Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory Reference Guide.

Howto enable RECYCLE BIN in Widnows 2008 Active Directory Server.

Pre requisite to enable Recycle Bin in Windows 2008 Active Directory.

1- Domain controller must be Windows 2008 R2 or later.
2- Forest and domain functional levels must be Windows Server 2008 R2, If not , then first raise functional level to windows 2008 R2 using ADUC
3- Enable Recycle Bin using Power Shell. Follow the below to do so
> Open powershell by using CMD and type powershell
> Load AD module by using following command.

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

Now activate Recycle BIN using following command

Enable-ADOptionalFeature -Identity ‘CN=Recycle Bin Feature,CN=Optional Features,CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=zaib,DC=com’ -Scope ForestOrConfigurationSet -Target ‘zaib.com’

Note: Change the zaib , com and zaib.com to match your local domain name

Delete any single user from AD for test purpose

> Now delete any user for test purpose via AD or net command

> From Powershell , Search for deleted items using following commands (TIP: To execute commands related to AD, always load module ActiveDirectory after you launch PowerShell)

Get-ADObject -Filter {name -like “*test*” -and deleted -eq $true} -IncludeDeletedObjects

Note: Change the *test to match the name or portion of delete user name

Restore Deleted User

To restore the deleted account, use following command

Get-ADObject -Filter {name -like “*test*” -and deleted -eq $true} -IncludeDeletedObjects | Restore-ADObject

If you want to use GUI for easy access, then you can try ADRecycleBin.exe (Active Directory Recycle Bin) which allows administrators to quickly restore deleted Active Directory objects via an easy to use GUI (Graphical User Interface). This is a free Active Directory Recycle Bin tool. You can download it from

http://www.overall.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40:adrecyclebin&catid=15:adrecyclebinexe&Itemid=66

Backup and restore system state in windows 2008

Following is an small howto of ‘Backup and restore system state in windows 2008‘

BACKUP

1- First install the backup features from the Server Manager.
2- Open command prompt and type

wbadmin start systemstatebackup -backuptarget:d:

and press enter. It will ask for confirmation, Type Y to continue

Note: You can use a different backup target of your choosing, it must be a local drive of your server.

When the backup finishes running, you should get a message that the backup completed successfully. Goto your backup drive and you will find folder name WindowsImageBackup with backup data.

RESTORE (Authoritative)

– To restore backup, Boot Windows 2008 in Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM)

– Open command prompt , First you need to get backup version number so that you may restore correct version of backup, use the followign command to get the version number

wbadmin get versions

– Write down the version you need to use.

– To restore AD in AUTHORITATIVE mode (Usually used for DC), use the following command

wbadmin start systemstaterecovery -version:04/04/2013-15:00 –authsysvol

Note: Change the -version: to match your backup number that noted from wbadmin get version command

– To restore AD in non-authoritative mode, remove the –authsysvol syntax at the end of the command (Usually used at ADC)

To get mroe info, please visit http://www.trainsignal.com/blog/backup-and-restore-active-directory-on-windows-server-2008 for more detailed step by step guide with snapshots

Read More

PPPoE Dialer via DOS Batch File

Changelog:
8th Oct , 2013 9:30pm : Entry added  to create network profile folder if not already there (usually on fresh win7)
9th Oct , 2013 01:45pm : Entry added  to create new phonbook profile, it will not overwrite or delete previous one :)
♥
Following is a simple and quickest method to create pppoe dialer using MSDOS batch file made for Windows 7, which create a new rasphone profile for PPPoE Dialer. Usually this sort of work is done using VB , or VB/VC# .NET with Dotras type programming languages which does the job nicely with lots of options and fancy look menus etc, but due to my limited knowledge towards programming, I decided to go with my traditional CLI method. I created this batch program in a very short time without much googling.
↓
Phonebook Location to store profiles (new and old)

1	%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk\

This is just an example, you can modify at as per your requirements , The issue i faced while adding multiple lines was white space at the end, and if there are additional white spaces in the file , rasphone will not detect the new entry. therefore I later used algorithm to remove white spaces.
Any suggestion to improve the method will be highly appreciable . . . Please psot your comment if this batch file is working ok for you . . .
Let’s Start.
Create a new batch file like
notepad c:\dialer.bat
Paste following data and save.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152

