the Active Directory Expert

New Script – Add Users to Local Group on Remote Computer

Posted by Scott Horsfield - 10/12/07 at 02:12:08 pm

Managing membership of local groups on servers and remote machines can become a nightmare if you don’t have a proper plan in place. In the near future I will write about restricting group membership via GPO. However, many older networks have yet to institute this type of organization, and have to rely on other methods for managing local group membership.

I’ve posted a new script that will add a user (or list of users) to a local group on a computer (or list of computers). I hope that you find this of some use, and I have added some small error detection and output formatting to make running against a large server list easier. I suggest redirecting the output to a .CSV file for easy management. You can add either a single user or a group of users. Make sure to specify your domain name in the strDomain variable.

You can find the script here and in our Scripting section. Follow the break for syntax.

Continue reading New Script – Add Users to Local Group on Remote Computer…

New Scripts – Display List of Users and List of Servers

Posted by Scott Horsfield - 07/12/07 at 04:12:47 pm

I’m often asked to write scripts to query information from Active Directory. Most of the time it’s for a simple list of servers or users. While this information is available through other command-line tools I like the flexibility of VBScript, and the ability to easily customize the format of the results that are returned. Here are two simple scripts that query users and servers within the domain. You can easily customize these scripts to run tasks against each computer/user object or you can customize the results that are returned for simple reports. These scripts are also available in our script reference section and I will post PowerShell examples soon. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

VBScript to Return a List of Users

VBScript to Return a List of Servers

Feedback – Virtualized Domain Controllers (Part One)

Posted by Scott Horsfield - 06/12/07 at 10:12:52 am

Prior to a recent opportunity, I had limited experience with virtualized domain controllers, especially in a production environment. I have always been skeptical of their use, and the research I’ve done on the topic has always confirmed my suspicions. Now that I have direct experience support virtualized domain controllers I know why. I’m not entirely convinced that Virtualized DCs cannot work well, but in my opinion they should only be used in a few special scenarios.

Follow the break to hear more about my experience and feel free to share yours as well.

Continue reading Feedback – Virtualized Domain Controllers (Part One)…

Exchange – Exchange 2007 Storage Requirements Calculator

Posted by Scott Horsfield - 05/12/07 at 03:12:03 pm

Though I will usually focus on Active Directory related issues I will definitely post good information relevant to related products as I run across it. If you’ve read my bio you know that I’m working on a large migration. As part of this we’re implementing Microsoft Exchange 2007. If you haven’t already checked out the following blog I suggest you do so immediately. The following link takes you to the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog, and more importantly their Exchange 2007 Storage Requirements Calculator!

 http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/01/15/432207.aspx

New Script – Service Account Logon Information

Posted by Scott Horsfield - 05/12/07 at 10:12:09 am

Unless you’re fortunate enough to have implemented a password management utility, planning service account password changes and migrations can be a daunting task. I’ve posted a new script that I’ve used in the past to query the service account logon information for all servers in Active Directory. You can customize the search filter and WMI properties that are queried to meet your needs.

You can find the new script here.

Active Directory – Page Pool Size

Posted by Scott Horsfield - 04/12/07 at 12:12:53 pm

Have you ever created a script that wouldn’t return all of the results you expected? Often times this is caused by a default Active Directory value (MaxPageSize). Initially this value is set to 1000, so when you query Active Directory only 1000 results will be returned. You can change this value through ntdsutil.exe but I recommend the following.

When configuring your ADODB command use the following property:

    objCommand.Properties(”Page Size”) = 10000

As you can see I set the Page Size value to 10000 because I know that the Active Directory I’m pulling values from will never return more than 10000. You can set this depending on the size of your environment, or to the maxint value if you’re not sure. An example follows the break.

Continue reading Active Directory – Page Pool Size…

Welcome to the Active Directory Expert

Posted by Scott Horsfield - 04/12/07 at 08:12:50 am

Throughout my time with Active Directory I’ve struggled to find a comprehensive reference site that contained useful and free information. The lack of existing information has forced me to develop my own scripts and methods for solving common AD related problems. This website is my attempt to share my experiences with you, and hear some of your own. Welcome to the site, I hope to have some interesting content up soon.