Identity Management

Specops has recently announced a new product called Remote Admin CTP, and have also updated their Gpupdate product to Version 2.0. They are currently seeking beta testers for both products. New in Specops Gpupdate 2.0 Commands Improved WoL functionality including custom Mac/IP address lookup and support for no-DHCP environments. Immediate WSUS client update UI New…

Deciding how many Global Catalog Servers to have on your network, and where to place those servers can be tricky. If there are too few Global Catalog Servers, you could cause severe performance problems or possibly a single point of failure. At the same time though, having too many Global Catalog Servers can also cause…

How do I automatically upgrade a server to a domain controller during installation? You can automatically run DCPROMO during an unattended installation. Enter the command ​dcpromo /answer:%path_to_answer_file% You’ll see a dialog box that says DCPROMO is running in unattended mode. Then, the machine will reboot. You can also add DCPROMO to the unattended file that‘s…

As you probably read in my previous articles – “Recovering Deleted Items in Active Directory” and “Restore Windows Server 2003 Active Directory“, an administrator might sometime need to restore deleted objects from the Active Directory database. You see, when an object is deleted from Active Directory, it is not immediately erased, but is marked for…

How can I disable the password requirement for a user in a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory domain? Windows Server 2003 provides security policies that ensure that all users select strong passwords. Creating a password policy involves setting the following options in the Default Domain Group Policy object. These policies, with the exception of those…

Looking for an overview of what’s new in Active Directory in Windows Server 2003? Daniel points out the highlights and noteworthy additions.

In the Windows Server 2003 family, you can restore the Active Directory database if it becomes corrupted or is destroyed because of hardware or software failures. You must restore the Active Directory database when objects in Active Directory are changed or deleted. Note: There is an option to restore Active Directory objects that have been…

This is a part 2 of my MCSE and System Administrator job interview sample questions. See previous part at: Part 1 – Networking This article set is targeted at both the interviewer (who needs a pool of valid questions they can ask) and to the candidate (who wants a pool of sample questions they can…

How do I install Active Directory on my Windows 2000 Server? First make sure you read and understand Active Directory Installation Requirements. If you don’t comply with all the requirements of that article you will not be able to set up your AD (for example: you don’t have a NIC or you’re using a computer…

Need to keep AD running in top shape with Windows Server 2008? Brien Posey shows you how.