Unable to start SmartSIP services after install

I was able to successfully install SmartSIP as per my last post (http://terenceluk.blogspot.com/2010/08/problems-installing-nets-smartsip-run.html) but ran into a minor snag when I tried to start the services and this screen is what I’m presented with:

Server Error in ‘/’ Application.

The communication object, System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel, cannot be used for communication because it is the Faulted state.

Here’s another screen shot:

The services are listed but I couldn’t get them to start:

The NET engineer suggested that I’d try running the service with an account that had administrator privileges so I went ahead and added RTCComponentService to the local administrators group. After doing so and trying to start the services, they started properly.

Starting up the SmartSIP diagnostics and connecting was successful as well.

The NET engineer also told me that I could check the status of the SIP phones registration by simply typing:

sofia status profile phones

We’re still in the pilot phase so it’s not a big deal to give this account local administrative privileges and who knows, maybe it does need it since the SQL clusters I’ve built in the past actually requires certain service accounts to be a local administrator. I’ll see if any of the following can be done then update this post:

1. Figure out what rights the service account needs and grant it and then remove it as a local administrator.

2. If the service account has to be a local administrator, create a separate account to run the SmartSIP services so we don’t have to make RTCComponentService a local administrator.

I hope this post helps anyone out there that may come across this.

Windows Server 2008 R2 UAC strikes again causing problems with installing NET’s SmartSIP

Yes, it almost sounds like I had a heck of a lot of issues installing SmartSIP but note the following:

1. I wasn’t using the right package one of the times.
2. The manual said to use the IP but I went ahead and used the DNS name anyways.
3. Problems from X-Lite calls to MOC was because of server being multi-homed as per Microsoft’s best practices. I used to have a lot of these problems with OCS’ Edge Transport server as well so it’s no surprise to me.

This problem was solely because of good old UAC (User Activation Controller) on Windows Server 2008 and it reminds me of the time when I had problems installing Exchange because double clicking on the package doesn’t elevate the permissions properly so Microsoft’s recommendation was to run it as administrator. In the case of this problem, you need to do the same.

So here I am going through the install by double clicking on the package on a Windows 2008 Server R2 64-Bit:

Looking good so far.

Success!

The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched. Inaccessible logs: Securiy.

Interesting…

Seeing how the error referred to event logs, I proceeded to try activating it to see what would happen.

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quite, the application will close immediately.

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

I was able to proceed with the next screen to try and enter the license but I would keep getting an error:

There was a problem validating the license, it may be have expired or there may have been a connectivity issue such as a firewall problem.

Let’s just say I’ve tried a lot of things at the Customer Registration window and nothing worked. I’d see a flash like this:

Then get a No License in system message.

While I am able to get to the Ready status which was further than where I got with the bad package, I knew something was wrong.

I could proceed with the activation but I would end up getting this:

Error setting up event log.

Exception = Access to the registry key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\SmartSIP' is denied.

Error setting up event log.

Exception = Requested registry access is not allowed.

The contact could not be created.

Exception from HRESULT: 0xC3EC7D81

Error configuring ASP.NET security.

Exception = Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation.

Error configuring Service security for Mediation server.

Exception = The process does not possess the 'SeSecurityPrivilege' privilege which is required for this operation.

Error configuring Service security for ECSmartSIPCore.

Exception = The process does not possess the 'SeSecurityPrivilege' privilege which is required for this operation.

Error configuring Service security for ECADHelper.

Exception = The process does not possess the 'SeSecurityPrivilege' privilege which is required for this operation.

Error configuring Service security for ECEmbededWebServer.

Exception = The process does not possess the 'SeSecurityPrivilege' privilege which is required for this operation.

Error configuring Service security for ECSmartTFTPServer.

Exception = The process does not possess the 'SeSecurityPrivilege' privilege which is required for this operation.

Error installing Soft Switch.

Exception = Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\NET- Network Equipment Technologies\SmartSIP\SoftSwitch\x86\conf\freeswitch.xml' is denied.

Activation ecountered an error while provisioning files.

Exception = Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\NET- Network Equipment Technologies\SmartSIP\conf\provisioned_config\smartsip{ip_addresses}.xml' is denied.

Activation ecountered an error while provisioning files.

Exception = Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\NET- Network Equipment Technologies\SmartSIP\conf\provisioned_config\smartsip.section[configuration].configuration[sofia.conf].profiles.profile[ocs].gateways{Remote Servers}.xml' is denied.

Activation ecountered an error while provisioning files.

Exception = Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\NET- Network Equipment Technologies\SmartSIP\ECSmartSIPServerCore.exe.config' is denied.

Activation ecountered an error while provisioning files.

Exception = Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\NET- Network Equipment Technologies\SmartSIP\ECSmartTFTPServerSvc.exe.config' is denied.

Remembering the experience I’ve had with other applications that weren’t NET, these are debugging codes that infrastructure guys wouldn’t understand so I stepped back and thought about what I could do from a Windows perspective.

The first thing that popped into my head was to try and run the activation as an administrator from the start. The problem with that is that when I use the start menu to right click on it, the option wasn’t there because it was an LNK file and Windows doesn’t give you the option “run as administrator”. I tried right click, properties to click on the find target button to get to the source but that option wasn’t there either. What I ended up doing was finding it in the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Network Equipment Technologies folder.

