Tag: Active Directory

Using AdRestore to recover Tombstone items

What is a Tombstone? Well, when we delete an object in the Active Directory it is not deleted directly, if not, the attribute 'isDeleted' is checked’ as 'True’ and is hidden from the normal view of AD consoles in addition to moving to the 'Deleted Objets' container. Eye, almost all but the most important attributes like GUID and SID are deleted. These objects remain in the Active Directory as Tombstone's until after 90 days, once this time has elapsed they are eliminated by the 'Garbage collector'. What is the Garbage Collector? It is a process that runs the Active Directory by default every 12 hours, although this parameter is modifiable in the attribute 'garbageCollPeriod'’ in the configuration object (NTDS). This, apart from removing the Tombstone's, also defragments the Active Directory. All of this comes in handy when using the Sysinternals AdRestore tool, since this utility allows us to […]

Use of MADTD – Microsoft Active Directory Topology Diagrammer

Microsoft Active Directory Topology Diagrammer or MADTD is a great program, that will help us to get Visio format schemes on the topology of our Active Directory. It will take us a vsd drawing with the data from: Domains, Ous, Sites, Exchange, Applications, Servers… To do this,, we download the application from the Microsoft website (HTTP://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=cb42fc06-50c7-47ed-a65c-86266174276).

Defragment or compact the Active Directory database in Windows 2008

In this document, we will learn how to compact and defragment the Active Directory database. This process must be carried out on each of the domain controllers that we have. With this we will achieve a higher performance, that the database takes up less space. Before starting with this wizard, it is advisable to make a backup of Active Directory. This document shows how to do this on a Microsoft Windows server 2008.

Defragment or compact the Active Directory database in Windows 2003

In this document, we will learn how to compact and defragment the Active Directory database. This process must be carried out on each of the domain controllers that we have. With this we will achieve a higher performance, that the database takes up less space. Before starting with this wizard, it is advisable to make a backup of Active Directory. This document shows how to do this on a Microsoft Windows server 2003.

Using Distributed Software in Active Directory

This document details how a network administrator can save time. It involves publishing a series of programs in the Active Directory of MS Windows 2000/2003 and install them to whomever we want fully automatically. A very simple example, if we have WinZip and we want the whole company to have it installed and with the key inserted and with the 'classic' style, because it is a nuisance to have to go PC by PC installing it and entering the key and configuring it as they wish (I said WinZip for saying, but works with any program, For example, MS Office, Outlook, Antivirus, Adobe Acrobat Reader…). The best, generate an 'image’ of that software in an MSI file and then with active directory policies assign those installations to whoever we are interested in.