How Active Directory PowerShell CMDLETS find a DC running Active Directory Web Services

BrianM — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT

If you have been playing with the the AD PowerShell cmdlets you know that it requires a few things to run, first Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7, the .NET Framework 3.5.1 and of course if you want to manage an AD domain you need Active Directory Web Services (ADWS) installed on at least one domain controller.

By the way ADWS requires TCP port 9389

So how in the world does a Windows 7 system know how to find a DC running ADWS? Well your client running PowerShell will use the normal DC locator process. First the client will determine which site it is in nltest /dsgetsite and then it will determine the closest DC nltest /dsgetdc:<FQDN Domain>. It is looking at the DC for the following flag:

DS_WEB_SERVICE_REQUIRED

More info on that flag can be found here.

Now what if you don’t have Server 2008 R2 DCs? With Server 2003 and Server 2008 a problem occurs because the Net Logon service of those domain controllers does not recognize the DS_WEB_SERVICE_REQUIRED flag. There are two hotfixes (one for what ever version of AD you are running) available to fix that in those environments. Server 2003 and Server 2008

After you install this hotfix the AD PowerShell module and Active Directory Administrative Center will be able to locate DCs that have Active Directory Management Gateway Service installed, similar to Active Directory Web Services (ADWS) on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer.

PowerShell Script Center

BrianM — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

I’m sure a lot of you have been playing with PowerShell. If not you better get on it!!! I’m not as far along as I wish I was but there is help out there. One great place is to see what others have done. Microsoft’s TechNet Scripting Center has a place where you can upload your own scripts and search what others have done. This is great for a community of learning developers…did I just say developers…ewwwww. :)

This link provides a shortcut to filter just the Active Directory related scripts. From here you can find scripts on Computer Accounts, Domains, Groups, Monitoring, OUs, Searching Active Directory, Sites and Subnets and User Accounts!

If you want to just view all the PowerShell scripts just hit this URL - http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/ScriptCenter/en-us. Here you will scripts on Active Directory, Applications, Backup and System Restore, Databases, Desktop Management, Group Policy, Hardware, Interoperability and Migration, Local Account Management, Logs and monitoring, Messaging & Communication, Multimedia, Networking, Office, Operating System, Other Directory Services, Printing, Remote Desktop Services, Scripting Techniques, Security, Servers, Storage, System Center, Using the Internet and Windows Update. WOW that is a wealth of info.

Enjoy and please share if you have any cool ones yourself.

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How Active Directory PowerShell CMDLETS find a DC running Active Directory Web Services

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