Shariq Sheikh | Port 389 ← - activity of Active Directory and the rest

Building a VM in Windows Azure using PowerShell in a few quick steps

Apr

2013

Just a cross post highlighting my blog entry on our team blog called “Ask PFE Platforms” about building VM in Windows Azure using PowerShell. “……….today I would like to walk you through building a VM in Windows Azure using your favorite management tool ‘PowerShell’, and in doing so you will also unlock 133 cmdlets that ...

PowerShell Web Access in Windows Server 2012

Sep

2012

Just a cross post highlighting my blog entry on our team blog called “Ask PFE Platforms” about a neat feature in Windows Server 2012 called PowerShell Web Access. “…..you can use the new PowerShell Web Access (PSWA) feature in Windows Server 2012 to allow remote administrative access to a set of servers in your ...

Windows Server 2012 RTM today, get started with these great free resources !

Sep

2012

1. Visit the launch site and review the technology specific sessions. 2. Download the evaluation copy of Windows Server 2012 from here. 3. Don’t have a lab? You can do a dual boot install with a pre-build downloadable VHD, follow these instructions. 4. Can’t do dual boot ? build your lab environment in the ...

New Cmdlets added to Active Directory Module to PowerShell v3 in Windows Server 8 (Dev Preview) 1

Sep

2011

Whereas the total number of cmdlets and functions in PowerShell v3 (all modules) has increased to 2300, particularly in Active Directory Module 58 cmdlets were added and they are the following. Keep in mind that this is pre-beta release and things are subject to change. A lot of the new cmdlets are focused on ...

My First look at Windows Server 8 Developer Preview version and promoting a DC therein

Sep

2011

Yesterday marked the day when an early Windows Server 8 Developer Preview version was released. I spun it up and took it for a test drive, I installed ADDS and promoted a DC and following are some screenshots I took. After the setup was complete.. ...

Directory Service: Event ID 1480 and 1393, replication halted due to low disk space

Apr

2011

The information provided in event logs is often not too clear but it has definitely gotten better starting in W2K8. I recently encountered an issue where replication delays to certain DC were reported. I immediately looked at the repadmin replication summary and noticed that my deltas that usually stayed around within an hour had jumped ...

PowerShell : Exporting multi-valued attribute via Export-Csv cmdlet 3

Mar

2011

The attributes that are multi-valued are hard to export to a CSV via the Export-Csv cmdlet as the exported value just shows the string type in Excel/Notepad. For instance, take a look below when I try to export the proxyAddresses attribute values in PowerShell console and to a CSV later. I found out that you ...

Auditing Group Membership changes 1

Mar

2011

I often get this asked this question, “how do I audit group membership changes”. Whereas a lot of AD Change Monitor Tools (Quest, Netwrix etc.) have nice reports that can be generated to look up this information, this question comes up when a change auditor product for AD is not in picture. Let me cover ...

Running PowerShell under “run-as” or elevated privileges

Feb

2011

There are times when I am in a PowerShell session and pass another set of credentials when I use connect-qadservice cmdlet to connect to another domain with the –credential parameter, however often times I would launch the PowerShell under “run-as” with the elevated credentials and launch a native session and I would have multiple session ...

PowerShell : How do I create Trust ?

Feb

2011

A question was raised on ActiveDir regarding the ability to create Trust via a command line utility. It was discussed how netdom is no longer a supported command line utility to create Trusts. I referenced a snip from AD Cook Book using PowerShell to create Trust via the .Net AD namespace method alternatively.(System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory). You can ...

Server Core R2 DC promotion fails due to unavailable ADDS binaries

Feb

2011

I encountered an issue promoting a Server Core R2 to a domain controller. The DCPROMO on Server Core is handled via unattended mode with answer file. The error I received is below. It was due to Server Core’s inability to install/confirm ADDS binaries. C:UsersAdministrator>dcpromo /unattended:answer.txt Checking if Active Directory Domain Services binaries are installed… Failed ...

Exchange 2010 Setup and .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 Requirement 2

Feb

2011

Starting with Exchange 2007, the good thing about the setup wizard is that it guides you about all the pre-requisites and provides the links from where you can download them from. However, if you are installing Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2008 (or R2) box, and if you follow the link provided by the wizard ...

PowerShell : How do I find all DCs in my forest ?

Feb

2011

I find the –computerrole parameter of Get-QADComputer handy to find DCs and when usually I have to retrieve something from them with a WMI query, pipeline to (GWMI), Here is a quick way to retrieve all DCs in a multi-domain forest model using the .NET namespace i.e [DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Forest] method. To find Global Catalogs only; ...

PowerShell : How do I clear sIDhistory attribute ? 3

Dec

2010

What is sIDhistory attribute ? The sIDhistory attribute is the key attribute that holds the previous SID(s) of Users and Groups objects that facilitate the Active Directory migrations. It contains previous SIDs used for the object if the object was moved from another domain. Whenever an object is moved from one domain to another, a ...

PowerShell : How do I set the delegation sensitive flag on users and computers ?

Aug

2010

Kerberos Delegation, constrained and unconstrained is a complex topic, and one that often comes up when Security implications of External/Forests Trusts are discussed. Few days ago, on ActiveDir a similar topic was shed light upon. In brief Brian Arkills sums it up below, The other security implication that most folks seem oblivious to is the ...