Windows Server 2012 provided major improvements to the Hyper-V role, including increased consolidation of server workloads, Hyper-V Replica, Cluster Aware Updating (CAU), network virtualization and the Hyper-V extensible switch, just to name a few! Hyper...

Greg Jaworski here again to discuss introducing the first Windows Server 2012 Domain Controller. We will discuss things such as extending the schema, enhancements to the Domain Controller promotion process (it is no longer called dcpromo), and things...

Hey y’all, Mark here with some great news. A massive Slow Boot Slow Login (SBSL) hotfix rollup for enterprises that includes 90 post Windows 7/2008 R2 hotfixes is available for download. The hotfixes focus on performance (Hooray!) and stability...

Windows Server 2012 introduces many, many, many new features.  Just in the realm of storage it would be difficult to cover all storage features in appropriate detail within a single blog post.  This post is just one installment about Windows...

When I first heard of ReFS my immediate first question was whether ReFS as a file system was a direct replacement for NTFS. It didn’t take long before my customers began to ask me the same question. In learning about this new file system in Windows...

(dsymalla Posting on Behalf of Roger Osborne) Update : A Server 2012 version has been posted here . Have you ever had someone – either a customer or colleague – build a mission critical server without taking time, up-front, to ensure...

Tom Moser here with a post on one of the new ADDS features in Windows Server 2012; Virtual Domain Controller Cloning. Until now, cloning, snapshotting, copying, or pretty much doing anything but rebuilding from scratch to a virtual domain controller...

Hey y'all, Mark here providing an AskPFEPlat late night PSA. We are seeing some reports that some Active Directory Domains times reverting to November 2000. So what just happened? I thought the Mayans said this type of stuff didn’t happen until...

Hey y’all, Mark back again with some more detail around what to when the system time rollback to November 19 th 2000, caused Active Directory replication and other time-sensitive operations to fail in your environment. This post contains guidance...

Remember these on Windows 2003 Server? I cannot count the number of times I’ve been asked how to clean this up. Apparently I’m not the only one that hates clutter. And what about that annoying prompt to insert your product CD-ROM...

Pre Req: This post assumes you are not using the TS method of managing GPOs documented, at http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2009/12/09/windows-7-windows-server-2008-r2-and-the-group-policy-central-store.aspx In the field we commonly see two...

Hello my name is Greg Jaworski. I am a Transactional Premier Field Engineer with Microsoft. A very common question is what it takes to join Microsoft. What kind of skills should I have? How many years of experience do I need? A comment from one of our...

With Windows Server 2012, there are tools, features and functions that are available from the first member server (or Win8 PC with the RSAT pack - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28972 ). ** You don't need a schema extension...

For the last 6 months I’ve been saying I was going to write a series of posts around the topics of slow boot slow logon (SBSL) and how to use Xperf, but stuff kept coming up. While I kept missing the boat some other awesome engineers totally ate...

Hello our names are Ray Zabilla and Rick Bergman. Ray and I are Dedicated Premier Field Engineers with Microsoft and work with the same customer. We were both away from our customer during the same week attending training, when we had an issue pop up...

Customers ask from time to time: “What is a File Share Witness (FSW)?” Sometimes they’ve worked with prior versions of clustering and don’t know what a FSW is, or that the option exists. The next question asked is usually: “When...

As mentioned in my prior post about Storage Spaces, Windows Server 2012 contains many new capabilities. The integrated iSCSI Target happens to be one of those. Many have used the downloadable iSCSI Target for Windows Server 2008 R2 from Microsoft since...

Welcome to part two of this blog where we discuss promoting a Domain Controller with Windows PowerShell. We also discuss how you can do the prerequisites checks before introducing the first Windows Server 2012 Domain Controller. Promoting a Domain...

Disclaimer: For brevity and to get some key points across, quite a bit of detail about about Active Directory, the underlying database, and replication have been purposely ommitted from this blog. Part 1 - MCM - So You Want to be a Master, eh? Now...

In my role as a transactional PFE, I have the privilege of visiting 40-50 customers per year. Often I’m called in to perform an Assessment of the Active Directory Infrastructure . Without a doubt, one of the biggest challenges most customers face...

Recently I was asked by one of my customers to assist in a project to replace TMG with UAG, specifically for their Remote Desktop RemoteApp publishing portal. I’m not an expert with UAG, but I can usually get it to do what I need it to do, and I have...

Remember when Windows Server 2008 R2 was released, and one of the exciting new features was Managed Service Accounts ?  Managed Service Accounts (MSAs) held so much promise – automatic password management and automatic SPN registration.  Remember...

There are many potential causes for Cluster communication failures including: Network latency Network outages Faulty drivers or network cards, including TCP offload issues Misconfigured firewall rules Security software such as anti-virus...

Recently someone asked me of my thoughts on how Windows Server handles processor cores. With newer processors available with more than 2 or 4 cores each, it seemed like a good time to revisit this topic. If you have a system with multiple processor sockets...

Hello Greg Jaworski here again to briefly talk about two issues when raising the domain functional level (and/or) the forest functional level to Windows Server 2008 R2. While we have loads of documentation on this and numerous blogs there are a few issues...