Alexander’s Blog

NetDom is a command-line tool that is built into Windows Server 2008. It is available if you have the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) server role installed. To use NetDom, you must run the NetDom command from an elevated command prompt. To open an elevated command prompt, click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

You can use NetDom to:

- Join a computer that runs Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista to a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0 domain.

- Provide an option to specify the organizational unit (OU) for the computer account.

- Generate a random computer password for an initial Join operation.

- Manage computer accounts for domain member workstations and member servers. Management operations include:

- Add, Remove, Query.

- An option to specify the OU for the computer account.

- An option to move an existing computer account for a member workstation from one domain to another while maintaining the security descriptor on the computer account.

- Establish one-way or two-way trust relationships between domains, including the following kinds of trust relationships:

- From a Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 domain to a Windows NT 4.0 domain.

- From a Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 domain to a Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 domain in another enterprise.

- Between two Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 domains in an enterprise (a shortcut trust).

- The Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server half of an interoperable Kerberos protocol realm.

- Verify or reset the secure channel for the following configurations:

- Member workstations and servers.

- Backup domain controllers (BDCs) in a Windows NT 4.0 domain.

- Specific Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 replicas.

- Manage trust relationships between domains, including the following operations:

- Enumerate trust relationships (direct and indirect).

- View and change some attributes on a trust.

NetDom Commands

Here are the NetDom commands.

Command	Description
Netdom add	Adds a workstation or server account to the domain.
Netdom computername	Manages the primary and alternate names for a computer. This command can safely rename Active Directory domain controllers as well as member servers.
Netdom join	Joins a workstation or member server to a domain. The act of joining a computer to a domain creates an account for the computer on the domain, if it does not already exist.
Netdom move	Moves a workstation or member server to a new domain. The act of moving a computer to a new domain creates an account for the computer on the domain, if it does not already exist.
Netdom query	Queries the domain for information such as membership and trust.
Netdom remove	Removes a workstation or server from the domain.
Netdom movent4bdc	Renames a Windows NT 4.0 backup domain controller to reflect a domain name change. This can assist in Windows NT 4.0 domain renaming efforts.
Netdom renamecomputer	Renames a domain computer and its corresponding domain account. Use this command to rename domain workstations and member servers only. To rename domain controllers, use the netdom computername command.
Netdom reset	Resets the secure connection between a workstation and a domain controller.
Netdom resetpwd	Resets the computer account password for a domain controller.
Netdom trust	Establishes, verifies, or resets a trust relationship between domains.
Netdom verify	Verifies the secure connection between a workstation and a domain controller.

Microsoft has listed lots of examples on TechNet here. Here are some of them.

NetDom Examples

NOTE: The following examples apply to at least Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1 and Windows Server 2003 with SP2.

Example 1: Add a Workstation or Member Server to a Windows NT 4.0 Domain

To add the workstation mywksta to the Windows NT 4.0 domainreskita, type the following at the command line:

netdom add /d:reskita mywksta /ud:mydomain\admin /pd:password

Example 2: Add a Workstation or Member Server to a Windows Server 2003 Domain

To add the workstation mywksta to the Windows Server 2003 domain devgroup.example.com in the organizational unit (OU) Dsys/workstations, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom add/d:devgroup.example.com mywksta /OU:OU=Dsys,OU=Workstations,DC=microsoft,DC=com

Note

• If the /ou parameter is not specified, the account is created in the Computers container.

Example 3: Move a Windows NT 4.0 BDC to a new domain

To join myBDC to the Windows NT 4.0 domain reskita type the following at the command prompt:

netdom mybdc moveNT4BDC /domain:reskita

Example 4: Add an alternate name for a Windows Server 2003 domain controller

To give an alternate name for the domain controller DC in the example.com domain, use the following syntax:

netdom computername dc /add:altDC.example.com

A name must first exist as an alternate before it can be made the primary name of a computer.

Example 5: Rename a domain controller in a Windows Server 2003 domain

To rename the domain controller DC to altDC in the example.com domain use the following syntax:

netdom computername dc /makeprimary:altdc.example.com

To rename a member server you must choose one of the existing alternate names for the computer and make it the new primary name.

Example 6: Rename a Member Server

To rename the member server member to member1, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom renamecomputer member /newname:member1.example.com /userd:administrator

Example 7: Join a Workstation or Member Server to a Domain

To join mywksta to the devgroup.example.com domain in the Dsys/workstations organizational unit, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom join /d:devgroup.example.com mywksta /OU:OU=Dsys,OU=Workstations,DC=microsoft,DC=com

Besides adding the computer account to the domain, the workstation is modified to contain the appropriate shared secret to complete the join operation.

Example 8: Remove a Workstation or Member Server from a Domain

To remove mywksta from the mydomain domain and make the workstation a part of a workgroup, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom remove /d:mydomain mywksta /ud:mydomain\admin /pd:password

Example 9: Move a Workstation or Member Server from One Domain to Another

To move mywksta from its current domain into the mydomain domain, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom move /d:mydomain mywksta /ud:mydomain\admin /pd:password

If the destination is a Windows 2000 domain, the Security ID history (SIDHistory) for the workstation is updated, retaining the security permissions that the computer account had previously.

