The Life of Brian

Unable to Change Share Permissions on a File Share Cluster Resource

2009-06-30T14:50:00Z

I ran into a weird issue the other day when configuring permissions on a Share that was clustered. I couldn’t find much online about this, and the one similar issue from Russ was not the issue here. Here is a little background info to help set the stage. An admin changes the permission on the Shared Folder (not the File Share Cluster Resource) that is clustered from Read to Full Control. This works when connecting to the node explicitly but not with the cluster name. So he...(read more)

New Server Core Guide

2009-05-22T17:16:00Z

Just saw over on the Server Core blog that Andrew posted some links to a couple excellent resources. The first one is what I consider to be the Server Core Bible . It has just about everything you can think of when it comes to configuring Server Core. The next link is to a couple job aids that give you a quick look at some common commands. These job aids actually gives me some ideas on some things I’d like to create…now if I only had more time. ...(read more)

OCD with Email

2009-04-30T18:15:00Z

I admit it…I have issues with email. So much so that I think I may have OCD. I’m not trying to make fun of anyone that really has that disorder but I sure feel like I’m obsessed with unread email. I can’t stand it in fact. When a new mail arrives in my inbox I seem to stop what I'm doing and read it. This is not helpful for someone that gets hundreds of emails a day. Yes most are from monitors and alerts that technically I don’t need to read right away but...(read more)

Server 2008 R2 Active Directory Webcast

2009-04-23T23:05:00Z

If you’ve got time on such short notice try to check out the webcast O’Reilly is hosting on What’s New in Active Directory for Server 2008 R2. It is going to be hosted by two other Directory Services MVPs Brian Desmond and Laura Hunter . This is a free event and is scheduled for 90 mins. Date: Friday, April 24, 2009 Time: 10am San Francisco | 6pm London | 1pm - New York | Sat, Apr 25th at 3am - Sydney | Sat, Apr 25th at 2am - Tokyo | Sat, Apr 25th at 1am - Beijing | 10:30pm – Mumbai Registration...(read more)

I Love April Fools Day

2009-04-01T15:41:00Z

Everyone has there own reason for loving or hating April Fools Day . For the last 4 years it has been a day of great joy for me. I got the email shortly from Microsoft that I was re-awarded my MVP for Directory Services! I really think this blog has a lot to do with it and that means that i’m especially grateful to all 17 people (12 of which are probably family) that read it too!!! Thanks to all of you for engaging me on through the comments and I hope that you will continue...(read more)

Recycling Active Directory Trash with the AD Recycle Bin

2009-03-31T22:20:00Z

Hopefully some of you have been playing with Server 2008 R2 while it has been in Beta . One of the features I’m looking forward to most is the AD Recycle Bin. Yes you heard me correct. We now have an easy method for restoring accidently deleted objects. In the past our only recovery method out of the box was to perform an authoritative restore of an object. That method had several issues that always rubbed me the wrong way. First you had to be in Directory Services Restore Mode (DRSM). And...(read more)

Active Directory Recycle Bin PowerShell Scripts

2009-03-31T20:47:00Z

I just found out that there is an Active Directory PowerShell Blog run by Microsoft’s AD PowerShell team. I gathered that info from reading up on Jason’s post . Its amazing how much info you can get from reading other people’s blogs…now on to the regularly scheduled post… After writing my article on the AD Recycle Bin I thought I would include a few PowerShell scripts here that can be used to modify the tombstone lifetime along with the deleted object lifetime. Remember that the...(read more)

Removing a Domain From Active Directory Gotcha

2009-03-30T21:31:00Z

I’ve removed plenty of DCs and Domains in my years. In fact I recently blogged about how remove a failed DC here . It seems sometimes after removing a domain from your environment doesn’t remove it entirely. You may see a message that says the following: The trusts between this domain (abc.local) and the following domain(s) are in an error state: xyz.abc.local (inbound), the error is: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted. (0x54B) Normally this message...(read more)

New PowerShell Blog

2009-02-26T18:08:00Z

Just saw that a good friend and former co-worker FINALLY has a blog up. Jason’s blog is geared toward PowerShell and it already has some nice posts as well as some videos on PowerShell. I’m so far behind on the PowerShell curve but i’m sure Jason’s blog will help get me up to speed. With Server 2008 R2’s release coming soon all AD admins should take to the time to learn PowerShell since it is going to include ways to manage AD. So make sure you hit www.jasonhelmick.com for...(read more)

Group Policy Fails on Import in GPMC

2009-02-26T18:02:00Z

I was working an issue where I couldn’t import Group Policy’s settings to a new policy from one environment to another using GPMC. The error message I got was the following: GPO: Test GPO V1.0...Failed The overall error was: The system cannot find the file specified. Additional details follow. [Error] The task cannot be completed. There was an error with extension [Registry]. The file [\\domain_name\sysvol\domain_name\Policies\{AAAAAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD-EEEEEEEEEEEE}\Adm\admfiles.ini] cannot be...(read more)

