Windows Server - Technology : Windows Server

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM'd!!!

Richard — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:22:00 GMT

It's real! Win7 and W2K8 R2 RTM'd!

New Windows Server 2008 R2 Build7268 appear on the internet..

Richard — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:12:00 GMT

New Windows Server 2008 R2 Build appear on the net..
I hope MS can make RTM avaliable to MVPs and Partner earlier so that we can test and give report on it.

Windows Server 2008 Licensing Information

Richard — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:47:00 GMT

As too many students asking me for the licensing information on WIndows Server 2008, I suggest all of you to take a look at the following link first:

Sites regarding Windows Server 2008 licensing.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/client-licensing.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/licensing-faq.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303695.aspx

For licensing questions, I suggest contacting Microsoft Licensing Center for detailed explanation.

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/contact-us.aspx

For licensing questions, please call 1-800-426-9400 (select option 4), Monday through Friday, 6:00 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. (PST) to speak directly to a Microsoft licensing specialist.

Worldwide customers can use the Guide to Worldwide Microsoft Licensing Sites http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/index/worldwide.asp to find contact information in their locations.

“Respond to all (known and unknown) client computers” setting behaviour

Richard — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:30:00 GMT

If you select “Respond to all (known and unknown) client computers”, and check the box “For unknown clients, notify administrator and respond after approval”, the result is:

When PXE booting a client, it will wait for you to approve it. Click Pending Devices in the WDS console, right-click the pending devices in the right pane and click Approve. The client computer continues with the network boot operation and a computer account object is created in AD DS to represent the physical device. Press F12 on the client and boot into a boot image. Before loading install images, you will be prompted to enter a domain user account name and password. This domain user account does not need to belong to a domain administrator groups.

Configuring When DHCP is on the Same Server

Richard — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:57:00 GMT

Configuring When DHCP is on the Same Server

The method of communication between the booting client and the server uses data fields (known as options) in DHCP packets. The Windows Deployment Services solution for booting over the network works well in many configurations. It works well when Windows Deployment Services is located on the same physical computer or on a different physical computer than the DHCP server. However, the default installation is that Windows Deployment Services and a DCHP server (Microsoft or non-Microsoft) are located on different physical computers. In this scenario, no additional configuration steps are required for interoperability between Windows Deployment Services and the DHCP server.

However, if you are running Windows Deployment Services and DHCP on the same computer, in addition to configuring the server to not listen on port 67, you will need to use your DHCP tools to add Option 60 to their DHCP scopes. This allows booting clients to learn about the Windows Deployment Services PXE server from the DHCP response that is generated by the DHCP server. Setting DHCP option tag 60 has one side effect: clients booting from the network are always notified that the Windows Deployment Services PXE server is available, even if the server is not operational or has stopped. For instructions on configuring these options, see the DHCP section of How to Manage Your Server.

Note

There are some scenarios (particularly those that require running a DHCP server) that do not support adding custom DHCP option 60 on the same physical computer as the Windows Deployment Services server. In these circumstances, it is possible to configure the server to bind to UDP Port 67 in non-exclusive mode by passing the SO_REUSEADDR option. For more information, see Using SO_REUSEADDR and SO_EXCLUSIVEADDRUSE (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=82387).

If DHCP is installed on a server that is located in a different subnet, then you will need to do one of the following configure your IP Helper tables (recommended) or add DHCP options 66 and 67. For more information, see Managing Network Boot Programs.

And here are some procedures:

To configure Windows Deployment Services to run on the same computer as Microsoft DHCP


Right-click the server and click Properties. On the DHCP tab, select Do not listen on port 67 and Configure DHCP Option #60 Tag to PXEClient.

This procedure does the following:

Sets HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WDSServer\Parameters\UseDhcpPorts to 0.
Adds the option 60 PXEClient tag to all of your DHCP scopes.

To configure Windows Deployment Services to run on the same computer as non-Microsoft DHCP


Right-click the server and click Properties. On the DHCP tab, select the Do not listen on port 67. Use your DHCP server tools to set Option #60 Tag to PXEClient.

This procedure sets HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WDSServer\Parameters\UseDhcpPorts to 0.

