpc) locater service are running on the Vista box and the windows 2008 box.

bhanu

 

by: AdoBeeboPosted on 2008-12-10 at 08:05:24ID: 23140084

HI bhanukir7
Yes, that's what I thought - the comment I read was that if the firewall was only stopped and not completely disabled then the ports might still be blocked. I've blitzed the server machine and started the build again - will take in both your and MPECSInc's comments during config and post back tomorrow.
Thx

 

by: AdoBeeboPosted on 2008-12-28 at 12:32:33ID: 23252819

After two more attempts with the HVRemote scripts published in John Howard's blog I managed to get the Hyper Server working. I think there's some good advise attached to the links published by MPECSInc:so points to him.

 

by: AdoBeeboPosted on 2008-12-28 at 12:32:57ID: 31523713

Cheers

 

by: MPECSIncPosted on 2008-12-28 at 13:57:09ID: 23253038

Thanks for that!
Philip

 

by: pit1140Posted on 2009-07-20 at 07:14:43ID: 24895181

just for information purposes only:

we struggled a few hours about conenction to hyper-v-free-server via microsoft-vpn. the solution (beyond several guides as you already know) that the add the entry of hostname (within workgroup) and ip in our local hosts-file!

have fun!

regards

 

by: W3TeamPosted on 2010-01-15 at 05:37:51ID: 26322767

Thanks a lot... pit1140! All the solutions above are of course valid and important but we have run into the same problem - all is set, all is allowed on firewall, every console (EventViewer, Services, Wndows Firewall etc.) can be operated remotely... except Hyper-V and Disk Management. Even with the firewalls down on both sides it just does not work so we figure that much that it can't be blocking problem. The solution was to add machine names to hosts files as mentioned above. We did it at the beginning but we did it only on client but not the server (we have been configuring several servers at once and just missed the entry on one, therefore just this one had problems). Therefore without this critical post above we would be still wandering in the dark... 39!

 

by: pit1140Posted on 2010-01-15 at 05:42:50ID: 26322810

great! have fun! ;)

 

by: MPECSIncPosted on 2010-09-22 at 08:27:34ID: 33735500

For remote Disk Management make sure that you also enable the ports on the _local_ machine that you are using to manage a _remote_ server.
See:
http://blog.mpecsinc.ca/2009/12/server-core-remotely-managing-storage.html

Philip

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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