Microsoft has released KnowledgeBase Article 2830511, detailing a bug in the Installation Wizard of Windows Server 2012 Essentials, that prevents you from installing the server as a Domain Controller for an Active Directory domain with a public top-level domain (TLD), like .com, .corp, .org, .edu, .int and the country-specific top-level domains. ...

In Windows Server 2012, the Active Directory team has consciously blocked some Server Roles and Features from coexisting with the Active Directory Domain Services Role. Two months ago, I blogged on the incompatibility between the Fail-over Cluster Feature and the Active Directory Domain Services Role in Windows Server 2012. Earlier, I blogged on ...

Microsoft KnowledgeBase article 2737880, titled ''The service cannot be started'' error during AD DS configuration describes an issue where promotion of a Windows Server 2012-based server to a Domain Controller and demotion of a Windows Server 2012-based Domain Controller is unable to finish. Its root cause is a policy or an administrator that ...

Last week, Microsoft introduced a new Active Directory-related KnowledgeBase article, titled Event ID 46 and 7023 logged during startup of Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012. This article relates to the Windows Time (W32Time) service and the Netlogon (netlogon) service and their startup sequence. The situation On Windows Server 2008 ...

Microsoft released a KnowledgeBase article titled “ADDSDeployment module with the -Whatif argument shows incorrect DNS results” This KnowledgeBase article describes unexpected behavior in the PowerShell Cmdlets within the ADDSDeployment PowerShell module when you use the -WhatIf argument without specifying the -installdns argument.    ...

Microsoft has issued a new KnowledgeBase article that addresses an issue when you use the Install-ADDSDomain PowerShell Cmdlet from the ADDSDeployment PowerShell module remotely to create a child domain. This issue is related to PowerShell remoting and the fact that the Install-ADDSDomain PowerShell Cmdlet doesn’t perform a pre-check on the ...

Microsoft Knowledgebase article 2743345 with title ''The system cannot find the file specified'' Adprep /gpprep error, or tool crashes'' describes an issue where the Group Policy Preparation fails or crashes. The main reason for this behavior is the Domain Controller holding the Infrastructure Master Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) role ...

In KnowledgeBase article 2737129, titled Group Policy preparation is not performed when you automatically prepare an existing domain for Windows Server 2012, Microsoft describes the preparation steps in the new automatic Active Directory Domain Services Upgrade process in more detail. About the new automatic preparation process In Windows Server ...

Microsoft introduced KnowledgeBase article 2738697 with the title ''The server is not operational'' domain controller configuration error when you configure a server by using Server Manager. Alternatively, they could’ve named this KnowledgeBase article Why you need to domain join proposed Replica Domain Controllers first in Active Directory in ...

Recently, Microsoft released KnowledgeBase article 2743367 with the ominous title Adprep ''not a valid Win32 application'' error on Windows Server 2003, 64-bit version. When you’ve been reading this blog, you might have already guessed what might be causing this issue, even though adprep.exe on the Windows Server 2012 DVD is a perfectly fine ...