March 2013 Update: A fix for this issue is now available. See A Fix for the Lync 2010 Control Panel Crash Issue on VMWare for more information.
I have experienced an issue recently with the Lync Control Panel crashing on several Lync servers. It appears the problem is caused by a recent Silverlight 5 update, but may or may not surface on all Lync servers. The issue is being investigated, but in the meantime, if you are experiencing this issue there are two easy workarounds:
- Launch the Lync Control Panel from a web browser using the pool FQDN. This will take the form: https://<pool_FQDN>/CSCP. Don’t forget the “s” or a HTTP 403 forbidden will be returned.
- Uninstall Silverlight 5 and re-install Silverlight 4. You can download Version 4 of Silverlight here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149156&v=4.0.50826.0.
The issue manifests itself if you launch the Lync Control Panel from the Windows Programs menu which uses an IIS component called AdminUIHost.exe. After a period of between 0 and 5 minutes, you will get the following error:
The culprit appears to be a recent Silverlight 5.1.10411.0 update (combined with using the AdminUIHost.exe component):
June 25, 2012 Update
Microsoft is aware of this issue. It appears to be a Silverlight 5 issue when running on VMWare (version unknown). There is no ETA on a fix and the recommended solution for now is to rollback to Silverlight 4.x.
Here is a thread on a VMWare forum that discusses the Silverlight 5 issue: http://communities.vmware.com/message/2005873.
Hi Curtis,
thanks for posting this. It seems that this problem only appears
after installation of Silverlight 5.1. I have one environment
that worked just fine with Silverlight 5 on VMWare and started
to throw the errors above after upgrade to Silverlight 5.1.
Cheers,
Thomas
He he – i tried the IE – but that crashes too. hmpf =/ i guess im rolling back too SL4. Thanks for the post!
Thanks for the post, rolled back to 4.x and it’s working fine again
I am having this same problem and would like to know when there is a fix. Virtual environment running VMWare.
Hi Susan,
I just published an update on this issue. In a nutshell it is a Silverlight 5 issue when running on VMWare. Microsoft is aware of the issue and a bug has been logged, etc… but for now the workaround is to roll back to Silverlight 4.x.
Thanks,
Curtis
Thanks for this update, I have experianced this in 2 separate environments now,accross many servers and the fix to remove Silverlight V5.x and replace it with Silverlight V4.x has fixed the contol panel issue.
Steve
Steve,
Just curious, were both of these environments virtual or physical (i.e. HyperV or VMWare)?
Thanks,
Curtis
I am experiencing this same issue – is there a fix from Microsoft?
Hi Jacob, not yet, it’s still under investigation. It seems like it is somewhat isolated to a certain environment seeing how many deployments have not experienced the issue. I will update this entry when I hear anything…
Curtis
[…] Panel Crash Issue on VMWare By Curtis Johnstone, on March 21st, 2013 TweetFor those living with the annoying issue of the Lync Server 2010 Control Panel crashing on a VMWare image, a fix has quietly been released in the form of a new update to Silverlight (which was the […]