Blog Archives

Understanding DNS in Active Directory

  How Domain Controllers, SRV Records, Kerberos, and NETLOGON Actually Work When most people think of DNS, they think of simple name resolution. A hostname resolves to an IP address, and that is it. In an Active Directory environment, DNS plays a much deeper role. It is not just name resolution. It is service discovery, […]

Configuring a Primary Domain Controller to Use DHCP in a Test Lab

In production environments, domain controllers are almost always configured with static IP addresses. However, in test and lab environments, it is sometimes desirable to allow a primary domain controller to obtain its IP address via DHCP, such as when running inside virtualized lab setups. We will walk through a real troubleshooting scenario where a Windows […]

adsiedit.msc vs dsa.msc: Two Active Directory Tools Every Admin Should Understand

adsiedit.msc vs dsa.msc: Two Active Directory Tools Every Admin Should Understand If you manage Active Directory (AD), you will eventually encounter two long-standing Microsoft management consoles: adsiedit.msc (ADSI Edit) dsa.msc (Active Directory Users and Computers, commonly called ADUC) Although they both interact with the same directory, they serve very different purposes. One is designed for […]