The Windows Home Server 2011 Connector Has Encountered An Unexpected Error On Windows 7 Ultimate X86

Ok, had this exact same error connecting a new Windows 8 machine to a WHS 2011 with update rollup 4. All normal stuff tried, download connector via IPv4 address e.g. http://192.168.1.10/connector so that it tries to connect via IP rather than name to eliminate name resolution faking (DNS errrors) on the router. Everything tried simply barfs immediately after entering home server password with 'unspecified error'.

So, looked closely at the server to see if I could figure out why. Turns out that I also was unable to remove an old machine from the server too using remote desktop onto server and firing up the dashboard, clicking computers and backups, picking an old defunct PC and trying to remove it. Got exactly the same useless 'unspecified error'. Much digging, registry monitoring googling, scouring the near useless WHS logs, found out the the Active Directory Certificate Service was err'ing at startup. Now this service is especially important during connection or removal because it supplies the unique ID for a new PC which also must be revoked for removal - same system, same problem. So looking at why the service fails showed me that the certificate services database was corrupt. This is a file that resides by default in c:\windows\system32\CertLog folder. The file called <servername>-CA.edb is a database that stores the certificate data for each machine and when corrupted due to e.g. unscheduled server shutdown (power cut, forced switch off or whatever) causes the certifcate service to fail. To see if you have this same problem, fire up a remote desktop session to your server and logon. Open the services snap-in (start, run, services.msc), and look at the first services 'active directory certificate services' then attempt to start it. It might start but then stop within a few seconds. If it's stopped, you won't be able to join new machines to the WHS and you'll get the unspecified error message.

How do we fix this? Well, it's not that difficult, MS provides the tools to fix it pre-installed on your WHS. All you need is the command prompt (right-click command prompt and 'run as administrator') and a database repair tool, esentutl. Fire up your command prompt, navigate to the CertLog folder (default is c:\windows\system32\certlog) and first check the database using 'esentutl /g <servername>-CA.edb' (replace <server name> with the name of your server - check the file using 'dir' to see it first). You might get a warning here along the lines of 'log files exist, you should apply these before repairing'. If you get that mesage, simply run 'esentutl /r edb'. Hopefully this will succeed and if it does, you can the delete the '.log' files. Once you have removed the log files, run 'esentutl /p <servername>-CA.edb' to defrag the database. All being well, you should now be able to start the certificate services. Now run the connector installer again and hopefully, no more error.

Enjoy!

Matt