WDS documentation link:

Richard — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:55:00 GMT

WDS in Windows Server 2003:

WDS 2003 Step by Step Guide - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=66145
Deploying and Managing the Windows Deployment Services Update on Windows Server 2003 - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81031

WDS in Windows Server 2008

You can download this content at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=89381, or you can browse it using the following links:

WDS 2008 Step by Step Guide - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=84628
Deployment content - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81873
Technical Reference content - http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/80e4c10d-bb4b-4337-81dd-aa98fe6db7351033.mspx?mfr=true

Good articles on WDS Automating Setup and Sample Unattend Files

Richard — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:52:00 GMT

I found two useful articles from MS on WDS:

Automating Setup

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730695(WS.10).aspx

Sample Unattend Files

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732280(WS.10).aspx#Combined

Image group in Windows Deployment

Richard — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:49:00 GMT

An image group is a collection of .wim files that share common file resources and security. Servicing an image within an image group (such as applying a hotfix or a service pack or updating files) requires exclusive access to the entire image group. File resources are shared across the image group (single-instanced) even though the metadata of each image resides in a separate physical .wim file. Image groups contain two file types:

l Res.rwm. Contains the file streams for images as defined in Install.wim, Install2.wim, and WinXP.wim. Note that each image group has its own Res.rwm file.

l Install.wim. Contains image metadata that describes the content of an operating system image. The actual file resources for the image reside in Res.rwm.

Each image group will have a Res.rwm file created when the first image is added to the image group. All resources for all files reside in Res.rwm. The Res.rwm file is a .wim file that is renamed to differentiate the resource-only .wim file from the metadata .wim files and to speed up image enumeration. Because image enumeration only works on .wim files, the Res.rwm file will be skipped.

The .wim file format uses single-instancing technology, so the disk storage requirements for images within an image group are significantly reduced.

Problem on installing Windows Server 2008 on Dell Poweredge machine

Richard — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:27:00 GMT

Just saw a soluton on installation problem when installing WIndows Server 2008 on Dell Poweeedge machine:

When you find the installation process stop and display the following error:

"windows could not update the computer's boot configuration"

Try:
First, if your Installation and Maintenance DVD isn't version 5.4, get that ISO and make your new DVD.
Second, when you use that disk to prepare your array for Windows 2008, do not install a utility partition!
Third, the installation that the disk does left you with a splash screen and it never moved beyond that, so I hit F11 on bootup and chose to boot from the Windows 2008 DVD.
Fourth, please also check the BIOS settings and see if the boot hard disk has been set to the proper hard disk. Besides, you can try turning off all the boot devices from the BIOS except for the CD/DVD and the hard drive and see how it goes. It is reported that similar issues may occur when some boot devices interfere the installation.

Free Hard Drive / Hard Disk wipe tool

Richard — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:28:00 GMT

Many students and friends keep asking me for a free hard drive wipe tool, I found this one may be useful for yours.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php

CopyWipe™ is a utility for copying or securely overwriting (wiping/erasing) entire hard drives. CopyWipe can ease and expedite the transition to a new hard drive by copying the entire contents of one drive to another. CopyWipe can also help prevent confidential or private data from being recovered, by securely wiping the contents of a drive. A number of options are provided for wiping, most of which exceed governmental standards (such as DoD 5220.22-M, NAVSO P-5239-26, etc.); this allows the user to choose an optimal balance between security and duration of the wiping operation.

Network and Sharing Center Operations Guide

Richard — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:57:00 GMT

Another guide reviewed by me:

Network and Sharing Center Operations Guide

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/7bd38516-8d1c-4eb5-aaed-cf9369c4a0611033.mspx

Acknowledgments

Produced by: Microsoft Windows Server User Assistance team

Project Writer: Dave Bishop, L. Joan Devraun

Project Editor: Scott Somohano

Technical Reviewers: Sen Veluswami, Alvin Tan, Amit Pethe

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Reviewers: Richard Wu, Wai Ho

Telnet Operations Guide

Richard — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 05:19:00 GMT

Telnet Operations Guide

haha! I help Microsoft to review their Telnet Operation Guide before. Now, it was published!

