Author Archive

DNS Server Enforcement across an AD Forest

Support in Active Directory for centrally enforcing client DNS settings via Group Policy Objects is at best patchy.  Many of the settings work only with specific (and often legacy) versions of Windows; the “DNS Server” is one such setting.   It is supported only on Windows XP Professional meaning no support is available for Windows Server 2000, 2003, 2008, Windows [ READ MORE ]

Rename a Windows 2008 Domain Controller

Before jumping into this post the following, Implementing Windows Server Core 2008 R2 Domain Controllers and Manage Active Directory Replication provide information for monitoring replication across a domain which is necessary when renaming a Domain Controller.  Renaming a Domain Controller is not as straight forward as renaming a member server and it is important to [ READ MORE ]

Manage Active Directory Replication

Ensuring replication is running smoothly across an Active Directory forest is a primary Administration task.     Best practice recommends the ongoing monitoring of Active Directory replication using SCOM or  another enterprise management tool, monitoring can also be performed using repadmin (repadmin /showrepl * /csv) together with a little scripting to interpret the output.   Typical symptoms of [ READ MORE ]

Implementing Windows Server Core 2008 R2 Domain Controllers

Implementing a Windows Server 2008 R2 Core Domain Controller into an existing Active Directory Forest is not a daunting task in itself but requires changes in the way many Administrators approach the installation and configuration of the base Windows installation. Here will go through common configuration steps  for integrating Windows Server 2008 R2 Core into an existing corporate [ READ MORE ]

IT Certification Credibility Shot, Vendor Action Needed!

Over the last 15 years I have been an advocate of certification programmes and recently having attended the VMware vSphere 4 What’s New course, one my next tasks was to update my VCP certification to VCP 4. Right now disillusioned with IT certification programmes I am keeping this on hold. Professional certifications are [ READ MORE ]

Welcome to the Enterprise Admin. Blog

After a couple of days tweaking Wordpress, testing plugins and waiting for DNS proliferation the website is ready for it’s first post. Hopefully over the coming months content posted here will from time to time be of interest to System Administrators supporting their Enterprises. Posting frequency will vary depending upon the time I can afford but [ READ MORE ]