Category Archives: Active Directory

Microsoft Active Directory Replication Status Tool won’t upgrade

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For getting a quick insight into the AD replication health of an environment the Microsoft Active Directory Replication Status Tool is a very handy instrument. The only annoyance is the expiration of the license that forces you to download a new one and upgrade. A bit of a convoluted way to update free software but hey it is handy and free.

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And then again …

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OK, I’ll download the new one. But the Microsoft Active Directory Replication Status Tool won’t upgrade. That’s because the currently installed version is newer than the one you just downloaded form the Microsoft site. That’s annoying, did they post the wrong version?

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Let’s install the new version quickly in a VM. Now looking at the executable in the current install and the new one they are the same … so the license is the only thing causing an issue here; not a version difference actually.

Old version

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New version

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Let’s look at the license.xml file in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Active Directory Replication Status Tool\Licensing

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The only difference between the old and the new installed is the license file.You can see it has the expiration dates in the future.

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So the fix is easy, just uninstall the currently installed version of AD Replication Status tool wherever it is installed and reinstall the one you downloaded. It seems to be exactly the same version but that’s how you get it working again with a fresh license.xml file. Note that you cannot copy the license file between machine, the generated signature is wrong.

Hope this helps someone.

Azure AD Connect 1.1.105.0 is GA

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On February 18th  2016 Microsoft released a significant update to Azure AD Connect, version 1.1.105.0. It adds some capabilities and improves on others. For me this is a core piece of the puzzle today and in the future for many of my plans to optimize the future IT Infrastructure & DevOps. Even when politics seem hell bound on slowing you down and cause a serious delay and missed opportunities this piece of technology is key in breaking through those barriers and keep moving ahead.

So what’s in the box with version  1.1.105.0

  • Automatic upgrade feature for Express settings customers.
    Support for the global admin using MFA and PIM in the installation wizard.
  • We can change the user’s sign-in method after initial install.
  • We can now set Domain and OU filtering in the installation wizard. As a secondary benefit this means we can now connect to forests where not all domains are available.
  • We get a Scheduler is built-in to the sync engine.

Some preview features are now GA:

We get one new preview features which is going to be a hit in world where patience disappeared from the equation:

  • The default sync interval is now 30 minutes instead of 3 hours before. this is configurable now in the scheduler.

It also fixes the following issues:

  • The verify DNS domains page didn’t always recognize the domains.
  • Prompts for domain admin credentials when configuring ADFS.
  • On-premises AD accounts are not recognized by the installation wizard when they are in a domain with a different DNS tree than the root domain.

Grab the latest version of Azure AD Connect here.

Azure Done Well Means Hybrid Done Right

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If you think that a hybrid cloud means you need to deploy SCVMM & WAP you’re wrong. It does mean that you need to make sure that you give yourself the best possible conditions to make your cloud a success and an asset in the biggest possible number of all scenarios that might apply or come up.

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Cool you say, I hear you, but what does that mean in real life? Well it means you should stop playing games and get serious. Which translates into the following.

Connectivity

A 200Mbps is the absolute minimum for the SMB market. You need at least that for Office 365 Suite, if you want happy customers that is. Scale based on the number of users and usage but remember you’ll pinch at least a 100Mbps of that for a VPN to Azure.

Get a VPN already!

Or better still, take the gloves off and go for Express Route. Extend your business network to your cloud and be done with all the hacks, workarounds, limitations, tedious & creative yet finicky "solutions" to get thing done. I guess it beats living with the limitations but it will only get you that far.

Any country or business that isn’t investing in FC to the home & cheap affordable data connectivity to the businesses is actively destroying long term opportunity for some dubious short term gain.

