The Technology Chronicle

There would be two ntds.dit files present in case on Windows server 2008 %SystemRoot%\NTDS\Ntds.dit    - This is the Ad database used by the domain controller, which holds the values for a domain and replica of values for forest %SystemRoot%\System32\Ntds.dit     -This file is used while promoting a windows 2000    server    to active directory. This is usually called the distribution copy of the database. This file allows you to run dcpromo on a 2000 server without having to use the OS CD. During promotion, the ntds.dit file is copied from  %SystemRoot%\System32 directory into the %SystemRoot%\NTDS directory. Active Directory is then started from this new copy of the file, and replication updates the file from other domain controllers. reference:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc961761.aspx

The article explains the steps to be done to reset the Directory service restore mode password for AD servers in a domain. This is done using ntdsutil tool. -On the command prompt, type ntdsutil - On the ntdsutil> prompt, type "set dsrm password" -You will get the following prompt - Reset DSRM Administrator Password: -Type the command to reset the dsrm password on the server of your choice at this point  If you want to set password on the server that you are logged in currently, type "reset password on server null" If you want to reset password on another Ad server in the same domain type "reset password on server <DNS name of the target AD server> " -Next you will be getting prompts for typing and confirming the new password -Enter and confirm the new passwords -Once done, type 'q' to quit the DSRM as well as the ntdsutil command prompt PS: Good news is that , as you can see, you need not know the old DSRM password. So this...

Download regfind.exe from here  .Extract the zip file .Browse to the extracted location from command prompt and run the utility using the following syntax regfind   -m \\computer1 -p HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\parameters "Old DNS IP" -r "New DNS IP" Where Cumputer1 can be the name or Ip of the remote machine whos DNs is to be changed Once the command completes successfully, the old dns IP in the server will be replaced by the new one

Troubleshooting issues relating to user accounts can usually be a time consuming effort.D etermining the "freshness" of the user's credentials and password history is key to understanding if there could be a potential issue with their Active Directory account.   This document provides information on the AcctInfo Tool that has been developed to assist investigation of such issues. AcctInfo Tool This tool provides a subtle addition to any user's AD account profile by an additional tab in their account properties labelled Additional Account Info v2 .   It can be installed on a domain controller, or on the desktop of the person doing the investigation. Below is a screen shot of the additional information this tool provides: The three most important pieces of information provided, as shown above, are the Password Last Set and Password Expires fields and the Most Recent Logon button which polls all the DC's in the domain for the selected user ...

AD Replication Ports RPC endpoint mapper 135/tcp, 135/udp Network basic input/output system (NetBIOS) name service 137/tcp, 137/udp NetBIOS datagram service 138/udp NetBIOS session service 139/tcp RPC static port for AD replication 1111/TCP RPC static port for FRS 2347/TCP Server message block (SMB) over IP (Microsoft-DS) 445/tcp, 445/udp Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) 389/tcp LDAP ping 389/udp LDAP over SSL 636/tcp Global catalog LDAP 3268/tcp Global catalog LDAP over SSL 3269/tcp Kerberos 88/tcp, 88/udp Domain Name Service (DNS) 53/tcp, 53/udp MOM TCP/UDP 1270 NTP 123/udp Remote Desktop 3389/tcp

Active Directory Replication Monitor( Replmon.exe) is a GUI tool that is exclusively intended for monitoring and managing all kinds of replication in AD-based domains (Windows 2000 and Windows .NET domains). With this tool, you can monitor and register all replication events, force replication, start generating replication topology, view Global Catalog and bridgehead servers, and view trusts and replication metadata for an Active Directory object. Login to AD and do the following steps to start a replication check using replmon Go to start ->run . Type in replmon and click ok Click on edit->Add Monitored server Select “ Add the server explicitly by name” and click next Add AD server name and click finish Go to file>save monitored list as and save the list as a .ini file say test.ini While doing the replication check next time, this list can be opened directly from file->open script ->test.ini (steps 2,3 and 4 can be skipped) On...