The Life of Brian : Active Directory

Server 2008 R2 Active Directory Webcast

BrianM — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:05:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Recycling Active Directory Trash with the AD Recycle Bin

BrianM — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:20:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Active Directory Recycle Bin PowerShell Scripts

BrianM — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:47:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Removing a Domain From Active Directory Gotcha

BrianM — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:31:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Active Directory Domain Services Resources

BrianM — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:36:00 GMT

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...(read more)

How to Remove a Failed or Offline DC

BrianM — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:13:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Script That Displays Group Membership and Active Directory Location

BrianM — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:53:00 GMT

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...(read more)

How to Search for an Email Address in Active Directory

BrianM — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:44:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Must Have Group Policy Setting!

BrianM — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:22:00 GMT

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...(read more)

KDC 11 Error in the System Event Log

BrianM — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:12:00 GMT

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: ...(read more)

Restartable AD DS and DSRM Logon Behaviors

BrianM — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:18:00 GMT

Ever since Windows 2000's implementation of Active Directory (AD) we have had a method to restore AD objects that were removed. Although it hasn’t been as easy as hitting CTRL-Z to undo a mistakenly deleted object or to try to restore from the...(read more)

What W32tm is it anyway?

BrianM — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:49:00 GMT

My daughter Alyssa and I play a game…well she might not consider it a game but she is constantly asking me “What time is it without looking”. I’ve actually gotten pretty good at it and can usually get within a few minutes. Not sure why...(read more)

Admin's Guide to Server Core Commands

BrianM — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:50:00 GMT

Repost from AdminPrep.com…I will be moving several of the articles over to this blog. Before all this starts, credit must go where credit is due. I did not come up with all of the info within this article. A lot of people have felt my pain and...(read more)

How to Configure Conditional Forwarders in Windows Server 2008

BrianM — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:32:00 GMT

Conditional Forwarders was a new feature within the Microsoft DNS server for Windows Server 2003. It was a great addition that allowed you to specify a specific DNS server for clients trying to resolve hosts in a specific domain. This way you could tell...(read more)

Microsoft Certified Master

BrianM — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:41:00 GMT

How many of you have heard of this? This is the new “Premier Technical Credential” from Microsoft . The program will be required to obtain the Microsoft Certified Architect program. Kind of weird having the “Premier Technical Credential” in...(read more)

Directory Services Core Infrastructure Presentation

BrianM — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:11:59 GMT

Just saw this on the “Ask the Directory Service Team” blog that they are going to have a webcast on Directory Service on the 21st of August. Here is the overview of what will be discussed: This session will look at core infrastructure services,...(read more)

What Version is Your Schema at?

BrianM — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:44:00 GMT

Have you ever had one of those jobs where you just weren’t sure what Schema update had been applied in an environment? The following command will let you know which of the Windows Server Schema updates have been applied. dsquery.exe * "CN=Schema...(read more)

RODC Compatibility Issues with Down-Level Clients

BrianM — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:15:01 GMT

I just read over at Jane Lewis's blog that if you plan on deploying Server 2008 Read Only Domain Controllers (RODC) and have down-level clients (XP and 2003 clients) then you will want to check out the RODC Compatibility Pack. I know a lot of people...(read more)

Active Directory Health Checks for Domain Controllers

BrianM — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:35:00 GMT

I've just written a small article on the common steps that I perform when doing health checks on domain controllers. AdminPrep is not up right now so I'll post the health check stuff here. I would love for you to come back here and let me know...(read more)

Installing Active Directory on Server Core with an Answer File

BrianM — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:11:23 GMT

Last week I spent some time at my former employer taking a Server 2008 upgrade course . Shame on you if you haven't checked them out for training because their Hard Hat courses are hands down the best out there. I spent a lot of time in that course...(read more)