Tag: ActiveDirectory

PowerShell Function: Get-ADAuthGroups

Here’s a PowerShell Function that leverages Active Directory .Net to get a list of the AD authorization groups. This is extremely useful to get a complete list of security groups that comprise a user’s AD Kerberos token without having to loop or recurse AD groups.   Function GetAuthGroups { Param ( $AccountID, [switch]$CountAuthGroups, [Switch]$ReturnGroups = …

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PowerShell and Ambiguous Name Resolution (ANR) Search in Active Directory

I was recently asked how to find a user when you have data that may be the SamAccountName or in another attribute. My first thought was leveraging Ambiguous Name Resolution (ANR) Search in Active Directory. ANR enables you to find a user when you have some information about a user, but don’t know exactly to …

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PowerShell Code: Find User in Active Directory Forest

  PowerShell Code: Find User in Active Directory Forest There are times when you have a userid, but don’t know where in a multi-domain forest a user is located. Here’s some PowerShell code for locating the user’s domain. PowerShell code leverages the Active Directory PowerShell module to query a local Global Catalog (GC) server in …

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Azure & Active Directory

  Azure is big. It’s really big. Seriously, it’s hard to comprehend just how big it really is. (Apologies to Douglas Adams.) In July of last year, then-CEO Steve Ballmer stated that Azure data centers held “comfortably over a million physical servers.” Last year, Azure server purchases accounted for 17% of all server purchases worldwide. …

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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: Find Active Directory Site Containing AD Subnet

Here’s a quick script that returns the site in the Active Directory forest given a subnet (ex. 10.20.30.0). Match-Subnet2Site.ps1   Param ( [string]$Subnet ) $IPSubnetRegEx = ‘\b((25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|[1-9]?[0-9])\.){3}(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|0)\b’ # $IPRegEx = ‘\b((25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|[1-9]?[0-9])\.){3}(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|[1-9]?[0-9])\b’ IF ($Subnet -match $IPSubnetRegEx) { Write-Output “Searching the AD forest for subnet: $Subnet ” } ELSE { Write-Error “The provided subnet ($Subnet) is not …

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LOL! Lingering Object Liquidator for Active Directory

Microsoft released the LOL GUI tool for removing Active Directory lingering objects. Historically, removing lingering objects from AD had been a painful process. Note that LOL is not a straightforward download. Follow the following steps to download: Log on to the Microsoft Connect site (using the Sign in) link with a Microsoft account:: http://connect.microsoft.com Note: …

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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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PowerShell: Using Active Directory .Net methods in PowerShell Part 2

Powershell has the incredible ability to run some .Net methods natively.  Some of this data can also be gathered using AD commandlets. Read Part 1 for others. Here are a few of my favorites. Get a Computer’s Site: [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.ActiveDirectorySite]::GetComputerSite()   Get a User’s Domain: [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Domain]::GetCurrentDomain().Name   Get a Computer’s Domain:  [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Domain]::GetComputerDomain().Name List Active Directory FSMOs: …

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