Do not install IPv6 on your SBS 2003 box

steveb — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:24:00 GMT

I owe the .NET team an apology for blaming them as the original cause of the problems described in this post. The pro and con of blog posting is that we can fire off a post and later find out there was a different cause for the effect we were hit with. So sorry guys and gals for coming down on you so hard. Figured with the SBS 2008 issues we've been seeing after 3.5 SP1 that they were spilling over to SBS 2003 as well. - Steve

This post was originally called - .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 when I wrote it last Saturday, the 21st of February. While I still recommend running the .NET family updates mentioned below, the reason the SBS box went into a tail spin turned out to be installation of IPv6 we did while testing an app on the box that happened to coincide within the same week the .NET SP had been applied. Confirmed this today. With the application vendor on the phone, I re-ran their installer and configuration tool and the server decided it was time to restart:

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System Shutdown

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The system is shutting down. Please save all work in progress and log off. Any unsaved changes will be lost. This shutdown was initiated by NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. Shutdown will begin in 44 seconds. Shutdown message: Windows must now restart because the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service terminated unexpectedly.

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This looked extremely familiar to last week's issue, so now we had a culprit. What we looked at next was that the application (we're in pre-beta testing so can't give out the name at the moment) was using Teredo to tunnel out over IPv6 and would install IPv6 if it didn't see it installed. By going into netsh we were able to remove the protocol. I'm including the command to remove IPv6 from your SBS 2003 if you by chance decide to install it on your box too and need to get it off of there. It broke RPC over HTTP, POP3, and IMAP4 Exchange Protocols in addition to the box "forgetting" it was an SBS box as shown below in the original post. Here's what you need to type to remove it (do not remove from SBS 2008 boxes, you need it on there).

type: netsh <ENTER>

at the prompt type: interface ipv6 uninstall <ENTER>

You will be prompted to restart the server after it completes.

So, again, sorry to the .NET team for the error in placing blame.

For those of us in the SBS world, we have a love/hate, with mostly hate, relationship with .NET Framework updates. Seems they are always causing trouble with our boxes. Turns out the recent .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 is no exception, both on Small Business Server 2008 and Small Business Server 2003. While it is supposed to fix 25+ issues in .NET, my personal SBS 2003 production box reacted so badly with it that the box had no idea it was running SBS anymore. When I attempted to run the CEICW in an effort to bring back my RPC over HTTP / Outlook Anywhere functionality that had died after running with the update for a few days, here's the error it came back with:

I was also having "issues" with POP3 and IMAP4 (we use SSL on each of these for specific tasks at our office) protocols stopping after either an iisreset or a full restart of the server. Strange thing with those protocols was that their respective services were still running. Figure that one out.

I restored the system drive from a StorageCraft ShadowProtect image last night to get the machine back on its feet. I personally have left 3.5 SP1 on our box and added the update patches that are supposed to resolve the problems the Service Pack is causing with our boxes; using our company's server as a guinea pig before putting the service pack or subsequent update suite of three patches into production at client sites. Personally, I will not install .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 without these fixes on any box I touch now. I'd recommend you do the same for any machines you admin and ensure you have a very good back up before playing with these or any updates. ;-)

Steve

The other steveb - Steve Banks' Blog on SBS, EBS, and other Small Business Technology Topics : .NET

Do not install IPv6 on your SBS 2003 box