The video of my presentation at TechEd North America 2014 is now available

Microsoft has posted the 80-minute video of PCIT-B341 Upgrading Active Directory the Safe Way: Using Virtualization Technologies, the session Mike Resseler and I presented on Friday May 15, 2014 at Microsoft TechEd North America 2014. You can watch this session free of charge over on Channel 9, regardless of whether you’ve attended TechEd North America … Continue reading "The video of my presentation at TechEd North America 2014 is now available"

Windows Server 2012 Active Directory Feature Requirements

A while ago, I wrote a blogpost on the requirements you’d need to meet to take advantage of Active Directory features in Windows Server 2003 through Windows Server 2008 R2. Since Windows Server 2012 was released almost a year ago, it’s time to look at the requirements for Active Directory features in Windows Server 2012.

Windows Server 2012-based Domain Controllers and required Active Directory domain and forest functional levels

When your organization is looking to implement Windows Server 2012-based Domain Controllers, your Active Directory environment needs to meet certain requirements. Two of these requirements are the domain functional level and forest functional level. In this blogpost I’ll explain the required domain and forest functional levels for the specific implementation steps.

Updated Active Directory Capacity Planning Guidance Available (adsizer.exe Be Gone!)

Every good Active Directory Domain Services implementation started with sizing Domain Controllers appropriately for the environment in which they needed to be able to service clients for a period of four to five years. For years, we’ve been using adsizer.exe, a part of the Windows 2000 Resource Kit for this purpose.

KnowledgeBase: Adprep "not a valid Win32 application" error on Windows Server 2003, 64-bit version

Recently, Microsoft released KnowledgeBase article 2743367 with the ominous title Adprep "not a valid Win32 application" error on Windows Server 2003, 64-bit version. When you’ve been reading this blog, you might have already guessed what might be causing this issue, even though adprep.exe on the Windows Server 2012 DVD is a perfectly fine Windows 64bit … Continue reading "KnowledgeBase: Adprep "not a valid Win32 application" error on Windows Server 2003, 64-bit version"

Determining your Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 version

With the release of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, many people are eager to download and install the latest and greatest Operating Systems from Redmond. For people who have deployed one of the pre-release versions of Windows 8, Windows Server 8 and Windows Server 2012, the big question now is which version they are … Continue reading "Determining your Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 version"

Windows Server 2012 from an Architecture Point of View

Customers often ask me and my colleagues for innovative solutions, based on proven technology. While that sounds like a contradictio in terminus, we always deliver. The key behind these successes is to research and implement new technology in an early stage. From there, we combine these new technologies, where appropriate, with our proven architectural principles … Continue reading "Windows Server 2012 from an Architecture Point of View"

Why rücksichtlos disabling IPv6 is a bad idea

Since Windows Vista, Microsoft has bundled and enabled IPv6 by default. This means Windows Vista, Windows 7 Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 (and all their derivate SKUs like Small Business Server) out of the box talk IPv6. Note: Server Core installations do not have IPv6 enabled by default and are the one notable … Continue reading "Why rücksichtlos disabling IPv6 is a bad idea"