@echo off rem rem ######################################### rem ### PPPoE Dialer Script for Windows 7 rem ### Syed Jahanzaib / aacable@hotmail.com rem ### http://aacablw.wordpress.com rem #########################################   rem ### Creating pppoe profile in a temporarily text file echo. 2>  c:\rstemp.txt echo [AA_PPPoE_Dialer] >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Encoding=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PBVersion=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Type=5  >> c:\rstemp.txt echo AutoLogon=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo UseRasCredentials=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo LowDateTime=-582619296 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo HighDateTime=30327625 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo DialParamsUID=6326979 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Guid=359A05BF4C146640949F56383A0F18F5 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo VpnStrategy=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo ExcludedProtocols=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo LcpExtensions=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo DataEncryption=8 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo SwCompression=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo NegotiateMultilinkAlways=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo SkipDoubleDialDialog=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo DialMode=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo OverridePref=15 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo RedialAttempts=3 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo RedialSeconds=60 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IdleDisconnectSeconds=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo RedialOnLinkFailure=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo CallbackMode=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo CustomDialDll= >> c:\rstemp.txt echo CustomDialFunc= >> c:\rstemp.txt echo CustomRasDialDll= >> c:\rstemp.txt echo ForceSecureCompartment=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo DisableIKENameEkuCheck=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo AuthenticateServer=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo ShareMsFilePrint=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo BindMsNetClient=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo SharedPhoneNumbers=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo GlobalDeviceSettings=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PrerequisiteEntry= >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PrerequisitePbk= >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreferredPort=PPPoE4-0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreferredDevice=WAN Miniport (PPPOE) >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreferredBps=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreferredHwFlow=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreferredProtocol=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreferredCompression=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreferredSpeaker=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreferredMdmProtocol=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreviewUserPw=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreviewDomain=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreviewPhoneNumber=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo ShowDialingProgress=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo ShowMonitorIconInTaskBar=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo CustomAuthKey=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo AuthRestrictions=552 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpPrioritizeRemote=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpInterfaceMetric=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpHeaderCompression=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpAddress=0.0.0.0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpDnsAddress=0.0.0.0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpDns2Address=0.0.0.0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpWinsAddress=0.0.0.0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpWins2Address=0.0.0.0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpAssign=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpNameAssign=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpDnsFlags=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpNBTFlags=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo TcpWindowSize=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo UseFlags=3 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpSecFlags=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo IpDnsSuffix= >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Ipv6Assign=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Ipv6Address=:: >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Ipv6PrefixLength=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Ipv6PrioritizeRemote=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Ipv6InterfaceMetric=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Ipv6NameAssign=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Ipv6DnsAddress=:: >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Ipv6Dns2Address=:: >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Ipv6Prefix=0000000000000000 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Ipv6InterfaceId=0000000000000000 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo DisableClassBasedDefaultRoute=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo DisableMobility=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo NetworkOutageTime=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo ProvisionType=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PreSharedKey= >> c:\rstemp.txt   echo NETCOMPONENTS= >> c:\rstemp.txt echo ms_msclient=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo ms_server=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt   echo MEDIA=rastapi >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Port=PPPoE4-0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo Device=WAN Miniport (PPPOE) >> c:\rstemp.txt   echo DEVICE=PPPoE >> c:\rstemp.txt echo LastSelectedPhone=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo PromoteAlternates=0 >> c:\rstemp.txt echo TryNextAlternateOnFail=1 >> c:\rstemp.txt   rem ### Removing white spaces so that it can be readable by phone book /zaib rem echo. 2>  c:\rscompile.bat rem if [%1]==[] then echo File name missing & goto :EOF >> (for /f "tokens=1" %%a in (rstemp.txt) do echo %%a) > %~n1aa-rasphone.pbk   rem ### Location for rasphone.pbk [just for reference] /zaib rem %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk\   rem ### Creating Network Profile Folder to store dialer profile, if its not there already mkdir %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Network mkdir %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Network\Connections mkdir %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Network\Connections\pbk cls rem Copy new rasphone.pbk to user network profile /zaib rem cd %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk\ rem ren rasphone.pbk rasphone.pbk.old copy c:\aa-rasphone.pbk %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk\   rem ### Create Network Connection Center Icon on Desktop /zaib rem ### I coulnd't found a way to create shortcut of dialer on desktop, someone please suggest set linkName=AA-Network Connections set linkPath=%userprofile%\desktop set program=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ncpa.cpl set workDir=C:\WINDOWS\system32 set iconfile=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll set icon=-18 set windowStyle=2 echo Set oWS = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") > temp.vbs echo sLinkFile = "%linkPath%\%linkName%.LNK" >> temp.vbs echo Set oLink = oWS.CreateShortcut(sLinkFile) >> temp.vbs echo oLink.TargetPath = "%program%" >> temp.vbs echo oLink.IconLocation = "%iconFile%, %icon%" >> temp.vbs echo oLink.WindowStyle = "%windowStyle%" >> temp.vbs echo oLink.WorkingDirectory = "%workdir%" >> temp.vbs echo oLink.Save >> temp.vbs   WScript.exe temp.vbs del temp.vbs   rem # rem ### Show Popup Message box after everything completed /zaib rem #   mshta javascript:alert("Dialer Installation Completed!!!\n\Please Restart you computern ,Thank You\n\Syed.Jahanzaib! aacable@hotmail.com");close();   rem # THE END #

↓
Now execute it from c:\dialer.bat & then restart your computer. If you dont want to restart the newly created connection will not show in network connections, You have to press F5 in the network connections to display the newly created profile. After restart it will appear auto in network and sharing center.
↓
After successful lab testing, its time to make it a distributable package. To convert it in executable package, you download BATCH to EXE converter.

1	http://www.f2ko.de/downloads/Bat_To_Exe_Converter.zip

extract and run Bat_To_Exe_Converter.exe
Fill up the required info as shown in teh images below and click on compile.
↓

and click on COMPILE , it will create .exe Package. You can also add additional info like ICON file , or product version or info
As showed in the image below . .

