A timeout (30000 milliseconds) was reached while waiting for a transaction response from the (name-of-service) service (WIP)

Post is purely to reference bookmarks during troubleshooting (Work-In-Progress)

General consensus so far looks like it's related to some third party application issues.

In my environment, eventlogs reported multiple user registry leaks.

My guess it has to do with the server being under load or some hardware (possibly disk?) related issues combined with the software combination and communications between tiers.

http://www.eversity.nl/blog/2012/08/a-timeout-30000-milliseconds-was-reached-while-waiting-for-a-transaction-response-from-the-name-of-service-service/

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/77a521a1-e3d5-4ab2-9c0f-be4a5498ce1c/windows-server-2008-sp2-stops-responding-as-multiple-services-timeout?forum=winserverTS

This thread has a bit more variations to the issue:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/2c4b8121-da1c-4c11-b11d-2dff099ba245/windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-rds-hang-and-stop-responding-new-rdp-session-already-connected-session?forum=winserverTS


Official articles on how to change timeout. May not solve the root cause.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922918 (EventID: 7011)
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1458.event-id-7011-basic-service-operations.aspx

Other (may be related)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc756342%28v=ws.10%29.aspx (EventID: 7009)

Affecting VMtools:
http://ambitech.blogspot.sg/2013/01/esxi-5x-error-messages-in-windows-vm.html
Based on article comments, recommendation of not "updating OS patches + VMtools installation together" is not conclusive. (as in my environment, we patch first, then update tools)

Normal client OS with SSD:
http://www.bradymoritz.com/a-timeout-was-reached-30000-milliseconds-while-waiting-for-the
Seem to point to NOT disk issues. Hmmm...

How-To fix RDP connection issue with error "The Local Security Authority cannot be contacted"

Can be caused by:

1. User must change password on next logon and RDC is set to use only Network Level Authentication. Affects "workgroup" computers or computers on another domain (compared to the one you're logging in from). 
2. Missing language pack 

References:

http://blog.mnewton.com/articles/Solution-RDP-The-Local-Security-Authority-cannot-be-contacted/

On how to disable NLA (assuming you can get access to your remote server using the suggested methods:

http://blog.mnewton.com/articles/Solution-RDP-The-Local-Security-Authority-cannot-be-contacted/

Heartbleed remediation for vCenter (build 1750787), ESXi (build 1746018), Web Client Integration plug-in (build 1750778), vSphere C# client (build 1746248)

Glad to report the vCenter update went without a hitch on my home lab. As aways YMMV.

Updating to vCenter 5.5.0u1a - install in sequence following custom install. No reboot required. All other components remain the same as 5.5.0u1

Versions of updated 5.5.0u1a vCenter SSO, Inventory Service, Web Client and vCenter Server.

VMware Update Manager will be restarted during installation.

Web Client Integration Plugin will still have the same name as 5.5.0u1 but the build/version has been updated

vSphere Client updated to build 1746248. Not sure if it's only my home NAS that's slow but it looked like before updating, the stats and info page for ESXi hosts would not display properly.

vSphere Client not displaying ESXi stats properly (before updating; could also be caused by my storage backend)

How to change Office 2013 keys

For 32 bit Windows:

cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:yourkeygoeshere 

For 64 bit Windows (assuming you are using 32 bit Office):

cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:yourkeygoeshere

Gather information on a domain user (including last logon time, password status, NTFS group membership) without having to use ADUC

From command prompt type:

net user /do logonname

output will be similar to:

C:\Users\username>net user /do usernameexample
The request will be processed at a domain controller for domain thdm.local

User name                    usernameexample
Full Name                    FirstnameLastname
Comment                      
User's comment
Country code                 000 (System Default)
Account active               Yes
Account expires              Never

Password last set            1/1/2014 01:26:20 AM
Password expires             2/1/2014 01:26:20 AM
Password changeable          2/2/2014 01:26:20 AM
Password required            Yes
User may change password     Yes

Workstations allowed         All
Logon script                 logon.cmd
User profile
Home directory
Last logon                   2/4/2014 7:51:17 AM

Logon hours allowed          All

Local Group Memberships
Global Group memberships     *ACCESS-EVERYTHING

The command completed successfully.