Active Directory Troubleshooting Survival Guide

this looks interesting

“This page categorizes the Active Directory troubleshooting information that is spread all over the Internet, so you can get to resource you need to solve your specific issue.”

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/active-directory-troubleshooting-survival-guide.aspx

Active Directory to Active Directory synchronization. (Quick Connect Express for Active Directory)

This looks pretty cool , its a free tool from Quest to sync AD to AD or AD to AD LDS

http://www.quest.com/activeroles-server/quickconnect-express-for-active-directory.aspx

I havent checked it out yet but looks good for UAT work etc.

Windows Server Core Configurator V 2.0

Just noticed this on Jorge’s blog and is something that i think helps ease the pain and concern around using Server Core. Basically its an enhanced version of the codeplex application for Windows 2008 R2 Server Core called Windows Server Core Configurator.

You can manage computer settings, control panel settings etc from a GUI on a Server Core which has no GUI 🙂

Exchange Schema – What gets changed?

Nice document from MS

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3D44DE93-3F21-44D0-A0A1-35FF5DBABD0B&displaylang=en

AD Recovery doc updated

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=afe436fa-8e8a-443a-9027-c522dee35d85

PowerShell – Create Server Account in Specific OU

Another easy one

New-ADComputer -Name “LDNSRV1” -Path “OU=Servers,DC=W2K8R2,DC=NET” -enabled $True

PowerShell – protect objects from accidental deletion

Using PowerShell V2 and the new AD Cmdlets

in the below example on an OU

Get-ADOrganizationalUnit  -filter * | Set-ADOrganizationalUnit -ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion $true

and to do the reverse to one OU

Set-ADOrganizationalUnit “OU=London,DC=W2K8R2,DC=NET -ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion $False

PowerShell V2 out

Somehow missed this one, but spotted it on Jorge’s Blog

PowerShell V2 released for all Operating Systems… so time for me to start looking at the Active Directory cmdlets.

As Jorge mentiongs  “If you are having a hard time finding those, that’s because it is in included in the Windows Management Framework.”

Windows Management Framework Core (WinRM 2.0 and Windows PowerShell 2.0)

• Download the Windows Management Framework Core for Windows Server 2008 package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=863e7d01-fb1b-4d3e-b07d-766a0a2def0b)
• Download the Windows Management Framework Core for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=d37e25cf-db05-4b23-a852-cdf865d81b82)
• Download the Windows Management Framework Core for Windows Server 2003 package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=f002462b-c8f2-417a-92a3-287f5f81407e)
• Download the Windows Management Framework Core for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=909bbcf1-bd78-4e03-8c83-69434717e551)
• Download the Windows Management Framework Core for Windows Vista package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=f2fa1227-9a34-4e29-aa03-62f5c00e16f2)
• Download the Windows Management Framework Core for Windows Vista x64-based systems package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0f73efa2-f8d6-45f3-a8f8-5cdc205b119a)
• Download the Windows Management Framework Core for Windows XP package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=60cb5b6c-6532-45e0-ab0f-a94ae9ababf5)

 

 

Password policies

Good high level blog form the ASKDS team:

http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2009/05/19/understanding-password-policies.aspx

plus a link to a white paper you should read:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8C8E0D90-A13B-4977-A4FC-3E2B67E3748E&displaylang=en

Server Core – DC Promotion

I have attached a simple answer.txt file below that I have used before for Server Core Promotion:

To set the network up you need the network ID (which tends to be 2)

netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces (this gives you the network id)
netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”2″ source=static address=192.168.100.202 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.100.1
netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name=”2″ address=192.168.100.201 index=1

If you need RDP Access you need to do the following:

• WMIC RDTOGGLE Where ServerName=”%COMPUTERNAME%” Call SetAllowTSConnections  AllowTSConnections=”1″
• NetSH FireWall Set PortOpening TCP 3389 “Remote Desktop”

Dont forget to  Rename the machine to something more useful:

• WMIC ComputerSystem Where Name=”%COMPUTERNAME% Call Rename Name =”NewNameYouWant”

And then the answer.txt file

This one would create a normal DC with DNS thats also a GC in an existing Domain,

[DCINSTALL]
InstallDNS=Yes
ConfirmGc=Yes
CriticalReplicationOnly=No
DisableCancelForDnsInstall=No
Password=P@ssw0rd
RebootOnCompletion=No
ReplicaDomainDNSName=W2K8.COM
ReplicaOrNewDomain=Replica
SafeModeAdminPassword=P@ssw0rd
SiteName=London
UserDomain=W2K8.COM
Username=administrator