So I performed a domain rename recently using Microsoft’s “Domain Rename Tools”.
I was building a lab domain that needed to be an exact copy of my production AD (active directory). But as the lab runs its own network on a separate Internet connection and is less secure than the production network, I didn’t want the “real” domain name available for hackers. In other words if the lab domain got hacked and the AD security info was compromised at least they wouldn’t have the production network name to search for. Read the rest of this entry »
Ok so your company is merging with another one and you have just been assigned the task of merging the computing infrastructures. So where do you start?
First clarify the scope of your ”infrastructure merge” Read the rest of this entry »
All systems administrators at one point in their career will more than likely have to perform a migration. It may be due to a merger of their company and another, a buy out or a purchase of another company. Hopefully you’ll keep your job but either way it’s great experience.
So I have been through many of these and with a lot of success so I want to share that experience with you as I know information about this process can be hard to come by. I’m going to break it up into several articles or “phases” that you will help guide you towards a successful migration. I’m going to include the tools you’ll need and where to get them. As well I’ll give the instructions on how to use them.
So stay tuned for the first article “Domain Migrations - First Steps” I should have it posted in a few days.
I have several tools that I have written to aid in the management of Active Directory. I use these really frequently and so do a lot of my co-workers and friends. Some are more usefull than others. This one is very useful and that’s why I’m giving it it’s own entry.
This one is called AD Attrib Change, I know not a very “cool” name but all I really care about is what it does.
In it’s current state it will update the bussiness phone, cell phone, department and location fields in AD for a user account. It will perform this on as many accounts as you throw at it. I recently ran it on a list of about 1500 users and it updated all of them without a hitch.
This KB article title is a little deceiving because there are several other instances where this multiple CNAME problem occurs.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281308
Microsoft says:
“When a client computer connects to a Microsoft Windows 2000-based computer or a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer by using an alias name, the client may receive the following error message: Read the rest of this entry »
Network Storage can quickly become a monster that you can’t control. Even in small companies that produce a lot of data. End users keep some data on their computer and some on the network. You create a share for every one to store important data on and instead their throwing mp3’s and family photos up there!
What to do, what to do? Well one thing to do is to build a scalable and manageable process Read the rest of this entry »
Recently I was experiencing severe performance issues with Exchange Server. The Exchange environment was as follows:
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Exchange server 2003 SP2 on a Dell 2950 (2 backend servers and 2 front end servers)
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SAN Attached to a NetApp 3020 using a Qlogic 4010 HBA (only the Backend servers)
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Qlogic HBA driver 2.1.3.2 8
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MicroSoft iSCSI initiator 2.03
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Cisco 4507r
We had installed an email archiving product by the name of Mimosa Read the rest of this entry »
This article explains how to fix this using the Active Directory Attribute Editor tool located on this site.
So you keep getting event id 9548 logged in your Exchange server application log (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555410/en-us). This is more than likely because you disabled a users account for whatever reason. You didn’t know it but the “msExchMasterAccountSid” attribute is empty and Exchange doesn’t like it so it keeps complaining.
There are several methods to solving this but I like mine best (of course). The usual method Read the rest of this entry »
In large companies security group management can be a nightmare if there isn’t a good system in place. There are many approaches. Some are governed by company policy related to the type of business, such as, banking institutions, government facilities, etc. While others can be driven by things like SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley).Mostly though it grows organically until know one knows what the hell is going on, who is in what group or who has access to what data. This can be a real issue and can cause a lot of embarrassment for IT if not handled correctly.
Mostly though it grows organically until know one knows what the hell is going on, who is in what group or who has access to what data. This can be a real issue and can cause a lot of embarrassment for IT if not handled correctly.I’m not going to cover every aspect in this “solution” but rather just one small piece that can Read the rest of this entry »
So everybody is scrambling (including MS) to get these out. The server and workstation updates don’t seem to be a problem but the Exchange thing is a BIG problem. So I gathered my recent experience and fixes as well as the KB articles you should be looking for.
NOTE: Please read all of the KB articles relating to this. I have skipped over the steps below that are covered really well in those articles. I focused on the errors that I received as I saw allot of other people having the same issues.
The Articles you should read through:
- February 2008 (2)
- January 2008 (7)
- June 2007 (1)