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/0bd3aaf1-3475-4676-b85d-7fd5531a9cbc1033.mspx?mfr=true

Look at the bottom of that page, you will see:

Acknowledgments

Produced by: Microsoft Windows Server User Assistance team

Project Writer: Dave Bishop, L. Joan Devraun

Project Editor: Scott Somohano

Technical Reviewers: Jeff Gollnick, Shamit Patel, Shanmugam Kulandaivel, Jay Munro

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Reviewers: Richard Wu, Wai Ho

Changing local admin password?

Richard — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:28:00 GMT

Changing local admin password?

I just find a good method to change the local admin password of client PC remotely from MCPMAG. By using this method, you don't need to put the new password in script in order to make it work. You may reference this:

SysInternals offers a free too called PsPasswd
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PsPasswd.html , which
allows you to remotely reset passwords on a range of computers
on your network. The tool will also report successes and
failures of changed passwords, and allows you to run a single
command against a list of computers. Since the password is just
included within the syntax of a command that you run, it will
never be stored as plain text in a batch or script file.

To use PsPasswd, you'll first need a list of all computers in
your domain. To enumerate all computer objects in a domain,
you could run this script:

LogFile = "C:\computers.txt"
Const ForWriting = 2
Const ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE = 2

Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set objCommand = CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
objConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject"
objConnection.Open "Active Directory Provider"

Set objCOmmand.ActiveConnection = objConnection
objCommand.CommandText = _
   "Select Name, Location from 'LDAP://DC=mcpmag,DC=com' " _
   & "Where objectClass='computer'"
objCommand.Properties("Page Size") = 1000
objCommand.Properties("Searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE
Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute
objRecordSet.MoveFirst

Set objFSO =
CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(LogFile, ForWriting)

Do Until objRecordSet.EOF
   objFile.WriteLine objRecordSet.Fields("Name").Value
   objRecordSet.MoveNext
Loop

Note that the script will output to a file named "computers.txt"
on the C drive. This could be changed by editing the LogFile
variable assignment in the first line of the script. Note that
in your environment, you will also need to change the domain
referenced in line 12. In my example, I use mcpmag.com
(DC=mcpmag,DC=com).

Once you have a list of all computers, you can then run
pspasswd.exe to change the local administrator password on
all systems in the list. Here's the syntax that I used on my
test network:

pspasswd.exe @c:\computers.txt administrator P@ssword!

Following the @ symbol in the command syntax is the path to
the file containing all computer names. The next part of the
syntax is the name of the account whose password will be
changed, followed by the new password (P@ssword!).

Now here is the output that was generated from the command:

PsPasswd v1.21 - Local and remote password changer
Copyright (C) 2003-2004 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

\\PC1:
Error changing password:
The network path was not found.

\\BSODME:
Password for BSODME\administrator successfully changed.

Since the output will list both success and failures, you will
be able to note the systems in which the password was not
successfully changed. In my case, the system named PC1 was not
located. So I would have to ensure that PC1 was online and then
run the command a second time. (Note that PsPasswd can also be
run against a single computer.) Since the command relies on UNC
paths to connect to systems, you will need to ensure that the
target systems have File and Print Sharing enabled and that File
and Print Sharing is not being blocked by the system's firewall.
By default, the Windows XP Pro SP2 firewall does not allow File
and Print sharing. However, this can be quickly changed via
Group Policy.

As you can see, with a simple list of computers on your network,
remotely changing the local administrator password using PsPasswd
is a relatively painless process.

Install/Upgrade UltraVNC v1.02 through Remote Desktop.

Richard — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:50:00 GMT

If you install VNC through Remote Desktop, you will face a problem that VNC Server can't run as a service even you choose the "Run As Services" option during the installation. To work around to this problem, I search through the net and find a solution which work on my server(W2K /w SP4):

1. Logon the Server by using Remote Desktop and install VNC, run the VNC Server by clicking it's icon in the VNC program group.(It may prompt you to configure the default password if it's a new installation. However, my case is not a new installation, so it don't prompt for configuring the default password).

Configure the default setting by clicking the "Show Default Settings" inside the UltraVNC program group(I configure my VNC password at that time) and click OK.

If it does not work, try copy the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ORL\WinVNC3\Password to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORL\WinVNC3\Default\Password

2. Then, created the registry value "AuthRequired" under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ORL\WinVNC3 and set it to 0 (a DWORD value). That enabled "passwordless" VNC access(Remark: It's DANGER to do so!!!)

