I recently ran into a never before seen error message when trying to open the DirectAccess section of the UAG console. We had a fresh install of Windows 2008 R2 and all current updates, UAG 2010 with Update 2 and the KB2418933 hotfix as well as TMG SP1 + Update 1 installed (links here), but when clicking on the DirectAccess item in the UAG console we were hit with a Configuration error message that reads “Cannot load the DirectAccess view (0).”
After a little digging I discovered the computer name was 16 characters long and this causes problems with NetBIOS naming which only allows 15 characters. As a test I built a VM called “UAG-LongNameTest” which is conveniently 16 characters long and the error was immediately reproduced. You can even see from the Messages pane of the UAG Console that the name of the node it is trying to load uses the NetBIOS name and therefore fails.
To be fair, when naming a computer like this you will get a warning that tells you it could cause problems.
Just for kicks, I renamed my UAG server to match the shortened version and I was able to open the DirectAccess view, however renaming your computer after UAG is installed is generally not supported and you’ll probably want to start from scratch and build yourself a new machine with a shorter name this time.
And then for giggles I decided to rename my computer to “UAG-NewName” and see what happened. This time when opening the UAG console I got the “Configuring Forefront UAG for the first time” message and was eventually able to get in. Again, this is likely not a supported scenario so I don’t recommend it. It’s just something I wanted to try.
So, new rule: Make sure your UAG server name is 15 characters or less.
