Tag: DomainController

Active Directory Replication Overview & USN Rollback: What It Is & How It Happens

If you have experienced event id #2095, then you understand how a USN Rollback can negatively affect AD consistency. What is a USN? The USN (Update Sequence Number) is an Active Directory database instance counter that increments every time a single change is committed to the AD database on a Domain Controller. The USN is …

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Domain Controller Virtual Cloning

One of the best new features of Windows Server 2012 is virtual cloning. The ASKPFE blog has an excellent article covering this new feature: Tom Moser here with a post on one of the new ADDS features in Windows Server 2012; Virtual Domain Controller Cloning. Until now, cloning, snapshotting, copying, or pretty much doing anything …

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Active Directory Domain Trusts & Trust Password Management

Recently a customer asked me about Active Directory Domain Trusts and how the passwords were managed. I replied with some educated guesses based on how AD manages a variety of passwords. After stating how I thought it worked (and mentioned that I wasn’t sure), I decided to look it up. I was mostly correct. Every …

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Windows Server 2012 R2 deprecates FRS (File Replication Service)

Microsoft’s Tip of the Day has the following useful information on Domain Controller File Replication Service (FRS) depercation: FRS (File Replication Service) has been deprecated in Windows Server 2012 R2.  The deprecation of FRS has been accomplished by enforcing a minimum domain functional level of Windows Server 2008.  This enforcement is present only if the …

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Powershell Remote Use of Module Commandlets (Remoting Import-Module)

Practically all of my Powershell scripts use an Active Directory commandlet. Ok, so they use several.  I like to query AD to get environmental information so when I run the script, I know what I am working with from an AD perspective. I can’t help it, I’m an AD Guy. In order to run the …

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PowerShell Code: Active Directory Domain Controller Discovery

There are several different ways to find AD Domain Controllers (DCs). Here are a few: AD PowerShell Module: Discover the closest Domain Controller running the AD web services (support PowerShell AD cmdlets): import-module activedirectory Get-ADDomainController -discover -forcediscover -nextclosestsite -service ADWS discover – find a DC forcediscover – re-discover a DC and not use a cached …

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Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) Information

The RODC is one of the most interesting new features of Windows Server 2008. RODCs provide the following: Read-only Active Directory Database – Read-only copy of Active Directory provides a more secure option for distant locations such as a branch office. Changes attempted against the RODC are referred to the next upstream DC. Read-only DNS Server …

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Active Directory FSMO Placement Guidance

FSMO Placement Guidance Summary: Make sure the PDC is highly available and connected. Place the PDC on your best hardware in a reliable hub site that contains replica domain controllers in the same Active Directory site and domain. Place the Forest FSMOs on the forest root PDC (schema master & domain naming master). Place the …

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