3. Go to the services console and start the VNC service.

Now since VNC is hooking video as if we were sitting in front of a console rather than RDP's session stuff, we can attach to the newly started vnc service. Go to start->program files->Ultra VNC->Ultra VNC Server [folder]->Show Default Settings (Assuming everything is in the default places/names at least...)

Now set your password. Do a save and get outta there. Exit VNC client locally, and reconnect - now it prompts for password. Remove the "authrequired" key.

Logging User logon event.

Richard — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:39:00 GMT

If you want to keep track the user logon and logoff event to the domain, you can try this method:

Step 1: Create the following two files using Notepad or your favorite text editor:

------logon.cmd----
echo logon %username% %computername% %date% %time% >> \\dc1\share\logon.log

-----logoff.cmd-----
echo logoff %username% %computername% %date% %time% >> \\dc1\share\logoff.log

Step 2: Update Group Policy to run the appropriate batch file. In Group Policy, go to:
User Configuration-> Windows Settings-> Scripts (Logon/Logoff)-> Logon
User Configuration-> Windows Settings-> Scripts (Logon/Logoff)-> Logoff

Step 3: As users log on and off, your log file should look something like this:

logon Richard WS01 Tue 22/02/2005 10:39:51.12
logon Peter WS02 Tue 22/02/2005 10:42:01.07

logoff Richard WS01 Tue 22/02/2005 10:41:08.45
logoff Peter WS02 Tue 22/02/2005 10:42:46.81

For paid solution and better reporting, you can use the software from:
http://manageengine.adventnet.com/products/desktop-central/

Publish IIS 6 on ISA2004/2006 Server when they are on the same server.

Richard — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:35:00 GMT

If you want to publish the HTTP service in IIS which was installed on the same machine as ISA, you are require to disable socket pooling on it. Otherise, HTTP service will bind itself to all network interfaces which prevent ISA to listen for incoming request.

1. Install the Support Tools form the W2K3 Server installation disc. It was located in the SUPPORT\TOOLS folder.
2. Run "net stop http /y"
3. Run "net stop w3proxy" if you enabled the web proxy service.
4. Go to the Support Tools folder and Run "httpcfg delete iplisten -i 0.0.0.0"
5. Run "httpcfg set iplisten -i 192.168.8.8" where "192.168.8.8" is the IP of which HTTP service should be listen to.
6. Run "net start http"
7. Run "net start w3svc"
8. Run "net start w3proxy"

You can run "httpcfg query iplisten" to check which IP does the HTTP service is currently listening to.
You can also run "netstat -na | more" to check the active listening ports.

If you want to stop socket pooling on FTP service, you can do this:

1. cd c:\Inetpub\AdminScripts
2. net stop msftpsvc
3. cscript adsutil.vbs set msftpsvc/disablesocketpooling true
4. net start msftpsvc

If you want to stop socket pooling on SMTP service, you can do this:

1. cd c:\Inetpub\AdminScripts
2. net stop smtpsvc
3. cscript adsutil.vbs set smtpsvc/disablesocketpooling true
4. net start smtpsvc

You can also disable socket pooling for POP3 and IMAP4 services by changing the command:
cscript adsutil.vbs set imap4svc/disablesocketpooling true
cscript adsutil.vbs set pop3svc/disablesocketpooling true

Setting up Cluster on Virtual Server 2005 R2.

Richard — Thu, 17 May 2007 12:41:00 GMT

I find a very good article which teach you the steps to configure cluster in Virtual Server.
It's from RoudyBob. Let's share here:

http://www.roudybob.net/downloads/Setting-Up-A-Windows-Server-2003-Cluster-in-VS2005-Part1.pdf

http://www.roudybob.net/downloads/Setting-Up-A-Windows-Server-2003-Cluster-in-VS2005-Part2.pdf

Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system

Richard — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:04:00 GMT

Thanks Jeepeepee for the link. I re-post the link in here:

Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=832017

I think it's very useful when doing diagnostic.

