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Mar 8, 2012

Retrieving Terminal Server Configuration Settings Using Powershell

It was quite easy for Windows 2003 TS servers with Win32_TerminalServiceSetting WMI class, there are tons of documents on the Net. It took me some time, however, to find out that MS change the class considerably for Windows 2008.

It's now under a different name space root\cimv2\TerminalServices. It also requires you to specify an authentication flavour before you can gain access.

In short, you get info with below commands (w2k3 and w2k8 respectively):

gwmi Win32_TerminalServiceSetting -computername -namespace root/cimv2/TerminalServices -authentication 6

or

gwmi Win32_TerminalServiceSetting -computername [-namespace root/cimv2]

Feb 23, 2012

Enable LDAP over SSL Using Certificate Generated From A Different Machine

The procedure is pretty simple and well documented in KB 321051, so there is nothing special here. However the tricky part is you have to submit the request from the same DC in order to make LDAPS work because this way ensures you have the private key for the certificate.

In some cases, it could take quite a while to obtain a certificate so you want to submit the request way ahead of time - so long ahead of time that you may not have the hardware yet at the time you have to send the request.

A workaround is to submit the request from another machine - any other machine as long as you make the request right. Once you get the certifiate, install it on the requesting machine, then export it with private key, finally import onto your new DC.

Jan 22, 2012

Attempt to remove glue record on delegated zone crashes DNS console

- Windows 2008 R2
- 2 domains, parent-child
- 2 DNS zones respectively. Child zone delegated from parent zone
- Connect to parent DNS server, wrong IP listed for a name server in delegated zone properties window
- When try to remove or edit it, after confirmation, the MMC freezes

There are a few other people had same issue, seems to be a bug as far as I see it.

Resolution:
- ADSIedit, connect to parent DNS server
- Drill down to the delegated zone node
- In right hand pane, find the name server in question, remove the wrong IP from "dnsRecord(?)" attribute (you have to change the view to be "decimal" to see which entry is the wrong IP.

Update Nov 20, 2012:
Never mind the above, I found a hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2581690 that is exactly for this bug. This KB was published in 2011, I wonder why I didn't find it earlier - I consider myself an expert finding KBs :-). Not to mention why the Microsoft engineer I worked with didn't find this either.