This download includes the Active Directory Schema Changes Reference, which provides information about the changes that Microsoft Exchange Server makes to the Active Directory schema when it is installed. The Active Directory Schema Changes Reference includes changes made to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007, and Exchange Server 2003.

Click here to download…

These are by far some of my favorite tools for AD management and compliment the Exchange 2007 PowerShell cmdlets very nicely. If one were so inclined you could write a very nice script to do just about anything with the combination of Quest and Exchange.

Click here to read about what’s new…

Click here to download…

As an AD engineer and PowerShell aficionado this is something to get excited about.  I can just imagine all the wonderful scripts that is going to make life so much easier for those AD administrators.  These aren’t going to be out until Server 2008 R2 but it’s nice to day dream a bit.

Get the full list here…

Came across a very nice post that illustrates a lot of new functionality for Active Directory that will be introduced with Server 2008 R2.

New Features include:

• A Recycle Bin
• Managed Service Accounts
• PowerShell (BIG ONE)
• MMC 4
• Offline Domain Join

Read the post here…

Other Server 2008 Links:

• Some more information on Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7…
• Windows 2008 R2 Reviewers Guide (BETA)…
• Server 2008 R2 Core Changes…

Overview

This guide assists Active Directory administrators in performing domain migration through the use of the Active Directory Migration Tool.

Click here to download…

For anyone who has ever called MPS to troubleshoot an issue you will know these tools.  For those that haven’t this is a must to bookmark.  These tools are used by MPS to gather configuration data from a server for troubleshooting purposes.  You can run the tool to gather critical data BEFORE you call MPS.  Having this critical data ready will greatly help to speed things up with MPS and get your issue resolved much quicker.

MPS Reporting come in a variety of flavors

(Please review the readme file included with each reporting tool for more information on usage)

• Alliance
• Cluster
• Active Directory (DirSvc)
• Exchange
• MDAC
• Network
• Base Setup (SetupPerf)
• SQL
• SUS

Overview

The Microsoft Product Support Reporting Tool facilitates the gathering of critical system and logging information used in troubleshooting support issues. The reporting tool DOES NOT make any registry changes or modifications to the operating system. There are 8 specialty versions, one for each of the following support scenario categories: Alliance, Directory Services (not for Windows NT 4.0), Networking, Clustering, SQL, Software Update Services, MDAC and Base/Setup/Storage/Print/Performance. Each version gathers some of the same basic information but there are specific reports unique to each of the support scenario categories. Please read the readme.txt files for more details about each version.

• Click here to download the MPS tools…

Microsoft Premier Services Reporting Utility

Another useful tool is the Premier Services Reporting Utility.  (PFE Version)  This version is newer and also supports x64 bit Windows platforms.  This one is not as specialized as the tools listed above but useful to gather detailed system status and configuration information when the above tools don’t fit your needs.  This utility will also gather limited information on SQL and Exchange.

Microsoft Product Support Reports Viewer

The MPSReports Viewer tool is a viewer companion to the Microsoft Product Support Reports tool, allowing for the collected results to be reviewed using a graphical user interface. Please be aware that not all the datapoints collected by Microsoft Product Support Reports are exposed by the viewer companion. This version of Microsoft Product Support Reports viewer does not parse results files collected by older versions of MPSReports.

Overview

With the Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool, you can read your Active Directory structure through Microsoft ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO). The Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool automates Microft Office Visio to draw a diagram of the Active Directory Domain topology, your Active Directory Site topology, your OU structure or your current Exchange 200X Server Organization. With the Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool, you can also draw partial Information from your Active Directory, like only one Domain or one site. The objects are linked together, and arranged in a reasonable layout that you can later interactively work with the objects in Microsoft Office Visio.

Click here to download the tool…

If you are looking for or are familiar with the now discontinued Exchange Visio Connector tool these features have been rolled up into this tool.

Windows Client Springboard Series: Advanced Group Policy
Derek Melber, author, IT Consultant and Microsoft MVP for Group Policy, discusses how to effectively use the new group policy objects in Windows Vista to improve manageability and strengthen security.

Click here to download…

Issue

So you’ve deployed OCS 2007 with Voice in your organization and know you need a way to keep track of all the phone numbers your have assigned to your voice enabled users.  One way of course to is to build a nice spreadsheet but that can be cumbersome to manage in a large environment where many people have their hands in the OCS environment.   

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just query AD to get the numbers?  I love playing around in Powershell and couldn’t help myself from tinkering with this issue.  Using ADExplorer I was able to locate the attribute on which to to base my query.

• msRTCSIP-Line

Prerequisites

1. Windows Powershell
2. Quest ActiveRoles Management Shell for Active Directory (free)

Solution

Get-QADUser -DontUseDefaultIncludedProperties -IncludedProperties ‘msRTCSIP-Line’,name -ObjectAttributes @{‘msRTCSIP-Line’='*’} | format-table name,’msRTCSIP-Line’

Of course you can modify the script to export the information to a CSV file or filter the results by OU very easily.  Bottom line though is it works. 

Happy scripting.

If you have ever played with trusts in Microsoft Active Directory you know what I’m talking about.  You have successfully built a trust to another Forest or Domain and now you want to login to your client with an account from the trusted Domain/Forest.  But wait…you click the pull down menu and don’t see the trusted Domain/Forest.  What gives?

Well I hate reinventing the wheel so I’ll just direct you to a recent post by Tim Springston from Microsoft who explains this process very well.  It’s a short, simple read where you’ll hear everyone’s favorite Microsoftism “This behavior is by design.”

(Is Microsoftism a real word?)

An excerpt:

“If the interactive logon is taking place from a Windows XP SP2 computer or later the user credentials may be presented in universal naming convention (UNC) format.

A little more about this…

The Windows interactive logon pull down menu for domains is created by contacting a Global Catalog and querying for domains. Global Catalogs are forest specific and hence will only know of domains in their own forest. Therefore, the list will not contain domains in a trusted forest other than the root domain.”

Read the rest of Tim’s post here…