If you ever run into one of those messages “The current time on the computer and the current time on the network are different” when trying to log on, you will probably try to log on on the domain controller and try to assess in which amount the time got desynchronised in your domain or between domains in your forrest. As you might know, Active Directory is picky about time, because the Kerberos authentication does not accept timestamps that differ more than 5 minutes between the machine that is trying to host the login and the domain controller.
Archive for the 'Windows' Category
Windows features automatic Daylight Saving Time switching, which removes the hassle of changing the date and time manually. This however causes issues when your government decides to change the beginning and end dates of your local DST regulations, and Microsoft does not or too late come up with the necessary hotfixes.
To set up your DST changes manually, Microsoft published an extensive Knowledge Base article to create the necessary modifications and replicate it throughout your organisation.
Whenever you are working with the tools included in the Administration Pack, you might want to use some shortcuts to get quicker to the information you want. For instance, when working in a Active Directory forest with multiple domains, you sometimes do not want to spend time clicking and hovering through the Start Menu to get to Active Directory Users and Computers, to open the AD structure of the domain you are logged into, and to manually open the Active Directory Domain you want to make changes in.
Do it quicker.
Starting a new job makes you ponder on which tools you use to get the job done, and which tools you have aquired over the years. I had to start with a white blanket again, and found out I have quite a large tookbox.
Awaiting my test environment for more technical articles, I’ll review my toolbox over the next few weeks, starting with the Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack, or more commonly known as “adminpak.msi”.
The Windows Active Directory does not really have hard limits when it comes to group memberships. There are however soft limits.
Any ADSI or WMI query to a list of your group memberships will turn out to 1000 members in Windows 2000 mode, or 1500 in Windows 2003 native mode. Only by using ADO range limits, you can go by this soft limit.
This shouldn’t pose a problem when you are just adding members to an already big group. However, it does. Continue reading ‘Adding members to groups with +1500 members in PowerShell’