Windows 7 Editions

2009-02-04T00:40:00Z

Just heard word from Microsoft that they have released the official SKUs for Windows 7. Nothing mind blowing here and it looks an awful lot like Windows Vista SKUs. The first two 7 Starter and 7 Home Basic will not be offered in the US. I've also heard that the upgrade from one edition to the next is going to be only a few minutes and not a total reinstall. Now that would be a welcome relief! Windows 7 Starter Windows 7 Home Basic Windows 7 Home Premium Windows 7 Professional Windows 7 Enterprise...(read more)

Windows Server 2008 Terminal Server Resources

2009-01-29T16:40:00Z

As I’ve done with Active Directory and Failover Clustering I'm going to share with you some links and resources for Server 2008’s Terminal Services. I for one really like some of the new features of Terminal Services. I also seen some really cool customizations that people have been doing with these components. Although I’m not completely sold on renaming the service to Remote Desktop Services when R2 comes out for Server 2008. The links are bucketed in three categories but...(read more)

Active Directory Domain Services Resources

2009-01-09T17:36:00Z

I pulled together a few links to help point people in the right direction on resources for AD in Windows Server 2008. You’ll find all kinds of goodies, from virtual labs to videos by some of your favorite public speakers and of course what I think are the must have…the Guides! Links and Documents: AD DS Operations Guide AD DS Design Guide AD DS Deployment Guide Server 2008 Auditing AD DS Changes Step-by-Step Guide Step-by-Step Guide for Fine-Grained Password and Account Lockout Policy...(read more)

How to Remove a Failed or Offline DC

2008-12-17T20:13:00Z

I’ve seen this issue come up time and time again. Some administrator decided to remove an old DC from the network but forgot to remove it from Active Directory or the DC has entered a failed state and cannot be recovered from. In a perfect world DCPROMO is all you have to do to remove a DC from the environment. However, if that DC was already shutdown or DCPROMO is giving you problems you will have to remove it the manual way. That method involves using a command called NTDSUTIL...(read more)

Microsoft Clustering Resources

2008-12-16T15:45:00Z

This has to be the mother of all resource collections on Microsoft clustering and high availability. I’ve copied over the links directly from the MS Cluster blog so that I have quick access to them in the future. General Resources Cluster Team Site: Clustering Technical Resources Guide: Failover Clustering Deployment Guide: Validating Hardware for a Failover Cluster Guide: Migrating Cluster Settings Guide: Configuring the Quorum in a Failover Cluster Guide: Configuring Accounts in Active Directory...(read more)

Script That Displays Group Membership and Active Directory Location

2008-12-15T17:53:00Z

The following code can be run to display the group membership of an Active Directory group and also let you know each member’s LDAP Distinguished Name. The output will name the text file the group name and will include all the members and their location in Active Directory. Just copy this into a txt file and rename to .vbs Enjoy! Set objGroup = GetObject("LDAP:// cn=GroupName,ou=OUName,DC=DomainName,DC=local ") Set objFileSystem = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"...(read more)

How to Search for an Email Address in Active Directory

2008-12-02T21:44:00Z

From time to time I’ve had to figure out which user account has a specific email address. Actually its more like finding who has the “reallycoolemailaccount@company.com ” so another “more senior” person can get it. Well if you work in a smaller company this can be kind of easy…but if your directory has thousands of accounts it becomes more difficult and time consuming. What you will want to do is open up Active Directory Users and Computers and right-click the domain and select Search...(read more)

Must Have Group Policy Setting!

2008-11-14T21:22:00Z

I recently blogged about time and how critical it is in a domain environment. Just this morning I read a post from the Directory Services Team that shows how to configure WMI Filtering through Group Policy to ensure that the PDC Emulator always has the right time configuration. You need to read through this post really consider implementing a similar policy into your environment. The only portion that is missing from that post is the location of the W32Time settings in Group Policy. The policy you...(read more)

KDC 11 Error in the System Event Log

2008-11-07T00:12:00Z

I ran into this error awhile back after building a new root level Domain Controller (DC). My initial health checks panned out ok but after about an hour the following should up in my System Event log: Event Type: Error Event Source: KDC Event Category: None Event ID: 11 User: N/A Computer: DCShortName Description: There are multiple accounts with name cifs/DCShortName...(read more)

Windows Server 2008 Server Core Default Services

2008-11-06T19:08:00Z

Quite a few people have asked recently about services in Server Core. They want to know what’s running and what’s not running. Below you will find a listing that intended to help those out that need to know the status of Services on Server Core. It is sorted by Service Name. Another useful item to note on Server Core (or the CMD Prompt on Server) is that you can still use the SC command. In particular you should run SC Query, this little useful command will tell you which services are...(read more)