Along with that, there was a new Windows Server 2008 AD Feature Components which I received at Tech-Ed 2007 and it illustrates the new and improved AD pieces introduced with Windows Server 2008. This poster covers ADLDS, ADFS, ADRMS, and RODCs.

And an additional poster on general new Windows Server 2008 Feature Components that covers TS, NAP, IIS 7.0, Virtualization, Server Core and BitLocker.

Both of the above illustrations and very good quality large size posters (30x20in) and are good to hang in your office/cube. Printing them on regular printer may distort the quality, so you may try the plotter . All three can be downloaded from the following links :

TechNet Magazine Active Directory Component Jigsaw Poster

Windows Server 2008 Component Posters (both)

P.S This is my first test post using WLW.

Share/Bookmark

dcdiag /v /test:ridmanager

Here is how the test is supposed to report back with the remaining pool of the allocated RIDs.

Share/Bookmark

We delete an OU called Chicago which contains a Global Group.

Launch the ADRecycleBin tool (be sure to launch it under administrator’s context)

Right click on the child object of a deleted tree and select all

Click on Restore Deleted Object on top right corner

And its simple as that. Lesson of the story, there is always a window for someone to step in and fill the void. I had earlier posted how Server Core that was intended to be managed via CLI only had made a  U-TURN in R2 release of Windows Server 2008. Personally, I wouldn’t mind having to manage this feature solely from PowerShell, but its nice to have the GUI option available.

Download the tool here.

Share/Bookmark

Enable-ADOptionalFeature -Identity ‘CN=Recylcle Bin Feature,CN=Optional Features,CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=yourdomain,DC=com

Read and understand the warning of this action’s irreversebility, and hit “Y” for yes to continue.

In following screenshot I show you an error not neccesarily applicable to you, the cmdlet complained about not being able to verify the FSMO ownership role. The reason for this was the fact that in my VM Lab environment I had shut down another DC for maintenance and it had not been replicated or talked to.

As I brought that downed DC back online, forced the replication, I was able to proceed. You can then confirm with this cmdlet.

Get-ADOptionalFeature ‘Recycle Bin Feature’

Here is a great post on this hot feaure of Windows Server 2008 R2.

http://msmvps.com/blogs/ad/archive/2009/03/31/taking-out-the-trash.aspx

Share/Bookmark

“Offline domain join is a new process that computers that run Windows® 7 or Windows Server® 2008 R2 can use to join a domain without contacting a domain controller. This makes it possible to join computers to a domain in locations where there is no connectivity to a corporate network. For example, an organization might need to deploy many virtual machines in a datacenter. Offline domain join makes it possible for the virtual machines to be joined to the domain when they initially start after the installation of the operating system. No additional restart is required to complete the domain join. This can significantly reduce the overall time required for wide-scale virtual machine deployments.

A domain join establishes a trust relationship between a computer running a Windows operating system and an Active Directory® domain. This operation requires state changes to Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and state changes on the computer that is joining the domain. To complete a domain join in the past using previous Windows® operating systems, the computer that joined the domain had to be running and it had to have network connectivity to contact a domain controller”

I created the metadata as known as “blob” on one of my DC for a Server named 2008R2RC2 that I wanted to join to domain offline (i.e the target machine not connected to the network) and saved it to a txt file called computer_prov, then as usual I run the help on the utility to learn what syntax it has available. Here is the command syntax I ran to provision the computer account and to create the metadata.

djoin /provision /domain techevan.lab /machine 2008R2RC2 /savefile c:computer_prov.txt

I then jumped on the target machine, copy the txt file over and try to run needed syntax with the djoin utility

djoin /requestODJ /loadfile c:computer_prov.txt /windowspath %SystemRoot% /localos

I get an error that I am not running the Shell with elevated privileges, I get out and get back in with the “run as administrator” option, and get the same error.

Perhaps its a bug in RC release, I then tried the same syntax from the conventional CMD line window and was successful.

I then restarted the target computer and machine had been joined to the domain.

