VMM Host not responding – WinRM Error and access is denied

If you have a Virtual Host in Virtual Machine Manager that is not responding, and forcing a manual refresh returns an error like this:

Error (2910)
VMM does not have appropriate permissions to access the resource C:\Windows\system32\qmgr.dll on the server.
Access is denied (0x80070005)

It can often be remedied by one of the following: Re-install the VMM agent, restart the virtual machine manager agent and WMI services or restart the virtual host.  It is also worth making sure your hosts are all up to date as well.

Occasionally I see a host where this doesn’t work and no matter what it, remains as “not responding” in VMM.  For me the case appears to be a broken winrm configuration.  You can be fooled into thinking winrm is setup correctly as a “winrm /quickconfig” returns as already setup, and the winrm service is running.

It looks like all the “winrm /quickconfig” command does is check that winrm has been enabled, it wont reset other possibly incorrect configurations or broken settings.

Comparing the winrm configuration and registry of a working identical host to a “not responding” host I have found the following commands will correct the deviated settings and usually results in a host that now responds to VMM.

reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

winrm set winrm/config/service/auth @{CredSSP=”True”}
winrm set winrm/config/winrs @{AllowRemoteShellAccess=”True”}
winrm set winrm/config/winrs @{MaxMemoryPerShellMB=”2048″}
winrm set winrm/config/client @{TrustedHosts=”*”}
winrm set winrm/config/client/auth @{CredSSP=”True”}

Be sure to run these on the effected host in an admin command prompt.

Installing .NET 3.5 on Server 2012 and 2012 R2

.net 3.5 is still often required but the resources to install it are by default absent from the windows installation.  If you have internet connectivity this isn’t such an issue as the files are simply pulled down from microsoft but if you are performing an offline build or are in a dev/secure environment with no connectivity or heavily filtered it can be problematic.

Personally I find the fastest method is to mount/insert the 2012 installation media and install the feature with DISM.  Open an elevetates (run as admin) command window.

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /all /Source:d:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

Simply change “d” to match the drive letter your install media is available at.

Dism install

 

If the GUI is more your sort of thing simply run the “Add roles and features” wizard and select the .NET 3.5

Click next and locate the “Specify and alternate source path” link at the bottom of the window.  Click this.

 

alternate source

 

In the window that loads type in the path to your side-by-side folder on the installation media.

alternate source window

 

Click on OK and on Install to start .NET 3.5 installing.