SBS 2011 Essentials & UEFI Client Backups

I have been reinstalling my lab over the last week or so, moving away from a GUI based Server 2012 running Hyper-V, to the Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 OS. I am also now no longer having to swivel in my chair 90 degrees to manage the VMs, as i have installed the Hyper-V tools on my Desktop PC.

Anyway, as part of the rebuild i trashed all of my existing VMs and have built new ones. Starting with SBS 2011 Essentials. I installed, along side it, 2 clients. Windows 7 and Windows 8. I took advantage of the new Gen2 VM for Windows 8.1 and of course ran into an issue with the client backup.

There has been a hotfix available for this issue since at least 2013, so it was no surprise that i needed to download it.

However, it did not immediately solve the problem. I had a varying number of messages on the Windows 8.1 Client about Version mismatch and the server having lost connection. I spent a good part of a day playing around, installing updates, removing the connector, adding the connector, even reinstalling the OS on the Client.

Nothing seemed to work.

Defeated, i decided to just leave the Server and Client running untouched for a day or so, (conveniently i was out of the office for a whole day anyway) and i came in this morning to see this.

Whilst in one part of my mind i am pleased it is working, another, bigger,  part of me wants to know what changed.

Nothing immediately stands out, the first successful backup was at 3am on the 3rd of June.  Looking at the Server shows only a failed update on the third.

What was interesting was that the update, KB2934953 shows as having been installed at 18:29. About half an hour after i had left the office.

This didn’t ring true with me because i recall installing that hotfix much earlier in the day.

Indeed, reviewing the WindowsUpdate.log file reveals i did in fact install the hotfix 2781270 at 10:59.

It took me some time to notice the difference in KB article numbers, and then work out the second update had been pushed out by my WSUS Server.

So, it seems that two updates are now required to fully resolve the issue, and whilst this may not be news to some Essentials Administrators it had certainly passed me by, that or i had forgotten. In any case writing it up seems to be the sensible thing for this forgetful IT Pro.

Hotfix : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2781270

Update : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2934953