Example 10: Reset the secure channel for a workstation, member server, or Windows NT 4.0 BDC

To reset the secure channel secret maintained between mywksta and devgroup.example.com (regardless of OU), type the following at the command prompt:

netdom reset /d:devgroup.example.com mywksta

To reset the secure channel between the Windows NT 4.0 PDC for Northamerica and the backup domain controller NABDC, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom reset /d:Northamerica NABDC

Example 11: Force a Secure Channel Session Between a Member and a Specific Domain Controller

Members often establish secure channel sessions with non-local domain controllers. To force a secure channel session between a member and a specific domain controller by using the /server parameter with the reset operation, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom reset /d:devgroup.example.com mywksta /Server:mylocalbdc

Example 12: Verify a Workstation or Member Server Secure Channel

To verify the secure channel secret is maintained between mywksta and devgroup.example.com, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom verify /d:devgroup.example.com mywksta

Example 13: Establish a One-Way Trust Relationship

When used with the trust operation, the /d:Domain parameter always refers to the trusted domain.

To set the Windows NT 4.0 resource domain USA-Chicago to trust the Windows NT 4.0 account domain Northamerica, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom trust /d:Northamerica USA-Chicago /add /Ud:Northamerica\admin /Pd:* /Uo:USA-Chicago\admin /Po:*

Press Enter and the following prompt is displayed:

Password for Northamerica\admin:

Enter the password for Northamerica\admin and press Enter. The following prompt is displayed:

Password for USA-Chicago\admin:

Enter the password for USA-Chicago\admin and press Enter.

The user must have credentials for both domains. The /pd parameter can be used to specify the password for Northamerica\admin and the /po parameter can be used to specify the password for USA-Chicago\admin. If passwords are not provided on the command line, the user is prompted for both.

If you then want to specify a two-way trust, type the following at the command prompt

netdom trust /d:marketing.example.com engineering.example.com /add /twoway /Uo:admin@engineering.example.com /Ud:admin@marketing.example.com:

Example 14: Establish a One-Way Trust Relationship from a Windows Domain to a Non-Windows Kerberos Realm

To establish a one-way trust where Northamerica trusts the non-Windows Kerberos realm ATHENA, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom trust /d:ATHENA Northamerica /add /PT:password /realm

The /d parameter specifies the trusted domain and the /realm parameter indicates that this is a non-Windows Kerberos realm. The order of the domains is not important. Credentials to the Windows 2000 domain can be supplied if needed.

Note

• Verifying a specific trust relationship requires credentials unless the user has domain administrator privileges on both domains.

If you want to set the Kerberos realm ATHENA to trust the Northamerica domain, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom trust /d:Northamerica ATHENA /add

Note

• To make the trust two-way, you can specify the /twoway parameter.

Non-Windows Kerberos trusts are created as non-transitive. If you want to change the trust from ATHENA to Northamerica as transitive, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom trust Northamerica /d:ATHENA /trans:yes

To display the transitive state, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom trust Northamerica /d:ATHENA /trans

The order of the two domains above is not important. Either can be the non-Windows Kerberos domain.

Example 15: Break a One-Way Trust Relationship

To undo the trust that USA-Chicago has for Northamerica, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom trust /d:Northamerica USA-Chicago /remove

Example 16: Break a Two-Way Trust Relationship

To break a two-way trust relationship, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom trust /d:marketing.example.com Engineering.example.com /remove /twoway /Uo:admin@engineering.example.com /Ud:admin@marketing.example.com

Example 17: Verify a Specific Trust Relationship

To verify the one-way trust that USA-Chicago has for Northamerica, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom trust /d:Northamerica USA-Chicago /verify

To verify a two-way trust between the Northamerica and Europe domains, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom trust /d:Northamerica EUROPE /verify /twoway

The /verify parameter checks that the appropriate shared secrets are synchronized between the two items involved in the trust.

Example 18: Reset a Specific Trust Relationship

To reset the secure channel for the one-way trust between Northamerica and USA-Chicago, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom trust /d:Northamerica USA-Chicago /Ud:Northamerica\admin /reset

The /reset parameter synchronizes the appropriate shared secrets if they are not already synchronized.

Example 19: Verify Kerberos Functionality

To verify Kerberos authentication between a workstation and a service located in the domain devgroup.example.com, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom trust /d:devgroup.example.com /verify /KERBEROS

When you use the NetDom trust operation with the /verify /kerberos parameters, it seeks a session ticket for the Kerberos Admin service in the target domain. If successful, you can conclude that all Kerberos operations (for example KDC referrals) are operating correctly between the workstation and the target domain.

Note

• This operation cannot be executed remotely. It must be run on the workstation being tested.