A List of the Windows 2000 Domain Controller Default Ports

Richard — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:20:00 GMT

**This article (Q289241) is no longer available via Microsoft Tech Net.

SUMMARY

This article describes the most common ports, protocols, and services that are opened on a Windows 2000-based server that is running Active Directory. The purpose of this article is to list the different services and their respective ports, not to explain how to configure the ports for either a firewall or a proxy.

MORE INFORMATION

21/TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) -- FTP

This File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server is part of Internet Information Services (IIS) and is administered from the IIS administration tool. FTP is a common method to transfer files between two networked computers and to enable the convenient use of remote file storage capabilities.

25/TCP -- SMTP

This Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service is administered from the IIS administration tool. SMTP is the protocol that is used to send e-mail messages by means of the Internet.

80/TCP -- HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the set of rules for exchanging files (for example, text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web (WWW). In comparison to the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite of protocols (that are the basis for information exchange on the Internet), HTTP is a program protocol.

88/UDP (User Datagram Protocol) -- Kerberos

Kerberos protocol is a network authentication method that is based on the key distribution model. This protocol enables entities that are communicating over networks to prove their identity to each other and at the same time this protocol can prevent eavesdropping or replay attacks. The Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) listens on this port for ticket requests. Port 88 for the Kerberos protocol can also be TCP/UDP.

119/TCP -- NNTP

Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) is the predominant protocol that is used by computers for managing the notes that are posted on Usenet newsgroups. NNTP servers manage the global network of collected Usenet newsgroups.

135/TCP -- RPC

Remote procedure call (RPC) is a facility that enables a program on one Windows-based computer (the client computer) to invoke the services of another program that is running on a separate Windows-based computer (the server) in a distributed network. RPC is a program-level protocol that can use the communications services of any of the Windows networking protocols, which includes TCP/IP.

137/UDP -- NetBIOS Name Server

The network basic input/output system (NetBIOS) Name Server (NBNS) protocol, which is part of the NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) family of protocols, provides a means for hostname and address mapping on a NetBIOS-aware network.

139/TCP -- NetBIOS Session Services

NetBIOS Session Services are part of the NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) family of protocols and is used for server message block (SMB), file sharing, and printing.

389/UDP -- LDAP

LDAP is the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. LDAP is designed to be a standard way of providing access to directory services. In Windows 2000, LDAP is the primary way that the operating system accesses the Active Directory database.

443/TCP -- HTTPS

Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) is a variant of HTTP that is used for handling secure transactions. HTTPS is a unique protocol that is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) underneath HTTP.

445/TCP -- SMB

The SMB protocol is used for file sharing in Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000. Windows 2000 enables you to run SMB directly over TCP/IP, without the extra layer of NetBT.

464/TCP -- Kerberos Password V5

The Kerberos change password protocol is used to deny an administrator from setting a password for a new user. This functionality is useful in some environments, and this proposal can be used to enable password setting. This protocol is used when users changes their passwords.

500/TCP -- ISAKMP

Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP) or IKE (for Windows 2000) is the key exchange mechanism for a virtual private network (VPN). ISAKMP manages the exchange of cryptographic keys and employs a two-phase process for establishing the Internet Protocol security (IPSec) connection between two gateways.

563/TCP -- SNEWS

SNEWS is secure NNTP.

593/TCP -- RPC over HTTP

RPC over HTTP is used for COM+ Internet Services and requires IIS to operate.

636/TCP -- LDAP over SSL

When SSL is enabled, LDAP data that is transmitted and received is encrypted.

1025/TCP -- Listen

The first port assigned to be used by any application..

1067/TCP -- Installation Bootstrap Service

The installation bootstrap protocol server.

1068/TCP -- Installation Bootstrap Service

The installation bootstrap protocol client.

1645/UDP -- IAS: Internet Authentication Service

This service is used for processing Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) authentication messages and is supported by IAS to provide backward compatibility with earlier RADIUS servers.

1646/UDP -- IAS: Internet Authentication Service

This service is used for processing RADIUS accounting messages and is supported by IAS to provide backward compatibility with earlier RADIUS servers.

1701/UDP -- L2TP

Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) is a method for encapsulating standard Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) by means of a variety of media. The protocol also enables encapsulation of PPP by using UDP packets.

