Identity Management

How can I administer Windows 2000/2003-based computers using Windows XP Professional-based clients? This article describes how to use the Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools package on Windows XP Professional or how to use the Windows Server 2003 family to remotely administer Microsoft Windows 2000 Server family-based and Windows Server 2003 family-based computers. The following topics…

A review of Train Signal’s Windows 2000/2003 Active Directory Video Lab Training – Product Details. See more details at Train Signal’s website. Comprehensive Instructional Video. Perfect for the novice who needs a crash course in installing and setting up Active Directory in Windows 2000 Server/Advanced Server and/or Windows 2003 Server or for the more experienced administrator…

One of the issues that sometimes made managing group policies difficult in Windows XP and in Windows Server 2003 was the non centralized nature of the group policy template files. For example, Microsoft offers downloadable templates that allow you to manage Microsoft Office via group policy. Even so, these templates are not automatically available from…

How can I change the Recovery Console Administrator password on a Domain Controller? When you promote a Windows 2000 Server-based computer to a domain controller, you are prompted to type a Directory Service Restore Mode Administrator password. This password is also used by Recovery Console, and is separate from the Administrator password that is stored…

Background By default, anonymous LDAP operations, except rootDSE searches and binds, are not permitted on Windows 2003 domain controllers. This means that when trying to perform unauthenticated search in Active Directory, you can query for attributes of the RootDSE object only – any other query will result in domain controller requesting authenticated bind to LDAP…

For a planned Active Directory, how can I predict how much memory will my new Domain Controllers require, and how many of them I need? The Active Directory service Sizer tool lets you estimate the hardware required for deploying Active Directory in an organization based on the organization’s profile, domain information and site topology. Based…

How does Ntdsutil.exe know it’s in Directory Restore mode? NTDSUTIL is a tool used for many Active Directory database maintenance tasks, such as defragmenting the DB, moving the DB and/or log files to a different place, cleaning the DB and more. NTDSUTIL will allow you to perform many of it’s functions while the DC is…

How do I defragment the Active Directory to make it smaller in size? The size of NTDS.DIT will often be different sizes across the domain controllers in a domain. Remember that Active Directory is a multi-master independent model where updates are occurring in each of the domain controllers with the changes being replicated over time…

When migrating to Windows 2000 Active Directory Services, many organizations choose the path of restructuring rather than upgrading. This involves building a pristine Windows 2000 ADS environment and then adding the organization’s users, groups, and computer accounts rather than upgrading a Windows NT4 domain. Of course, with a clean ADS domain structure, you still have…

How can I easily perform management operations in AD from a customized Taskpad? As your AD infrastructure grows, and the number of objects within it constantly changes, you might find that managing the growing number of users, groups and computers is becoming more than a headache. Fortunately for us, one of Active Directory’s best features…