Example 20: View All Workstation Members in a Domain

To list all the workstations in the domain Northamerica, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom query /d:Northamerica WORKSTATION

Example 21: View All Server Members in a Domain

To list all of the servers in Northamerica, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom query /d:Northamerica SERVER

Example 22: View All Domain Controller Members in a Domain

To list all the domain controllers in the domain Northamerica, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom query /d:Northamerica DC

Example 23: View All Organizational Unit Members in a Domain

To list all of the OUs in devgroup.example.com, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom query /d:devgroup.example.com OU

Example 24: List the Primary Domain Controller Member in a Domain

To list the PDC for Northamerica, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom query /d:Northamerica PDC

Example 25: List the Primary Domain Controller Emulator in a Domain

To list the current PDC emulator for devgroup.example.com, type the following at the command prompt:

netdom query /d:devgroup.example.com FSMO

NOTE: There are more examples on TechNet here.

Managing Windows Server 2008 R2 Core edition can be challenging without a GUI. Luckily, CodePlex has come out with Core Configurator 2.0, a free, open source, graphical tool that will let you manage several of your Windows Server 2008 R2 Core edition settings. The previous version was meant to work with Windows Server 2008.

This tool has been written in PowerShell with a reference to Winforms so that a GUI format is displayed. If you haven’t enabled PowerShell on your server core, it will even offer to enable it. Core Configurator tasks include:

• Product Licensing
• Networking Features
• DCPromo Tool
• ISCSI Settings
• Server Roles and Features
• User and Group Permissions
• Share Creation and Deletion
• Dynamic Firewall settings
• Display | Screensaver Settings
• Add & Remove Drivers
• Proxy settings
• Windows Updates (Including WSUS)
• Multipath I/O
• Hyper-V including virtual machine thumbnails
• JoinDomain and Computer rename
• Add/remove programs
• Services
• WinRM
• Complete logging of all commands executed

You can download the tool here.

Microsoft offers several spreadsheets that contain all the settings for group policies. These spreadsheets list the policy settings for computer and user configurations included in the Administrative template files delivered with the Windows operating systems specified. You can configure these policy settings when you edit Group Policy objects (GPOs).

Using column filters, you can filter the information in these spreadsheets by operating system, component, or computer or user configuration. You can also search for information by using text or keywords.

These spreadsheets include the following categories of security policy settings: Account Policies (Password Policy, Account Lockout Policy, and Kerberos Policy), Local Policies (Audit Policy, User Rights Assignment, and Security Options), Event Log, Restricted Groups, System Services, Registry, and File System policy settings. These spreadsheets do not include security settings that exist outside of the Security Settings extension (scecli.dll), such as Wireless Network extension, Public Key Policies, or Software Restriction Policies.

• Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7: This spreadsheet lists the policy settings for computer and user configurations included in the Administrative template files (.admx/.adml) delivered with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. The policy settings included in this spreadsheet cover Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2 and earlier service packs, Windows XP Professional with SP2 and earlier service packs, and Windows 2000 with SP4 and earlier service packs.
• Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1: This spreadsheet lists the policy settings for computer and user configurations included in the Administrative template files (.admx/.adml) delivered with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1). The policy settings included in this spreadsheet cover Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista with SP1, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional with SP2 or earlier service packs, and Windows 2000 with SP4 or earlier service packs.
• Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows Vista: This spreadsheet lists the policy settings for computer and user configurations included in the Administrative template files (.admx/.adml) delivered with Windows Vista with no service packs installed. The policy settings included in this spreadsheet cover Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional with SP2 or earlier service packs, and Windows 2000 with SP4 or earlier service packs.
• Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2: This spreadsheet lists the policy settings for computer and user configurations included in the Administrative template (.adm) files and Security Settings that shipped with Windows Server 2003 with SP2. The policy settings included in this spreadsheet cover Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with SP2 or earlier service packs, Windows XP Professional with SP3 or earlier service packs, and Microsoft Windows 2000 with SP4 or earlier service packs.This spreadsheet includes separate worksheets for each of the .adm files and the security policy settings that shipped in Windows XP SP3, a consolidated worksheet for easy searching, and an Update History worksheet that lists policy settings that have been added since the Windows Server 2003 operating systems were released.

Windows Server 2008 offers new features but also has some limitations that you should be aware of.  Here’s some information that you may find useful.

- Windows Server Backup Tool is not installed by default.

- You can’t backup data to tape cartridges.

- You can’t backup data to a dynamic volume.

- You can’t backup individual files or folders. You can only backup entire volumes.

- You can schedule a backup using wbadmin.exe command line tool.

- Scheduled backups reformat the target drive that hosts the backup files. Therefore, Microsoft recommends that you use a dedicated volume for backup.

- Windows Server 2008 supports backing up data to DVD/CD.

- Backup MMC is not available in WS08 Standard and Core editions. You must use either command line tools or use the snap-in on another computer to backup Standard or Core editions.

- You can use NTbackup.exe tool to mount tapes from previous backup versions but you can’t create new backups on Windows Server 2008 using NTbackup.exe.

File Services Migration Toolkit (FSMT) is yet another free tool from Microsoft—I say “yet another” because I believe sometimes Microsoft doesn’t quite get the credit for providing gazillions of free tools to us. FSMT can be used to migrate data safely and reliably from one file server to another. The following information is posted on Microsoft’s Web site.