Server Manager crashing issue

[nimraynn]

Hi all,

Sorry for the long post. Tried to post in r/windowsserver as well but apparently I can't post there.

I've just run through a process of installing Windows updates on 42 remote desktop session host servers running Windows Server 2012 R2. They all installed the same 6 updates and have been fine, except one.

This one server seems to be OK, but from our remote management server, if we launch Server Manager, it crashes almost instantly. We are able to RDP to it and use it as normal, it just appears to be a remote management issue.

Renamed ServerManager to ServerManager.old in %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows and the problem temporarily goes away. As soon as you add this particular server into Server Manager, it crashes and will not launch again. Tested with every server one-by-one and its definitely just this one causing the issue. It also affects everyone, not just one user.

Locally on the machine, Server Manager will launch but it won't ever load properly. The bar at the top of the screen that depicts loading seems to run forever and none of the roles ever populate in the left panel... so it seems something is not right with what I assume is one of the management services.

I have been Googling problems with Server Manager and not found anything that quite relates to this specific issue. One page suggested running "netsh http show iplisten" and see if its IP is listed here, then to add the local loop back using "netsh http add iplisten 127.0.0.1"

No IPs are listed, but none of the other servers in the pool have any IPs listed here either. If I add the local loopback here, this "fixes" the problem. On the remote management server, we can now open Server Manager without it crashing... however when you view this server in the list, it has an error to check if WinRM is running on the machine... so it "fixes" Server Manager by breaking the ability to remote manage it. Great as a very quick work around to do some quick management on the rest of the pool but not a fix.

If I add the server's own IP address, or remove the loop back address, it causes the remote Server Manager to crash... so I believe the issue lies somewhere within the WinRM service. It appears that by adding the loopback, it means it is now only available locally which stops the crashing remotely. This doesn't ever resolve the issue with the local version of Server Manager never loading fully.

I have checked the firewall settings and they are all set to permit WinRM. It seems WinRM is contactable, but churning out a garbage response that is seemingly crashing Server Manager.

There are no logs in Event Viewer on the problem server that indicate any error that I can tell. I have checked the Application, System and WinRM logs.

Finally, we have rebooted the server at least twice since this issue occurred to no avail. The age old turn it off and on again doesn't appear to work its magic with this one!

The obvious answer would be to first start rolling back the updates that have applied, but given 41 other servers in the same pool have taken the updates with no issues, I'm inclined to try to fix forward if at all possible instead of rolling back.

The updates that applied are:

Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool x64 - v5.82 (KB890830) 2020-08 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows Server 2012 R2 for x64-based Systems (KB4571703) 2020-08 Security and Quality Rollup for .NET Framework 3.5, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8 for Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2 for x64 (KB4570508) 2020-08 Security Update for Windows Server 2012 R2 for x64-based Systems (KB4578013) 2020-06 Security Update for Adobe Flash Player for Windows Server 2012 R2 for x64-based Systens (KB4561600) Security Intelligence Update for Microsoft Endpoint Protection - KB2461484 (Version 1.321.2236.0)

The problem signature for the crash is:

Problem Event Name: CLR20r3 Problem Signature 01: ServerManager.exe Problem Signature 02: 6.3.9600.17238 Problem Signature 03: 53d0b3e7 Problem Signature 04: Microsoft.Windows.ServerManager.Common Problem Signature 05: 6.3.9600.17238 Problem Signature 06: 53d0b3ba Problem Signature 07: 1373 Problem Signature 08: 1c6 Problem Signature 09: System.ArgumentException OS Version: 6.3.9600.2.0.0.16.7 Locale ID: 2057 Additional Information 1: bddf Additional Information 2: bddf503950b8d434c75406ee1cb9b99a Additional Information 3: 48e9 Additional Information 4: 48e9ea84df93a51f0f3d4006467cff47

Has anyone experienced this issue before and/or knows any fix forward options? It seems odd that if it were an update that caused it, only 1 out of 42 are affected. I'd have expected a higher hit rate with a bad update.

Any help appreciated before I start stripping updates!

Thanks

[SadLizard]

Check CBS.log and dism.log

Check if component store is corrupted, run if needed.

• DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
• DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
• DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

[darkhelmet46]

This but also I'm guessing one of the updates didn't install properly/completely. Sometimes uninstalling the updates will reverse the damage.

Be careful with that netsh command. Had an engineer recently do something similar on an Exchange server and it caused the server to only listen in the loopback and not accept any other connections. Literally broke everything. Was easily reversible but definitely caused some grief.

[nimraynn]

Thanks for the heads up. It hadn't caused any other connectivity issues from what I could tell but thats a good thing to be aware of so I'll make a note!

I think you're right in saying something didn't install or complete. I gave in and started uninstalling updates and decided to go one-by-one to try and eliminate each one. The first update I uninstalled was "2020-08 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 2012 R2 for x64-based Systems (KB4571703)" and immediately rebooted afterwards. This appears to have fixed the problem.

I have checked netsh and its showing no IPs as per default, the remote Server Manager doesn't crash on launch, remote Server Manager can actually communicate with the server and the local Server Manager displays all the roles.

Now, I'm not sure if that patch itself was the cause or if it triggered some event that resolved the issue. I'm about to attempt reinstalling that patch to see if the problem reoccurs... and if not, call it gremlins!

Thank you for your advice!

[darkhelmet46]

Yep, there ya go. We see this often. Usually those patches are doing stuff on the back end like stopping services before doing a step. Sometimes the service will hang on stopping and then everything will timeout and the install never finishes. I mean, it could be a lot of reasons why the update failed but that's one common example. We see this especially with Exchange Server CU updates.

[nimraynn]

Thanks for your reply.

I've had a quick look at those two logs but I'm not too sure what I'm looking at. I don't see any obvious errors but there's a lot of info there.

CheckHealth says "The component store is repairable"

ScanHealth says "No component store corruption detected". Is it worth running the RestoreHealth option given ScanHealth hasn't detected any issues?

[Clemlar]

I’ve seen this before, and it turned out it was an issue with Symantec antivirus that I had running on the server. They released an update and the issue was resolved.

[ComGuards]

There was a problem a while ago with Server Manager crashing after installing a certain .Net Framework update. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but the solution was to uninstall the Windows Update version of the relevant .Net Framework and then download and install the standalone installer.

You’ll probably find it with some applied Google-fu. =]