So without further ado, life is to short to do hybrid cloud without. It opens up great scenarios that will allow you to get all the comforts of on premise in your Azure data center such as …

Extend AD  & ADFS into Azure

Get that AD & ADFS into the cloud people! What? Yes, do it. That’s what that good solid VPN between Azure and on premises or better still, Express Route enables. Just turn it into just another site of your business.  But one with some fascinating capabilities. DirSync or better Azure Active Directory Sync will only get you that far and mostly in a SAAS(PAAS) ecosystem. Once you’ve done that the world is your oyster!

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Conclusion

So don’t be afraid. Just do it!  People I have my home lab and it’s AD connected to my azure cloud via VPN! That’s me the guy that works for his money and pays his own bills. So what are you as a business waiting for?

But wait Didier, isn’t AD going away, why would I not wait for the cloud to be 100% perfect for all I do? Well, just get started today and take it from there. You’ll enjoy the journey if you do it smart and right!

“Your cloud, your terms”. Well that’s true.  But that’s not a given, you’ll need to put in some effort. You have to determine what your terms are and what your cloud should look like. If you don’t you’ll end up in a bad state. If you have good IT staff, you should be OK. If they could handle your development environment & run your data center chances are good they’ll be able to handle “cloud”. Really.

Consultants? Sure, but get really good ones or you’ll get sold to. There’s a lot of churning and selling going on. Don’t get taken for a ride. I know a bunch of really good ones. How do I determine this? One rule … would I hire them Winking smile

Windows XP Clients Cannot Execute Logon Scripts against a Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller – Workaround

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The issue

The real issue is that you are still running Windows XP. The secondary issue is that you have Windows XP clients that cannot connect to a file share (NETLOGON) on a Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller. If you try manually via \domaincontrollerNetlogon it will throw an error like  "The specified network name is no longer available".  Security wise & moral pressure wise I kind of think this drives home the message you need to get off Windows XP. But I realize you’re in a pickle so here’s the workaround/fix.

Root Cause & Fix

Windows XP talks SMB 1.0 and that’s it. If this is not offered by the server (file server or domain controller) we have a problem. Now if you installed new Windows Server 2012 R2 servers they do not deploy the SMB 1.0 feature by default. If you upgraded from Windows 2008 R2 (perhaps even over Windows 2012) to get to Windows 2008 (R2) this feature kept in place. Other wise you’ll need to make sure SMB 1.0 is installed, it often (always?) is. Just check.

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However there is a big change between Windows Server 2008 R2/Windows 2012. The LanmanServer service has a dependency set to SMB 2.0 and no longer to SMB 1.0

This is what it looks like on a Windows Server 2012 (or lower) domain controller:

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This is what it look like on a Windows Server 2012 domain controller

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So we need to change that on Windows 2012 R2 to support Windows XP. We can do this in the registry. Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesLanmanServerDependOnService

  1. Change SamSS Srv2 to SamSS Srvimage
  2. Restart the Server (Lanmanserver) service (it will restart the dependent services like netlogon, DFS Namespace, .. as well)

You’re XP clients should be able to authenticate again. You can test this by navigating to \domaincontrollerNetlogon on a XP client. This should succeed again.

If you have issues with Windows Server 2012 R2 file servers … this is also valid. When you do get rid of Windows XP. Go back to the original settings please Smile.

If you want to read more on SMB read this blog Windows Server 2012 R2: Which version of the SMB protocol (SMB 1.0, SMB 2.0, SMB 2.1, SMB 3.0 or SMB 3.02) are you using? by Jose Barreto (File Server team at Microsoft)

Finally, get off XP!

I think I said it enough on twitter and my blog Legacy Apps Preventing Your Move From Windows XP to Windows 8.1? Are you worried about HeartBleed? Good! Are you worried about still being on XP? No? Well dump SSL and use clear text authentication as XP is a free fire zone  anyway (as of April 8th 2014) and it’s just a matter of time before you’re road kill. Any company who has CIO/CTO/IT managers and other well paid functions and have let their organization be held hostage on XP (I’m not talking about a few PCs or VMs left and right) by legacy apps & ISV should realize they are the one who let this happen. Your watch. Your responsibility. No excuses.