1723/UDP -- PPTP

PPTP is an abbreviation for Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol. It is an Internet protocol that is commonly used in VPN products. Windows NT supports PPTP server, and both Windows NT and Microsoft Windows 95 support PPTP client.

1812/UDP -- IAS Internet Authentication Service

This service is used for processing RADIUS authentication messages.

1813/UDP -- IAS Internet Authentication Service

This service is used for processing RADIUS authentication messages.

3268/TCP -- Microsoft Global Catalog

Active Directory global catalogs listen on this port.

3269/TCP -- Microsoft Global Catalog with LDAP/SSL

Microsoft global catalog SSL connections listen on this port.

3389/TCP -- RDP

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is the protocol that enables a thin client to communicate with the Terminal server over the network. This protocol is based on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) T.120 protocol, an international, standard multiple-channel conferencing protocol that is currently being used in the Microsoft NetMeeting conferencing software product.

Tools to monitor DNS

Richard — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 02:54:00 GMT

Just read a good article from MCPMAG which was about DNS command line tools. So, re-post here:

By Zubair Alexander

Domain Name System service is one of the most important services on
your Windows network. The importance of DNS is even more apparent on
an Active Directory network because the entire Active Directory
infrastructure relies heavily on it.

To troubleshoot and monitor DNS services, you can turn to numerous
tools out there. You might be familiar with Nslookup, a popular,
built-in tool used to troubleshoot DNS-related problems. We'll look
at two that aren't as well-known: DnsCmd and DnsLint, both from
Microsoft. You can find them in the support tools folder in Windows
Server 2003.

DNSCMD
DnsCmd is a command-line tool that can be used to perform literally
hundreds of DNS-related tasks. For example, you can modify DNS server
settings, get configuration information, clear server cache, display
or delete records, initiate server scavenging or export a zone file.
Type DnsCmd /? at the command prompt for the syntax.

Figure 1 (see http://tinyurl.com/y67k6o ) shows some of the
commands that you can run. For more information on a specific command,
use the following syntax:

DnsCmd <CommandName> /?

For example, dnscmd /config /? will give you additional options that
can be used with the /config switch.

Let's say you want to list all the zones that are configured on a DNS
server called DNS1. Use DnsCmd with the /enumzones switch to get the
following sample output:

C:\>dnscmd dns1 /enumzones
Enumerated zone list:
Zone count = 8
Zone name Type Storage Properties
. Cache AD-Legacy
_msdcs.example.com Primary AD-Forest Secure
10.5.5.in-addr.arpa Primary AD-Legacy Rev
25.168.192.in-addr.arpa Primary AD-Legacy Rev
example1.com Primary File
example2.com Primary File
example3.com Primary File
example4.com Primary AD-Domain
Command completed successfully.

Try various commands with different switches. You will be amazed at the
amount of information you can obtain from DnsCmd. Because DnsCmd works
from the command line, you can use it in a batch file and perform
configuration tasks remotely on multiple DNS servers.

DNSLINT
Another useful tool, DnsLint is used at the command prompt to generate
HTML reports. Use DnsLint /? at the command prompt for more information:

dnslint /d domain_name | /ad [LDAP_IP_address] |
   /ql input_file [/c [smtp,pop,imap]]
   [/no_open] [/r report_name] [/t]
   [/s DNS_IP_address] [/v] [/y]

The three required parameters in DnsLint are the following.

/d -- Used to diagnose DNS-related problems, such as lame delegation.

Note: Lame delegation occurs when a DNS subdomain is pointing to a DNS
server that either doesn't exist or is not authoritative for
that subdomain.

/ad -- Used to verify DNS records used for Active Directory replication.

/ql -- Used to verify DNS records on multiple servers.

There are some rules you have to follow when using DnsLint commands.

    * The /d, /ad and /ql switches cannot be used together.
    * The /c can't be paired up with /ad or /ql.
    * When using /ad, you must also specify /s.

