With time, your Active Directory (A/D) database can malfunction and become filled with data that you do not need anymore, such as references to users or servers that do not exist anymore. Here are 10 things to know before "de-gunking" your Active Directory.
1: Think simple before anything else
Erratic Active Directory behavior is not always due to a corrupt Active Directory database. For example, not being able to create or remove a domain may be due to the fact that the domain controller hosting the FSMO roles for the domain is down, or even more simple, the user attempting to perform the operation may not have the necessary permissions.
2: Make sure DNS is properly functioning
Active Directory is completely dependent on DNS, so if this server fails, Active Directory begins to have problems too. Indications of a DNS server issue include error messages such as "Domain Not Found", "Server Not Available", or "RPC Server is Unavailable".
3: Know the power and ease of DCDIAG
Windows domain controllers include a command-line utility called DCDIAG. Running this utility performs a number of diagnostic tests on a domain controller, and often times, DCDIAG will help you quickly determine the cause of the problem.
4: Delete extinct metadata correctly
While you can use ADSI Edit to manually remove references to extinct servers, doing so often does more harm than good. With Active Directory being a relational database, removing an entry for an extinct server can orphan other database entries and cause a whole slew of problems. A better approach is to use the NTDSUTIL tool's METADATA CLEANUP option. This TechNet article provides a full set of instructions on the process.
5: ADSI Edit is unforgiving
You can use ADSI Edit to manually create and delete Active Directory entries, however, making a mistake can destroy your entire Active Directory. Therefore, it is important to know when and when not to use it. For example, Exchange 2007 can't be uninstalled until the last public folder has been removed, but a bug prevents you from removing the remaining public folders. ADSI Edit is useful to work around this issue, but take extreme caution in using it for other purposes.
6: Don't use domain controller snapshots
With virtualization being so popular, many organizations have virtualized their domain controller and server virtualization products on the market allow you to create a snapshot of a server. That way, in the event that something goes wrong with the server, you can roll it back to a previous state without having to restore a backup.
While backing up your domain controllers before attempting to repair Active Directory is a good idea, you shouldn't use snapshots. Rolling back to a snapshot of a domain controller can have catastrophic consequences. Active Directory transactions are numbered and rolling back a domain controller causes the numbering sequence to be disrupted. This leads to all sorts of domain synchronization issues.
7: Active Directory is based on the extensible storage engine
Normally, NTDSUTIL is the tool of choice for repairing Active Directory problems. But in the case of severe corruption, NDTSUTIL may not be enough for the problem at hand. In this case, the best option is to restore a backup. If that isn't possible, though, you can try using ESEUTIL.
ESEUTIL is a database maintenance tool for extensible storage engine databases and it can be used to repair structural problems within the database. This technique should only be implemented as a last resort due to the possibility of data loss during the repair process.
8: The difference between authoritative and non-authoritative restore
When you restore the Active Directory database on a domain controller, the restoration is usually non-authoritative, meaning that the restoration process restores the domain controller to the point at which it existed when the backup was made. The domain controller is brought into a current state by the replication process. Other domain controllers replicate any missing entries to the recently restored domain controller.
An authoritative restore does not backfill a restored domain controller using data from other domain controllers. Instead, you are effectively telling Windows that the recently restored domain controller contains the desired data and that you want to remove any subsequent data from the other domain controllers in the organization.
9: Check NTFS permissions
When Active Directory related services fail to start on a domain controller, the problem is often mistaken for database corruption while often, an administrator has recently tried to secure the system volume. Excessive NTFS permissions can actually prevent Active Directory from starting. Microsoft discusses this problem in Knowledgebase Article 258062.
10: Back up your domain controllers
Before performing any major repair or cleanup work on your Active Directory, it is imperative to perform a full system state backup of your domain controllers. Countless knowledgebase articles talk about the importance of backing up a system prior to modifying the registry — and modifying the Active Directory database is much more dangerous than editing the registry. If you make a mistake while editing the registry, you can destroy Windows. If you make a mistake in Active Directory, you can destroy the whole thing which potentially affects every system in your organization. Therefore, the importance of a good backup should never be underestimated.