Here’s what I ended up doing:

Open a command prompt as an administrator:

Ran the install again. Went to the folder with the Activate SmartSIP.LNK file:

Executed the lnk file went through the wizards and voila!

Seeing progress was great!

Wow! Success!

Error 1001 encountered when uninstalling NET’s SmartSIP

I’m not sure what caused this error when I was uninstalling SmartSIP so I won’t assume that it’s because of the application but rather a combination of the server being Windows Server 2008 R2, the hotfixes installed, UAC, and possibly the OCS version I had installed on the server already. I’ve ran into many of these problems in the past and it’s almost always a combination of things on the server.

If you ever run into the following error during an install:

Error 1001. An exception occurred while uninstalling. This exception will be ignored and the uninstall will continue. However the application might not fully uninstall after the uninstall is complete. –> The specified service does not exist as an installed service

I’m sure it’s possible to hacked away at the registry removing the services, the reference in the Programs and Features but the way that I got the package to uninstall properly was to not use the Programs and Features window to right click the SmartSIP application and choose uninstall. What you want to do is double click on the installation package and click remove in the wizard:

Once you uninstall it with this method, you will no longer run into the error message in the screenshot above.

Problems installing NET’s SmartSIP – Make sure you’re using the right package

The SmartSIP blog posts are a bit out of sync as I’ve posted a troubleshooting one earlier last week but so sorry about the ordering.

Problem

Went ahead through the install from a package I received but got stuck at the activation wizard’s Loading data status forever:

What I ended up doing was reach out to NET’s engineer for assistance and once the engineer saw the screen noted below, he immediately told me that we should try another build instead because this isn’t the right one:

Customer Registration:

The version that I later received has this window for the Customer Registration:

Once I used the second installation package I received, I was no longer stuck at the status I mentioned above:

I hope this helps someone out there that may encounter the same problem.

Event ID: 1136 and 1464 being logged every 5 minutes on the domain controllers

Ran into an interesting problem at a client a few months ago while deploying OCS. They had already deployed an OCS standard pool in their environment for testing purposes earlier but decided to get us in to deploy an enterprise pool from scratch. The administrator told me that he had already uninstalled the standard pool so the environment should be free of any OCS settings but when I arrived on site, I noticed that the domain controllers were logging the event ID 1136 error every 5 minutes with the following message:

Active Directory failed to create an index for the following attribute.

Attribute identifier:

2383405064

Attribute name:

msRTCSIP-ApplicationDestination

A schema cache update will occur 5 minutes after the logging of this event and will attempt to create an index for the attribute.

Additional Data

Error value:

-1403 JET_errIndexDuplicate, Index is already defined

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

The research I did on the internet didn’t help so I reached out to our Microsoft Partner Support forums and was recommended the following:

There are 2 ways to clear out the event ID 1136 on the domain controllers.

1. Clear up the corrupted database – This option is too complicated to do.

2. Temporarily disable index for this attribute in forest – Easier to do.

I would suggest to do option #2. Once we turn off indexing for this attribute and enough time has passed to ensure that all domain controllers have replicated and has defragged its database, we can then turn it back on.

Here are the steps to disable indexing for the attribute:

======

1. Logon to schema master DC.

2. Run adsiedit.msc

3. Expand schema partition.

4. Find object “cn=ms-RTC-SIP-ApplicationDestination”

5. Double click to modify the attribute

6. Find the attribute “searchFlags”

7. Modify it to 0 (by default is 3)

8. Save the setting and wait for AD replication.

This error will not be logged on the domain controllers anymore after the schema change has replicated to all the DCs.

To enable indexing again, take the steps above and change it back to what it was before in about 3 after weeks.

------------------

I went ahead and recommended #2 to the client, made the appropriate changes and the errors were cleared up on the domain controllers but after 3 months of error free logs, I went back to enable the flag only to find that the errors would come back. I went back to the Microsoft Partner forums and was told the following:

The only identified workarounds to eliminate the event are:

1. Do not index this attribute for containerized searches in the active directory like Paolo mentioned.

2. Or make sure the system locale installed in schema master doesn’t fall into the listed ones in the following article.

- ADPREP Challenges - Mark Empson's Blogalot - Site Home - TechNet Blogs ...

http://blogs.technet.com/b/mempson/archive/2009/06/11/adprep-challenges.aspx

I went back and asked the engineer:

We used Paolo's suggestion to stop the errors but would like to know how to fix it while still getting the improved search performance through indexing.

Is option #2 this KB? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932862/

I looked at the steps and it's pretty much the same.

… then go this response:

Yes, the option listed in the KB is to remove the index for the specific attribute. So far the workaround to eliminate the errors are the two I mentioned in the last reply. Actually, the impact should be very small and the functionality won’t be affected since we don’t index only a single attribute. If you insist indexing the attribute, I’m afraid you have to install a DC (host schema master role) and make sure that the installed system locale doesn’t fall into the list of the link previously given.

It sounds like there really isn’t an easy way to fix this other than disabling the indexing of that attribute.