.
.
End results :)

↓

Read More

WSUS Clients Getting Error Code 800b0001

In our company, we have a Windows 2003 base WSUS 3.0 with SP2 (Windows Update) server which is responsible to update all local clients and server base windows including 2000 / 2003 / 2008 / XP / W7  versions.

Recently we added four new IBM base servers with Windows 2008 R2 but unable to update, showing following error …

.

After doing few hours R&D, I found out that this is usually due to the WSUS Update Agent on the client being updated, but the WSUS server itself also needs to be upgraded to then allow communication with the newer agent. After installing SP2, you *MUST* also apply a later update “Update for Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 (KB2720211”

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29998

There was no need to reboot the server last time I ran this process, and the clients were able to communicate and obtain updates correctly.

Read More

Odd Results with Scheduled Batch Files in Windows Server 2008 R2

MS DOS BATCH FILE VIA 2008 R2 Scheduled Task / zaib

Recently I upgraded one of our old File server previously running Windows 2003 with Windows 2008 R2 64bit. this server was a member of AD and was logging with domain admin account.  Everything went smooth, but after few days I faced an strange issue that few scheduled BATCH files were not running properly at given time. If I try to execute batch file manual, they give proper result, but from schedule they dont, even by right click on the task and selecting RUN dont actually execute the batch file. To resolve this issue I added the admin account in Domain Group Policy and every thign now running fine as expected.

• Edit Group Policy at Domain Controller
• Goto “Computer Configuration” Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Users Rights Assignment
• Now on Right side menu, Double click on  “Log on as a batch job” to take its properties,
• then click button “Add user or Group“
• then click button “Browse”
• then click button “Advanced”
• then button “Find now“
• Add your required user ID / Account here like “administrator” or likewise
• and then “OK“
• Force by gpupdate /force at DC and Client as well.
• (Or if pc is stand alone, then goto “Start” > Administrative tools > local security policy”)

.
This solved my problem of BATCH files not running via Scheduled Task,

Read More

Windows 7 WEATHER GADGET ‘not working’ workaround!

The method defined in this post is now not working any more. [at the beginning it was working but not anymore] , I will see if alternate methods may work and will update this post in coming week, to see if its working … Insha Allah,  

---

From past few days, clients reported that Weather gadget stopped working with error “cannot connect to service …”

---

After doing some googling, it was revealed that dueto some security concerns Microsoft have discontinued it.  BUT  you can still Enable by following simple steps.

1. Go to “C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live\Services\Cache”
2. Edit “Config.xml” by Right Click / EDIT
3. Now donot change any thing & simply save it (CTRL+S or FILE -> Save) [without doing any modification]
4. After 1-2 MINUTES, Restart the Gadget!

---

It will work Insha Allah !!!!

Read More

Resolving “Trust Relation between this workstation and the PDC”

Yesterday I converted one of our Physical Windows 2008 base SAP QAS server to ESXI 5.x Virtual Guest for some R&D purposes. It took around 30+ hours for the conversion using vconverter 6 [as old converters have no support UEFI BIOS. When I powered on the newly converted vm guest machine I received the following error upon login

[I also received same error in year 2014 when our lotus domino server was migrated to new IBM Xseries 3650 M4 series and after every thing got settled i received this error upon final login, what a terrible time that was]

As a quick remedy I tried to RESET the computer account of this PC via AD management but no use.
Finally I used old NETDOM method and it worked instantly.

This is how I solved this problem.

Login with local computer admin account

Open COMMAND prompt

and Issue following command

1	netdom resetpwd /s:server /ud:domain\User /pd:*

Example if you have following setup

AD Server Name : SERVER1
Domain Name : mydomain.local
User Name : jahanzaib

then use following

1	netdom resetpwd /s:server1 /ud:mydomain.local\jahanzaib /pd:*

It will ask you to enter new password, simply enter password and enter. [prompt will not let u see the typing so careful when typing password]

After then simply log off and login with your domain id and it will work Insha Allah.

Read More

Event ID 7000 The Diagnostic Service Host service failed to start !

The Diagnostic Service Host service failed to start due to the following error:
A privilege that the service requires to function properly does not exist in the service account configuration. You may use the Services Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in (services.msc) and the Local Security Settings MMC snap-in (secpol.msc) to view the service configuration and the account configuration.

Today at my company, every domain user was receiving above error in  there Event logs / SYSTEM section.
To sort this issue i did following

1. Login to Domain Controller PC
2. Open Group policy editor (or run gpedit.msc from RUN) and edit default domain policy (or any other custom policy you may have other then default)
3. Goto Computer or USER  Configuration -> Policies -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment -> Profile system performance

There you may see only ADMINISTRATOR user added by default, now add following users
LOCAL SERVICE
NT Service\WdiServiceHost
Now open CMD and issue following command to force GPUDPATE.

gpupdate /force

---

At client end, clear the logs, and reboot system. After rebooting check Event Viewer and you wont see the error again. [I waited about 15 minutes before rebooting client]

Read More