Microsoft's official enterprise support blog for AD DS and more
Hi, Craig here. It can be frustrating to call support only to have your issue resolved by an article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Sometimes you are just happy to get the problem solved, but most people prefer to solve something themselves and avoid calling support. So it may be interesting to know which KB articles are used the most in Directory Services support to solve customer issues. By becoming more familiar with these articles you can improve your troubleshooting skills for the most common Active Directory-related issues.
When we resolve an issue using a specific KB article, we can link that article to the case for reporting purposes. We report on this to get an idea of which articles are most useful, as well as to help understand the types of issues we see the most. While there are other ways we report on top issues, this is one of the few that shows KB article usage.
Note that this is not a report on which KB articles get the most page views on Microsoft.com. Just because an article gets a lot of hits doesn’t mean it is particularly helpful. For example, many articles offer generic troubleshooting steps for common issues, so they come up high in search results, but they may not provide a complete solution to your problem. Also keep in mind that this report shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a list of the most common Directory Services issues. There are KB articles that customers use all the time to fix themselves without ever calling support. This list only shows articles that were used when someone called Microsoft product support.
Depending on how you slice it, we support about 30 different Windows components in the Directory Services specialty. But to give you a general idea of the types of articles that are included in the report, here is a more concise list of what technologies we support.
• Active Directory • Authentication • Authorization • File Replication Service • DFS Namespaces • DFS Replication • Public Key Infrastructure • User Profiles • Terminal Server Licensing • Windows Time Service
Because most issues with those components are dependent on healthy network connectivity, the list includes some articles that deal with network issues that will impact Directory Services components. KB 936594 about the TCP offload features introduced in Windows Server 2003 SP2 is a good example of that. And since Active Directory is heavily dependent on DNS, there are some DNS-related articles listed as well.
Hopefully that puts it in the proper context. Here are the top 50 KB articles used to solve issues in Directory Services support during the first quarter of Microsoft fiscal year 2008 (July 2007 through September 2007).
Number
Title
216498
How to remove data in Active Directory after an unsuccessful domain controller demotion
822134
The function of Terminal Server CALs in Windows Server 2003
823313
Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server licensing issues and requirements for deployment
917385
Error message when you run the Active Directory Installation Wizard: "The version of the Active Directory schema of the source forest is not compatible with the version of Active Directory on this computer"
290762
Using the BurFlags registry key to reinitialize File Replication Service replica sets
279561
How to override the license server discovery process in Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services
255504
Using Ntdsutil.exe to transfer or seize FSMO roles to a domain controller
273566
How to rebuild Windows 2000 and 2003 Terminal Services Licensing database
936594
You may experience network-related problems after you install Windows Server 2003 SP2 or the Scalable Networking Pack on a Windows Small Business Server 2003-based computer
258062
"Directory Services cannot start" error message when you start your Windows-based or SBS-based domain controller
315457
How to rebuild the SYSVOL tree and its content in a domain
325869
How to activate a License Server by using Terminal Server Licensing in Windows Server 2003
840001
How to restore deleted user accounts and their group memberships in Active Directory
244474
How to force Kerberos to use TCP instead of UDP in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, and in Windows 2000
816042
How to configure an authoritative time server in Windows Server 2003
332199
Domain controllers do not demote gracefully when you use the Active Directory Installation Wizard to force demotion in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows 2000 Server
325379
How to upgrade Windows 2000 domain controllers to Windows Server 2003
887303
Applying Group Policy causes Userenv errors and events to occur on your computers that are running Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000
919151
You cannot deploy a Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition-based domain controller in a Windows Server 2003 forest
842804
A Windows Server 2003-based computer may stop responding when it is resumed from standby and events 1030 and 1058 are logged in the application log of a domain controller
817433
Delegated permissions are not available and inheritance is automatically disabled
237811
How to Activate a Terminal Services License Server and Install CALs Over the Internet
830092
In Windows Server 2003 and in Windows XP, W32Time frequently logs Event ID 50, and poor time synchronization occurs
179442
How to configure a firewall for domains and trusts
824196
Description of the License Logging Service in Windows Server operating systems
313222
How to reset security settings back to the defaults
909444
Systems that have changed the default Access Control List permissions on the %windir%\registration directory may experience various problems after you install the Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-051 for COM+ and MS DTC
837513
Domain controller is not functioning correctly
927695
You cannot host TCP connections when Receive Side Scaling is enabled in Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2
912222
The Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack release
875495
How to detect and recover from a USN rollback in Windows Server 2003
825036
Best practices for DNS client settings in Windows 2000 Server and in Windows Server 2003
314825
How to Troubleshoot Black Hole Router Issues
325850
How to use Netdom.exe to reset machine account passwords of a Windows Server 2003 domain controller
239107
Establishing preferred Windows 2000 Terminal Services license server
288167
Error Message "Target Principal Name is Incorrect" When Manually Replicating Data Between Domain Controllers
931685
Replicated files are copied over the network when you use the Distributed File System (DFS) Replication feature on a Windows Server 2003 R2-based computer
823659
Client, service, and program incompatibilities that may occur when you modify security settings and user rights assignments
241594
How to perform an authoritative restore to a domain controller in Windows 2000
292438
Troubleshooting journal_wrap errors on Sysvol and DFS replica sets
827355
Event ID 1004 is logged when a thin client tries to obtain a Terminal Services license
889030
Trust between a Windows NT domain and an Active Directory domain cannot be established or it does not work as expected
907434
The "Send As" right is removed from a user object after you configure the "Send As" right in the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in in Exchange Server
260575
How To Use Netdom.exe to Reset Machine Account Passwords of a Windows 2000 Domain Controller
899148
Some firewalls may reject network traffic that originates from Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1-based or Windows Vista-based computers
291382
Frequently asked questions about Windows 2000 DNS and Windows Server 2003 DNS
925511
You experience slow TCP/IP performance and long data transfer delay times on a Windows Server 2003-based computer or on a Microsoft WindowsXP x64 version-based computer
221833
How to enable user environment debug logging in retail builds of Windows
827825
"Windows cannot unload your registry class file" error message when you log off Terminal Services
832017
Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system
- Craig Landis
PingBack from http://geeklectures.info/2008/01/02/which-kb-articles-resolve-the-most-directory-services-issues/
The Ask the Directory Services Team blog has a great post on the top 50 KB articles used to solve issues
The Sean Blog : The top Active Directory Issues Great link on Sean's blog about the Top Active Directory
http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2008/01/02/which-kb-articles-resolve-the-most-directory-services
Verifique um destes KBs, provavelmente resolverá o seu problema: Number Title 216498 How to remove data
Hey Craig thanks for all the links they are really helpfull.
Sorry for the question in this article but I have no idea who else to ask this to:
I'm having problems reading the IIS directory entries when I specify credential information. It seems that the credentials that I pass to the constructor are being ignored. Can you recommend any article where I can get some information?
My Example looks like this:
DirectoryEntry entry = new DirectoryEntry("IIS://localhost/W3SVC/AppPools", "username", "password", AuthenticationTypes.Secure);
I get a COMException with "Access is denied." as a message.
Thanks in advance
We’ve been at this for over a year (since August 2007), with more than 100 posts (127 to be exact), so
Ned,
Any chance of updating this blog with 2009 data?