Here are some examples of using DnsLint.

dnslint /d myserver.com
dnslint /v /y /d reskit.com
dnslint /v /y /r ms_report /d microsoft.com
dnslint /v /y /no_open /s 169.254.1.10 /d msn.com
dnslint /v /y /c /t /d reskit.com
dnslint /d reskit.com /c smtp,pop
dnslint /ad 169.254.10.22 /s 169.254.44.1 /v
dnslint /ad /s localhost /v
dnslint /ql mylist.txt /v
dnslint /ql autocreate

Let's try the following step-by-step procedure to create an HTML report
with DnsLint. You will need two pieces of information: FQDN of the
server and its IP address. I'll create a report for my domain called
seattlepro.com at IP address 192.168.1.200. You should substitute your
own domain and IP address in this exercise.

   1. Go to the command prompt and type the following:

      Dnslint /ql autocreate

      This creates a sample text file called in-dnslint.txt in the
      same directory where you typed the above command.

   2. Edit that file with Notepad:

      Notepad in-dnslint.txt

   3. Notice the seventh line from the bottom lists dns1.cp.msft.net.
      I will change that to reflect my DNS server
      (dns1.seattlepro.com). I will also replace microsoft.com in the
      last four lines with the name of my domain and the IP address
      with my IP address in two places. When done, my file looks
      like this:

      +This DNS server is called: dns1.seattlepro.com
      [dns~server] 192.168.1.200

      seattlepro.com,a,r ;A record
      192.168.1.200,ptr,r ;PTR record
      seattlepro.com,cname,r ;CNAME record
      seattlepro.com,mx,r ;MX record

   4. Save the file as dnsquery.txt in the same folder where you
      created the in-dnslint.txt file.

   5. To execute the query, type the following at the command prompt:

      dnslint /ql dnsquery.txt /v

   6. You should see an HTML report that's now displayed automatically
      in your default browser. The default name for the report is
      dnslint.htm and it's created in the same directory as the
      in-dnslint.txt and dnsquery.txt files.

For a sample of DnsLint report, see http://www.techgalaxy.net/mcpmag/ .
Notice that if there are any errors or warnings, they are all coded for
your convenience.

Windows Server - Technology : Windows Server

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM'd!!!

New Windows Server 2008 R2 Build7268 appear on the internet..

Windows Server 2008 Licensing Information

“Respond to all (known and unknown) client computers” setting behaviour

Configuring When DHCP is on the Same Server

Configuring When DHCP is on the Same Server

To configure Windows Deployment Services to run on the same computer as Microsoft DHCP

To configure Windows Deployment Services to run on the same computer as non-Microsoft DHCP

WDS documentation link:

Good articles on WDS Automating Setup and Sample Unattend Files

Image group in Windows Deployment

Problem on installing Windows Server 2008 on Dell Poweredge machine

Free Hard Drive / Hard Disk wipe tool

Network and Sharing Center Operations Guide

Telnet Operations Guide

Telnet Operations Guide

Acknowledgments

Changing local admin password?

Changing local admin password?

Install/Upgrade UltraVNC v1.02 through Remote Desktop.

Logging User logon event.

Publish IIS 6 on ISA2004/2006 Server when they are on the same server.

Setting up Cluster on Virtual Server 2005 R2.

Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system

Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server systemhttp://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=832017

A List of the Windows 2000 Domain Controller Default Ports

SUMMARY

MORE INFORMATION

21/TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) -- FTP

25/TCP -- SMTP

80/TCP -- HTTP

88/UDP (User Datagram Protocol) -- Kerberos

119/TCP -- NNTP

135/TCP -- RPC

137/UDP -- NetBIOS Name Server

139/TCP -- NetBIOS Session Services

389/UDP -- LDAP

443/TCP -- HTTPS

445/TCP -- SMB

464/TCP -- Kerberos Password V5

500/TCP -- ISAKMP

563/TCP -- SNEWS

593/TCP -- RPC over HTTP

636/TCP -- LDAP over SSL

1025/TCP -- Listen

1067/TCP -- Installation Bootstrap Service

1068/TCP -- Installation Bootstrap Service

1645/UDP -- IAS: Internet Authentication Service

1646/UDP -- IAS: Internet Authentication Service

1701/UDP -- L2TP

1723/UDP -- PPTP

1812/UDP -- IAS Internet Authentication Service

1813/UDP -- IAS Internet Authentication Service

3268/TCP -- Microsoft Global Catalog

3269/TCP -- Microsoft Global Catalog with LDAP/SSL

3389/TCP -- RDP

Tools to monitor DNS

Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=832017