Ryan Boswell's blog

Remote Server Administration Tools for Vista

Ryan Boswell — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:41:17 +0000

If you want to manage your Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 servers from a Vista workstation you need to install the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT). These tools are the equivalent to the Admin Pack used by Windows XP and Windows 2000. This requires that Vista has been upgraded to Service Pack 1. To download the tools for the 32 bit version of Vista, go here. For the 64 bit version of Vista, go here.

This information pertains to the following courses:

WINS Replication Script

Ryan Boswell — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:43:48 +0000

Automating the creation of WINS Replication partners can be accomplished with NETSH. This comes in handy in a scenario where you need to set up a replication partner at a remote location, and the local administrator does not have the expertise to configure the partner manually. Setting up this script is fairly straightforward by using the "add partner" command. Here is the syntax from the Microsoft help file:

add partner

Adds a replication partner to the list of replication partners on the specified WINS server.

Syntax

add partner [Server=]IPAddress [[NetBIOS=]ServerNetBIOSName] [[Type=]{0 | 1 | 2}]

Parameters

[ Server=] IPAddress

Required. Specifies the replication partner to add to the WINS server. Identifies the partner server by IP address.

[ NetBIOS=] ServerNetBIOSName

Specifies the replication partner to add to the WINS server. Identifies the partner server by NetBIOS name.

[ Type=]{ 0| 1| 2}

Indicates the type of partner to add: 0-Pull, 1-Push, 2-Both (default).

Remarks

•
If the IP address does not resolve, the NetBIOS name parameter is used to create the partner record. Otherwise, the NetBIOS parameter is not used.

Examples

In the following example, this command adds a push/pull replication partner with an IP address of 10.2.2.2 to the current WINS server.

add partner 10.2.2.2

For example, if I wanted to create a Push\Pull replication partnership with a server named Server1 that has 10.10.0.1 as an IP Address, the command would look something like this:

netsh wins server add partner 10.10.0.1 Server1 2

This information pertains to the following courses:

Course 2277: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure: Network Services

DHCP: Migrate database from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003

Ryan Boswell — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:05:47 +0000

If you are moving your DHCP Server from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003, you can migrate the existing database without re-creating it on the new server. This is done by simply exporting the database from the Windows 2000 server, installing DHCP on the Windows Server 2003 server, and then importing the database. The details on this process can be found here. Note that these steps also apply when migrating from a Windows NT DHCP server.

This information pertains to the following courses:

Course 2277: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure: Network Services

Custom ZTI and LTI settings

Ryan Boswell — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:15:33 +0000

A ZTI or LTI installation can be customized by editing the customsettings.ini file, which can be accessed through the Deployment Point properties in the BDD 2007 Deployment Workbench. You can find a reference for the available customization settings here.

This information pertains to the following courses:

Course 5105: Deploying Windows Vista Business Desktop

Demand-dial VPN router

Ryan Boswell — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 16:52:21 +0000

Setting up a demand-dial VPN router can be tricky. The Microsoft Technet website walks through the steps in a fictional scenario, which can be accessed here.

This information pertains to the following courses:

Course 2277: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure: Network Services

New Features with Certificate Services

Ryan Boswell — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:56:16 +0000

Certificate Services in Windows Server 2003 has been renamed to Active Directory Certificate Services in Windows Server 2008. There are several new features. You can download a white paper here that covers these new features.

This information pertains to the following courses:

Course 2823: Implementing and Administering Security in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network

Offline WSUS Server

Ryan Boswell — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:22:05 +0000

I had a question in class today about setting up an offline WSUS Server. In order to do this, you must first pull the content down using an online WSUS Server and then manually move the content to the offline server. The directions on how to set this up can be found here.

BitLocker recovery key - Active Directory

Ryan Boswell — Wed, 23 May 2007 21:16:30 +0000

If you need to recover a computer that has been encrypted with BitLocker, you are required to enter a recovery key. This key is created when you first enable BitLocker. The following are options for storing this recovery key:

Save the key to file
Store the key on a USB drive
Print the key
Save the key to Active Directory

To use the Active Directory option, you must be running Windows Server 2003 SP1 or higher on your domain controllers. The reason for this is that storing the BitLocker recovery keys in Active Directory requires Schema extensions. The preparation steps can be found here.

This information pertains to the following courses:

Course 5118: Maintaining and Troubleshooting Windows Vista Computers

Install WindowsRE to the hard drive

Ryan Boswell — Wed, 23 May 2007 18:47:18 +0000

WindowsRE is the new recovery environment for Windows Vista that essentially replaces the Recovery Console. A question came up in class today as to whether you can install WindowsRE as a dual-boot option with Windows Vista. It turns out you can. The instructions on how to do this are posted at the WindowsRE MSDN blog, and can be found here.

This information pertains to the following courses:

Course 5118: Maintaining and Troubleshooting Windows Vista Computers

BCDEdit (RIP Boot.ini)

Ryan Boswell — Wed, 23 May 2007 18:33:25 +0000

In Windows XP, if you wanted to control the boot behavior of your computer, you would edit the boot.ini file. By editing this file, you could control dual boot behavior, such as the default operating system and how many seconds you see the selection screen to choose an operating system. When a Windows XP computer would boot, the NTLDR would load the operating system based on the options you set in the boot.ini.

Windows Vista no longer uses a boot.ini file (or, for that matter, NTLDR). Instead, bootmgr.exe (the NTLDR replacement) reads configuration data from the Boot Configuration Database (BCD). BCD options can be modified from the command line using bcdedit.exe. Syntax for this command can be found here. If you want a GUI tool to edit the BCD, NeoSmart provides EasyBCD, which can be downloaded here. EasyBCD allows you to change the same configuration settings as bcdedit with an interface that is easier to use.

This information pertains to the following courses:

Course 5118: Maintaining and Troubleshooting Windows Vista Computers