Category: 1225

As you would probably know, as a regular reader of this blog, Active Directory Domain Services performs a storage trick to prevent corruption in the Active Directory database. It does this by disabling write-back caching on the physical spindle where the Active Directory database resides. This way, the Domain Controller asks the storage device to … Continue reading "Active Directory in Hyper-V environments, Part 10"

Last week, Microsoft introduced KnowledgeBase article 2878821, discussing some strange behavior on a domain-joined Windows Server 2012-based Remote Desktop Virtualization host. When such a host is added to a domain and the default domain policy is applied, the option to select a physical GPU used for RemoteFX (within Hyper-V settings) appears to be unavailable.

When you regularly check the website of the UK Virtual Machine User Group (VMUG), you might have noticed that they have a series of meetings coming up in Manchester, Leeds and London. Now, when you scroll through on the details of the Leeds meeting on October 1, 2013, you might notice a couple of familiar … Continue reading "I will be speaking at the UK VMUG Meeting in Leeds"

I have written a lot about Active Directory Domain Controllers and Hyper-V in this series. So far you’ve seen recommendations on host configuration, guest configuration, security and converting physical Active Directory Domain Controllers to virtual ones. Today, I’m covering anti-affinity.

As I’ve written before, Microsoft has made significant strides on making Active Directory Domain Controllers safe(r) to virtualize in Windows Server 2012. Sometimes, however, you encounter a situation that makes all that progress seem to disappear. Microsoft, last week, has released KnowledgeBase Article 2853952, describing such a situation.

One of the new features in Active Directory Domain Services in Windows Server 2012 is Virtualization-safe(r) Active Directory. This feature makes it easier and safer to deploy and manage virtual Domain Controllers through the VM-GenerationID capability of the hypervisor platform.

I just received confirmation on speaking at the UK Virtual Machine User Group (VMUG) Meeting in the Hilton Doubletree hotel in London on Tuesday May 21, 2013. I will be delivering my session on virtualization-safe(r) Active Directory and Domain Controller Cloning. The same session I have been delivering for the past year at numerous events, … Continue reading "I will be speaking at the UK VMUG Meeting in London"

Microsoft introduced the VM-GenerationID in Windows Server 2012, to enable Virtual Machines (VMs) to notice when they’re snapshotted, restored and/or cloned. Active Directory is the first technology to put the VM-GenerationID to good use. The following Hypervisors support VM-GenerationID: Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition (Hyper-V) Windows Server 2012 Enterprise Edition (Hyper-V) Hyper-V Server 2012  (Hyper-V) … Continue reading "List of Hypervisors supporting VM-GenerationID"

Designing and implementing an Hyper-V environment can be challenging. Placement of Active Directory Domain Controllers requires additional consideration, especially in Hyper-V Failover Cluster scenarios where Active Directory membership for the cluster nodes is strictly needed. Windows Server 2012, in Active Directory terms, is a big step forward. We’ve been over the majority of the new … Continue reading "Active Directory in Hyper-V environments, Part 8"

For a while, Microsoft’s KnowledgeBase article 976424, titled Error code when the kpasswd protocol fails after you perform an authoritative restore: "KDC_ERROR_S_PRINCIPAL_UNKNOWN", has been available to solve issues with unexpected behavior after authoritatively restoring  the krbtg account on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2-based Domain Controllers.