Microsoft's official enterprise support blog for AD DS and more
Hi folks, Jonathan again. Ned is taking some time off visiting his old stomping grounds – the land of Mother-in-Laws and heart-breaking baseball. Or, as Sandburg put it: “Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders” Cool,… Read more
Hiya folks, Ned here again. I finally have an editor that allows anchors on all the questions, so I am adding a quasi “table of contents” for these posts that allow easier navigation and linking. I’ll retrofit all the old mail sack articles too… eventually. This week we discuss – eh – let’s have the… Read more
Hi folks, Ned here again. This week I talk about Vista’s hidden AD schema, SYSVOL migration mission control, kick-starting cached logon performance, USMT c’est la vie, foul-mouthed NetBIOS, DFSR do-over, and the usual random goo. What to do with a Version 39 (Vista Beta) AD Schema When to migrate SYSVOL – Win2008 or Win2008 R2… Read more
Hello all, Jonathan here again. Today, I want to address a question that we see regularly. As customers upgrade Active Directory, and they inevitably reach the point where they are ready to change the Domain or Forest Functional Level, they sometimes become fraught. Why is this necessary? What does this mean? What’s going to happen?… Read more
Hi folks, Ned here again. I recently wrote a KB article about some expected DCDIAG.EXE behaviors. This required reviewing DCDIAG.EXE as I wasn’t finding anything deep in TechNet about the “Services” test that had my interest. By the time I was done, I had found a dozen other test behaviors I had never known existed…. Read more
Hi, Russell here. When installing Active Directory Lightweight Domain Services (AD LDS) instances, it is quite possible to paint oneself into a corner rather quickly. That’s because LDS comes with minimal schema definitions. To truly make LDS useful to your applications, one must have an understanding of how best to take advantage of the included… Read more
Hi folks, Ned here again. It’s that time where we look back on the more interesting questions and comments the DS team got this week. Today we talk about FRS, AD Users and Computers, Load-Balancers, DFSR, DFSN, AD Schema extension, virtualization, and Scott Goad. Let’s ride! FRS event 13568 recommendations Missing attribute editor in ADUC… Read more
Hi folks, Ned here for a quickie. Back in April I posted a short mail sack piece about Schema updating best practices. Something I couldn’t talk about that the time is now public: Testing for Active Directory Schema Extension Conflicts http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/testing-for-active-directory-schema-extension-conflicts(WS.10).aspx This article walks through using some simple techniques and a script to validate that… Read more
Hello there fellow humanoids, Ned here again. Last week the Mail Sack was a bit thin. This week I had to wrestle it under control. If your interesting question doesn’t show up here, it may just be in the backlog – nothing personal, cobber, maybe next week. Let’s move out. Accidental deletion protection in Win2003… Read more
Hello all, Ned here again. After a brief absence, the rocket sled that I use to carry my disembodied head around has brought me back to AskDS headquarters. The coup is over and I have emerged triumphant again. You won’t be hearing from Jonathan until the truth serum wears off. So let’s talk some talk…. Read more