I recently found a need to have Operating System and Service Pack information displayed dynamically in Active Directory Users and Computers rather than have it hardcoded into the Description attribute of the computer object. I remembered that many moons ago, I had seen Dean Wells demonstrate this ability, so I dug out my notes and [...]
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Active Directory Diagnostic Logging
November 3, 2011
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When troubleshooting Active Directory the first place that most people look is the Windows Server event logs, the event logs can provide a wealth of information about the state of an Active Directory, but by default the recorded information is limited to the logging of critical and error events. To enable detailed diagnostic logging there [...]
Read more Single-Label-Domains in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) – Considerations, Migration, and Co-existence
September 5, 2011
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Microsoft have published an excellent document on Single-Label-Domains in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) – Considerations, Migration, and Co-existence. It is well worth a read, even if you are not impacted by this issue. Management Summary An Active Directory domain name that contains one or more labels separated by a dot is referred [...]
Read moreWindows Virtual PC–Refresh download available.
February 14, 2011
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Microsoft have today (14/02/11) released a refresh update for their Virtual PC offering. Windows Virtual PC is the latest Microsoft virtualization technology. You can use it to run more than one operating system at the same time on one computer, and to run many productivity applications on a virtual Windows environment, with a single click, [...]
Read moreVirtualising Active Directory Domain Controllers.
February 14, 2011
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A question that is often asked of me is “Can we virtualise our domain controllers?” I try to never answer that question, instead I let them answer it themselves, by a process of elimination. Firstly I always feel obliged to quote Microsoft’s KB Article 897615 Microsoft does not test or support Microsoft software running together [...]
Read moreLync Server 2010 – Schema Updates (Search Flags and PAS)
December 17, 2010
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Microsoft have provided information on the Active Directory Schema extensions for Lync Server 2010. The documentation fails to provide information on the Search Flags and which attributes are added to the Global Catalog. Based on Global Catalog Memberships (IsMemberOfPartialAttributeSet), I have extracted the infomation from the Lync Server 2010 Schema (LDF) files. They can be viewed in XLS format. Lync Server [...]
Read moreActive Directory Domain and Forest Functional Levels
December 7, 2010
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All though Active Directory has been available for over ten years, one question that comes up time and time again at customer sites is “What do the Forest and Domain Functional Levels do and should I set them?“ After validating their Active Directory my answer is usually yes, but what do these levels enable within Active Directory? [...]
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Book Recommendations:
Books that every IT Admin should own.
Active Directory
Active Directory: Designing, Deploying, and Running Active Directory
