Get the AD Forest Level

Get the AD Forest Level

Many installations of third party software integrates with Active Directory, and it becomes important to know what version of AD you are running. These steps can be done from any workstation running Powershell that is a member of the domain. In my example, I did the following: Login to a workstation or server in the […]

Raising the Domain Functional Level

raising domain functional level

Raising your domain functional level is pretty easy, but so seldom done that most administrators are vary wary of the procedures. The key to success is understanding when you can legitimately raise your Windows domain functional level and Windows forest functional level. First, to raise either level to 2008, you must be running a 2008 […]

Enable Pings in 2008R2

domain enable ping

Step one of most every network debug is “Does it respond to pings?” But, now with Windows Server 2008R2, the answer is always “no” which does not help with the debugging. Obviously turning off the Windows Firewall feature will allow pings but this is too drastic an approach for my taste. Creating a new firewall […]

Creating a 2008 Domain Controller

adding 2008 domain

In previous blog posts, I discussed how to prepare your existing 2003 domain to receive new 2008R1 and 2008R2 domain controllers. In this post, the detailed steps to create the new 2008 domain controller is documented. Note that I assume you have already installed a fresh copy of 2008 (either physically or virtually), have fully […]

How to add a 2008R2 Domain Controller to a 2003 Domain

2008 domain controller

I have blogged about how to add a Microsoft Windows 2008R1 domain controller (DC) to a 2003 Domain. But, what if you need to add a Microsoft 2008R2 domain controller to a 2003 Domain? If you run adprep, you get an error because you cannot run a 64-bit executable in a 32-bit environment! The answer […]

How to add a 2008R1 Domain Controller to a 2003 Domain

adrep for 2008r1 domain controller

I’ve added a Microsoft Windows 2008R1 domain controller (DC) to a 2003 Domain, and the instructions are simple, first you prepare to upgrade: Create the new 2008R1 machine, installing the operating system per normal In Windows Explorer, share the DVD drive out as read-only Run the command at the 2008 DOS prompt to see the […]

Incorrect Name Servers Can Make the Network Crawl

dns changes

Have you ever felt that your network should be faster? No really, the hardware is state-of-the-art. The software is current. But, the network response is lack luster. Servers to be responding slowly and pings respond slowly. You cannot find any underlying reasons for this behavior. Have you looked at your DNS settings, and specifically your […]

Which Domain Controller has the FSMO Information

domain check fsmo

Have you ever needed to know which domain controller has the FSMO entries? For instance, as you are upgrading your domain to 2008R2, its important to move these entries from the old 2003 Server before you attempt to decommission it. Although you can get this information from the GUI, there is no one screen with […]