Every good Active Directory Domain Services implementation started with sizing Domain Controllers appropriately for the environment in which they needed to be able to service clients for a period of four to five years. For years, we’ve been using adsizer.exe, a part of the Windows 2000 Resource Kit for this purpose. This tool was released for ...

Customers often ask me and my colleagues for innovative solutions, based on proven technology. While that sounds like a contradictio in terminus, we always deliver. The key behind these successes is to research and implement new technology in an early stage. From there, we combine these new technologies, where appropriate, with our proven ...

Since Windows Server 2008, Microsoft no longer offers the ability to restart a Domain Controller in Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) from the default F8 boot menu. About Directory Services Restore Mode For Windows Server-based Domain Controllers, a special startup mode exists, where the Active Directory database isn’t loaded. This startup ...

Since Windows Vista, Microsoft has bundled and enabled IPv6 by default. This means Windows Vista, Windows 7 Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 (and all their derivate SKUs like Small Business Server) out of the box talk IPv6. Note: Server Core installations do not have IPv6 enabled by default and are the one notable exception. The ...

Microsoft has included numerous features in Active Directory the last couple of years. Also, more and more technologies in products like Exchange Server, SharePoint Server and the Windows client (Windows Vista, Windows 7) have an Active Directory opt-in to store information in Active Directory. All this bountiful integration, however, comes with ...

You might be running Windows Server 2003 (R2) and Windows Server 2008 Domain Controllers at the moment and you're looking to replace these servers with Windows Server 2008 R2 Domain Controllers to utilize the new features of Windows Server 2008 R2. You might also be looking to replace your aging Windows Server 2003 (R2) and Windows Server 2008 ...

Microsoft has published a document titled “SYSVOL Replication Migration Guide: FRS to DFS Replication” to the Download server today. The 52-page 416KB weighing document outlines how to get from using File Replication Service (FRS) replication to Distributed File System Replication(DFS-R) for the SYSVOL folder. Since DFS-R offers more performance, ...

Last time we discussed how to transition your Active Directory to Windows Server 2008, which was something a lot of you were interested in. This time I'm talking in-place upgrading Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 Domain Controllers to Windows Server 2008 Domain Controllers. While this might seem like simply feeding the DVD and ...