For more information please see, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd392267(WS.10).aspx

Share/Bookmark

“Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) is a server management tool that can help you implement best practices in the configuration of your Active Directory environment. AD DS BPA scans the AD DS server role as it is installed on your Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controllers, and it reports best practice violations. You can filter or exclude results from AD DS BPA reports that you do not need to see. You can also perform AD DS BPA tasks by using either the Server Manager graphical user interface (GUI) or cmdlets in the Windows PowerShell command-line interface.”

ADBPA is a great idea, it gives you a quick glance into the new DC you have just stood up. It points you toward setting the NTP settings correctly if the DC is also PDC. It lets you know if your OUs are not set to be protected from accidental deletion. It also reminds you that certain directory partitions (NC) have not been backed up since a certain of period time. You can access the ADBPA from the Server Manager -> ADDS.

You may notice that if you are running the Windows Server 2008 Beta version, there seems to be a bug with ADBPA rule. One of the non-compliant complain is about the DC’s inability to reach a DNS server to retrieve DC specific records even when the DC itself is also the DNS and the pertaining records are existing. This behavior has been corrected in the RC version.

The compliant section also shows where your DC meets the expected configuration, such as when it advertises itself as a DC in its local site. One downside I see with ADBPA is that it cannot be self-launched into its separate MMC. Or unlike the Exchange BPA, it is only accessible in a small window from within the Server Manager. So there if is large number of non-compliant/compliant messages, the browsing ability is not that great.

How does ADBPA gather this data ?

“When you run the AD DS BPA scan on a domain controller, the BPA engine invokes the AD DS BPA Windows PowerShell script that collects configuration data from the AD DS environment that this domain controller belongs to. The AD DS BPA Windows PowerShell script then saves the collected AD DS configuration data to an XML document. The BPA run-time engine validates this XML document against the XML schema.”

For more information on ADBPA. See this.

Share/Bookmark

Here are some older Schema versions.

13=Win2k
30=2003
31=2003R2
44=2008

Here is more detail of schema changes in Windows Server 2008 R2 RC.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378828(WS.10).aspx

Share/Bookmark

[PS] C:\Windows\System32>New-QADPasswordSettingsObject -name "Traders-Password-Policy" `
>> -passwordhistorylength 9 `
>> -passwordcomplexityenabled $true `
>> -minimumpasswordlength 7 `
>> -minimumpasswordage 1 `
>> -maximumpasswordage 15
>>
...

Name Type DN
---- ---- --
Traders-Password-Policy msDS-Passwor... CN=Traders-Password-Policy,CN=Password Settings Container,CN=System,D...

To check what other password’s attributes can be defined, see help for New-QADPasswordSettingsObject. The -appliesto parameter lets you define the PSO for a Group or individual user as well from right within the cmdlet shown above, but you can also do this.

[PS] C:\Windows\System32>Add-QADPasswordSettingsObjectAppliesTo 'traders-password-policy' -AppliesTo joe.blow

Name Type DN
---- ---- --
Joe Blow user CN=Joe Blow,OU=Users,OU=Chicago,DC=techevan,DC=lab

Unfortunately, there is no Set-QADPasswordSettingsObject cmdlet yet that lets you modify an existing PSO. You can use ADSIEDIT.msc to do that. Launch ADSIEDIT, and go to \domain node\System\Password Settings Container. Find the relevant PSO and go to its properties and make your modifications.

If you log on as the user who we just applied this PSO to in our above example, you will be notified that your password expires in 14 days. Its a great feature in Windows 7.

For more information see these links :

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753481.aspx#BKMK_2

http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/99929/use-powershell-to-manage-fine-grained-password-policies-in-windows-server-2008.html

Share/Bookmark

Share/Bookmark

Rich Brambley on the other hand installed Hyper-V R2 under VMware Workstation but didn’t proceed to install VM as a guest on it, which in my opinion was against the whole purpose. You can’t really begin to play around with its feature set until you have a hand full of workloads running on it.

I gave it a spin, and I came across the “No, No, you can’t do this” issue. I have Hyper-V R2 installed as a guest on VMware Workstation 6.5.2. As posted in last post, Hyper-V is being managed via Windows Server 2008′s Hyper-V Management feature.

Share/Bookmark