Microsoft's official enterprise support blog for AD DS and more
Hey ladies and gents, Sean here again. Recently I ran into an issue with Windows Server 2003 that caused the Certificate Template Manager to hang. I’ll discuss the problem and provide solutions so you don’t get stuck wondering what’s going on if this happens to you. First, let’s talk about the symptoms. If you try… Read more
Hi. Jim here again from the Directory Services team. Today I will break down some of the core components of credential roaming and how it functions. To secure critical transactions such as signing, encrypting, and decrypting e-mail or authenticating identity, many environments rely on certificates. The user certificates and the associated private keys are linked… Read more
This is Jonathan Stephens from the Directory Services team, and I wanted to share with you a recent interoperability issue I encountered. An admin had set up an Apache web server with the OpenSSL mod for SSL/TLS support. Users were able to connect to the secure web site using Firefox, but when they tried to… Read more
Hi, Michael here. The following issue is one that I have seen come up from time to time and can be a challenge for IT administrators who are trying to use the built in Version 2 Domain Controller Authentication template in their environment. The concern may be seen when folks used a version 1 certificate… Read more
James Carr here and I would like to discuss creating custom certificate request in Windows Vista. When requesting certificates from a Windows 2000/2003 Enterprise Certification Authority, we will use one of the built-in certificate templates. Certificate Templates are used to tell the CA what information should be included in the issued certificate. For more information… Read more
Introduction Hello, this is Jonathan from the Directory Services team. The Network Device Enrollment Service (NDES) is one of the role services of the Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS) role. It implements the Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP). SCEP defines the communication between network devices and a Registration Authority (RA) for certificate enrollment. When the… Read more
Hi, Brantley here. I would like to share some information with you about how digital certificates work. Understanding the concepts about how certificates work is important when troubleshooting PKI issues. Let’s start by defining digital certificate: digital certificates are electronic credentials that are used to assert the online identities of individuals, computers and other entities… Read more
Hi, James here – I am a Support Escalation Engineer in Charlotte, NC, USA. Today I would like to talk to you about troubleshooting LDAP over SSL connectivity issues. We will be covering LDAP over SSL basics, how Subject Alternate Name’s (SAN) work, configuring Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) for LDAP over SSL, and of… Read more
Hi, Tom here from the Directory Services team. One of the most common EFS issues we see is for an expired Domain Data Recovery Agent (DRA) certificate. It is also one of the easiest things to resolve. You may have seen the error Recovery Policy for this system contains an invalid recovery certificate or ERROR_BAD_RECOVERY_POLICY…. Read more
Hi, Seth Scruggs here from the Directory Services team. Today I’m going to discuss how to troubleshoot certificate enrollment in Windows using a Windows Server 2003 Certification Authority (CA). Before you read on, make sure you have the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit, the Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP Support tools, and the Windows… Read more