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Hello everyone. Jonathan here again with another Public Service Announcement post. Today, Microsoft has published a new Security Advisory: Microsoft Security Advisory (2661254): Update For Minimum Certificate Key Length The Security Advisory and the accompanying KB article have complete information...

Hey all, Ned here again with one of my rare public service announcement posts: In August 2012, Microsoft will issue a software update for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2. The update will block the use...

Hi folks, Jonathan here. Dave and I wanted to share some important information with you. By now you’ve all been made aware of the Microsoft Security Advisory that was published this past Sunday. If you are a Terminal Services or Remote Desktop Services administrator then we have some information...

Hi folks, Ned here again. It’s been a little while since the last sack, but I have a good excuse: I just finished writing a poop ton of Windows Server 2012 depth training that our support folks around the world will use to make your lives easier (someday). If I ever open MS Word again it will be...

Hello all, Ned here again with our first mail sack in a couple months. I have enough content built up here that I actually created multiple posts, which means I can personally guarantee there will be another one next week. Unless there isn't! Today we answer your questions around: Detecting...

Hi folks, Ned here again. I know this is supposed to be the Friday Mail Sack but things got a little hectic and... ah heck, it doesn't need explaining, you're in IT. This week - with help from the ever-crotchety Jonathan Stephens - we talk about: Multiple WMI Filters LDAP MaxPoolThreads Many...

Hi folks, Ned here again with some possibly interesting, occasionally entertaining, and always unsolicited Friday mail sack. This week we talk some: DNS partition absence Controlling DCDIAG event messaging Inventorying SYSVOL replication architecture Weird WMI DFSR volume paths Tightening...

Hi. Mark again. As part of my role in Premier Field Engineering, I’m sometimes called upon to visit customers when they have a critical issue being worked by CTS, needing another set of eyes. For today’s discussion, I’m going to talk you through, one such visit. It was a dark and...

Hello. Jim here yet again to talk to you about deploying Windows Server 2008 R2 with the Network Device Enrollment Services (NDES) role in a secure perimeter network. Let's consider the scenario. You have an internal PKI hierarchy consisting of an Offline Root Certificate Authority (CA), a policy CA...

[Editor’s note: this is a reprinted post from the AD Troubleshooting Blog . If you’re not already a subscriber to that blog, you absolutely need to add it to your feed. Ingolfur is a Sr. Support Escalation Engineer in Sweden and a very smart dude - with rather odd hair - who deserves your attention....

Hi folks, Ned here again with another tri-weekly Friday Mail Sack. This time we talk service auditing, trust creation, certificates and USMT, SYSVOL migration with RODCs, DFS stuff, RPC and firewalls, virtualization, and the zombie corpse of FRS. Shoot it in the head! Trusts prompting for credentials...

Hi all, Ned here again. We usually get asked for a more portable version of our multi-part blog posts so - for once - I am creating it before the yelling starts. Chris’ “Designing and Implementing a PKI” series is included below in a few common file formats: Download in DOX format...

The series: Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part I Design and Planning Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part II Implementation Phases and Certificate Authority Installation Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part III Certificate Templates Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part IV Configuring SSL for...

The series: Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part I Design and Planning Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part II Implementation Phases and Certificate Authority Installation Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part III Certificate Templates Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part IV Configuring SSL for...

Hello folks, Ned here again. It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, mainly due to me being a huge dirtbag. Today I discuss USMT, certificates, service packs, DFSR, and other random goo. Before I get rolling though: Don’t forget to give to the US Marine Corps Toys for Tots...

Hey all, Rob here again. It’s been a while since I have written a blog post, and this one was too interesting to pass up. I recently worked a case around deploying certificates to Apple iPhones and iPads to secure their network communications. The investigation uncovered that Apple devices can...

Hello there folks, it's Ned . I’ve been out of pocket for a few weeks and I am moving to a new role here, plus Scott and Jonathan are busy as #$%#^& too, so that all adds up to the blog suffering a bit and the mail sack being pushed a few times. Never fear, we’re back with some goodness...

Hello world, Ned here again. I’m back to write this week’s mail sack – just in time to be gone for the next two weeks on vacation and work travel . In the meantime Jonathan and Scott will be running the show, so be sure to spam the heck out of them with whatever tickles you. This week...

Hello, faithful readers! Jonathan here again. Today I want to talk a little about Certification Authority monitoring and maintenance. This topic was brought to my attention by a recent case that I had where a customer’s CA database had grown to rather elephantine proportions over the course of...

Hi, folks! Jonathan here again, and today I want to talk about what appears to be an increasingly common topic: migrating from a single Windows Certification Authority (CA) to a multi-tier hierarchy. I’m going to assume that you already have a basic understanding of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI...

Hello all, Ned here again with this week’s conversations between AskDS and the rest of the world. Today we talk Security, ADWS, FSMO upgrades, USMT, and why “Web 2.0 Internet” is still a poisonous wasteland of gross. Let’s do it to it. Security "compliance" and recommendations...

Hello folks, Ned here again with another ridiculously overdue Friday Mail Sack. This week we talk about patching, admin rights, Kerberos, hiring, ADMT, and PKI. Next week we talk about… nothing. I will be out celebrating an Important Wife Birthday™ and unless Jonathan takes pity on you,...

The series: Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part I Design and Planning Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part II Implementation Phases and Certificate Authority Installation Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part III Certificate Templates Designing and Implementing a PKI: Part IV Configuring SSL for...

Hello Internet! Last week, Ned said there wouldn’t be a Mail Sack this week because he was going to be out of town. Well, the DS team was sitting around during our “Ned is out of our hair for a few days” party and we decided that since this is a Team Blog after all, we’d go ahead...

Hey everyone, Rob here again. With the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 we have added new methods of enrolling for certificates: Certificate Enrollment Policy (CEP) and Certificate Enrollment Service (CES). CEP is a web service that enables users and computers to obtain certificate enrollment...