Category: Active Directory

• Setting Up a WS2012 R2 Windows Deployment Server (WDS) for Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE).

  In this post I want to quickly go through my experience setting up a Windows Deployment Server for PXE Boot(Pre-Boot Execution Environment) for my lab servers. Platform is Windows Server 2012 R2 .I outline the steps as follows: 1) Open a PowerShell console and use the Install-WindowsFeature cmdlet to install the specific role as indicated…

  jbernec

  February 11, 2014

  Active Directory, Active Directory Domain Services, DHCP, PowerShell, PowerShell 3.0, Powershell 4.0, Pre-Boot Execution Environment, PXE, Virtual Machines, WDS, Windows Deployment Server, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

  Legacy Network Adapter, PXE, VM, WDS, Windows Deployment Server

• Using NTDSUTIL Metada Cleanup to Remove a Failed/Offline Domain Controller Object.

  In this post, I would like to talk about using the ntdsutil utility for metadata cleanup. A domain controller failure ‘DC00’ recently occurred in my lab. Running the repadmin /replsum command confirmed a replication error and showed DC00 as unavailable: Since a dcpromo was obviously out of the question, I used the Ntdsutil metadata cleanup…

  jbernec

  January 27, 2014

  Active Directory, Active Directory Domain Services, AD Forest, DCPromo, Domain Controller, DSRM, Flexible Single Master Operations, FSMO, NTDSUtil, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 Backup, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

  Active Directory, DNS, Domain controller, Flexible Single Master Operations, FSMO, metadata cleanup, ntdsutil

• Demoting the last Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller with PowerShell.

  As with promoting a server to domain controller, demoting the a domain controller is also a straight forward process with PowerShell. The following PowerShell cmdlets are available from the ADDSDeployment module: Uninstall Active Directory: The demote process got a little tricky because this was the last DC in the domain and had an Operations Master…

  jbernec

  January 13, 2014

  Active Directory, Active Directory Domain Services, AD Forest, DCPromo, Domain Controller, PowerShell, PowerShell 3.0, Powershell 4.0, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

  Active Directory, Cmdlets, Powershell 3.0, Windows PowerShell, Windows Server 2012, WS 2012, WS2012 R2

• Configuring a Single Windows Server 2012 R2 Active Directory Domain Controller in a new Forest.

  Pre-Windows Server 2012 and PowerShell 4.0, the primary tool/command for Active Directory Domain Controller promotion and demotion has always been the Dcpromo command. With Windows Server 2012, it’s been replaced by a suite of PowerShell cmdlets contained in the ADDSDeployment module. In this post, I’ll talk about my experience setting up a single WS2012 R2…

  jbernec

  January 6, 2014

  Active Directory, Active Directory Domain Services, AD Forest, PowerShell, PowerShell 3.0, Powershell 4.0, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

  Domain controller, Domainname, PowerShell, Server, Windows PowerShell, Windows Server 2012

• Deploying a Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller in an existing Win2003 Functional Level Domain.

  My first task before deploying a Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller in a Windows Server 2003 forest functional level environment was to run the Test-ADDSDomainControllerInstallation cmdlet and determine my domain environment’s readiness to accept the new Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller installation without any glitches: [ws2012r2]: PS C:\Users\admin\Documents> Test-ADDSDomainControllerInstallation -DomainName genesys.net | fl…

  jbernec

  December 30, 2013

  Active Directory, Active Directory Domain Services, AD Forest, DCPromo, Domain Controller, DSRM, Flexible Single Master Operations, FSMO, NTDSUtil, PowerShell, PowerShell 3.0, Powershell 4.0, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

  Active Directory, Cmdlets, dcdiag, DNS, Domain controller, Flexible Single Master Operations, FSMO, Operations Master, Powershell 3.0, Schema Version, Windows PowerShell, WS2012 R2

• Seizing Active Directory FSMO (Flexible Single Master Operations ) roles with Powershell.

  I have been running 2 Virtual Machines as Active Directory Domain Controllers in the Lab for sometime now. DC00 was running Windows Server 2003 R2 and DC01 is running Windows Server 2008 R2. But recently I lost a Hyper-v machine hosting DC00 Domain Controller VM, I had no replica available to immediately failover and didn’t…

  jbernec

  December 23, 2013

  Active Directory, Active Directory Domain Services, AD Forest, Domain Controller, Flexible Single Master Operations, FSMO, NTDSUtil, PowerShell, PowerShell 3.0, Powershell 4.0, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

  Active Directory, Cmdlets, Domain controller, Flexible Single Master Operations, FSMO, ntdsutil, Operations Master, Powershell 3.0, Windows PowerShell

• Renaming AD User Object Surname Property.

  The following script renames the Surname property of an Active Directory User Object. The script requires PowerShell 3.0. The only edit required is the organizational Exchange Server name specified in the New-PSSession cmdlet. The script accepts the Given Name, Surname and new Surname parameters’ input from the console,executes the rename of the Active Directory object…

  jbernec

  November 18, 2013

  Active Directory, Exchange 2010 SP2, Exchange Cmdlets, Exchange Management Shell, PowerShell, PowerShell 3.0, WIndows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

  Active Directory, Powershell 3.0

• How to promote Windows Server 2012 to a Domain Controller

  Originally posted on Exchange Times: Microsoft has done away with dcpromo when it comes to Windows Server 2012. We’ve been so accustomed to using dcpromo that I actually struggled a bit to promote a 2012 server to a DC in one of my labs. This short video shows how to install the Active Directory Directory…

  jbernec

  October 16, 2013

  Active Directory, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

  Active Directory

• How to Restore an Active Directory Object from Backup.

  In this post, I am going to talk about my experience doing an Authoritative Restore of a deleted Active Directory user object. The steps were completed by restoring from a previous System State backup and using the ntds utility. I started by deleting a test AD user: Ryan Smith from the Accounting_OU Organizational Unit in…

  jbernec

  September 17, 2013

  Active Directory, BCDEdit, DSRM, NTDSUtil, PowerShell, PowerShell 3.0, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 Backup

  Active Directory, ntdsutil, Restore, wbadmin, Windows Server 2008 R2