Guidance for running Elasticsearch on Azure
Elasticsearch is a scalable open source search engine and database that has been gaining popularity among developers building cloud-based systems. When suitably configured, it is capable of ingesting and efficiently querying large volumes of data very rapidly.
It’s reasonably straightforward to build and deploy an Elasticsearch cluster to Azure. You can create a set of Windows or Linux VMs, then download the appropriate Elasticsearch packages to install it on each VM. Alternatively, we published an ARM template you can use with the Azure portal to automate much of the process.
Elasticsearch is highly configurable, but we’ve witnessed many systems where a poor selection of options has led to slow performance. One reason for this is that there are many factors you need to take into account in order to achieve the best throughput and most responsive system, including:
•The cluster topology (client nodes, master nodes and data nodes)
•The structure of each index (the number of shards and replicas to specify)
•The virtual hardware (disk capacity and speed, amount of memory, number of CPUs)
•The allocation of resources on each cluster (disk layout, Java Virtual Machine memory usage, Elasticsearch queues and threads, I/O buffers)
You cannot consider these items in isolation, because the nature of workloads you are running will also have great bearing on the performance of the system. An installation optimized for data ingestion might not be well-tuned for queries, and vice versa. Therefore, you need to balance the requirements of the different operations your system needs to support. For these reasons, we spent considerable time working through a series of configurations, performing numerous tests and analyzing the results.
The purpose was to illustrate how you can design and build an Elasticsearch cluster to meet your own requirements, and to show how you can test and tune performance. This guidance is now available in Azure documentation. We provided a series of documents covering:
•General guidance on Elasticsearch, describing the configuration options available and how you can apply them to a cluster running on Azure
•Specific guidance on deploying, configuring, and testing an Elasticsearch cluster that must support a high level of data ingestion operations
•Guidance and considerations for Elasticsearch systems that must support mixed workloads and/or query-intensive systems
We used Apache JMeter to conduct performance tests and incorporated JUnit tests written using Java. Then we captured the performance data as a set of CSV files and used Excel to graph and analyze the results. We also used Elasticsearch Marvel to monitor systems while the tests were running.
If you'd like to repeat these tasks on your own setup, the documentation provides instructions on how to create your own JMeter test environment and gather performance information from Elasticsearch, in addition to providing scripts to run our JMeter tests.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
4 Ways SQL Server Beats Oracle:
Intelligent Cloud Database: Everything Built In:
-
In-memory across all workloads
-
Scale Performance on the Fly, Without App Downtime
-
Highest performing data warehouse
-
Voted least vulnerable 6 years in a row
-
End-to-end mobile BI on any device
-
In-database Advanced Analytics
Managed Solution’s Team has the experience and expertise to architect SQL database and reporting systems tailored for your environment. Contact us for more information 800-307-0296
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Create a Compelling User Experience
Use Azure for a consistent, cloud-based identity environment creating an unparalleled unified user experience across all devices.
In today’s business communication is immediate and 24/7. Innovation happens overnight and anything is possible. This is where the right technology enters the picture. The advances that are transforming the business world are the same tools that you can use to transform your business. With cloud services and mobile devices, you can quickly adapt to change and expand your business efficiently, without expanding your budget.
PREPARE:
When your business is ready to grow, you can't afford for your technology to hold you back. Quickly equip new employees with the tools that they need without a lengthy deployment process.
ADJUST:
Pay only for what you're actually using in a given month without costly delays or large capital investments when you change capacity.
EXPAND:
Your workers might be wasting time struggling with different experiences across their devices. Standardizing on one platform will improve employee productivity while allowing for broad device choice, be it based on personal preference or job function.
Deploy scalable infrastructure quickly with no maintenance costs:
Azure provides extreme flexibility and enables companies to grow as big as they want to; without being limited by resources. From app development to websites, SQL databases, and content streaming, Azure can be customized for each business. Start focusing on growing their businesses and not what they run on, their SMBs will be given the opportunity to grow.
-
Scale On-Demand Resources To Grow With Demand
-
Produce A Web Application Within Minutes
-
Produce Apps Using A Variety Of Languages
-
Make Global Changes Quickly
-
Built In SQL Database Functionality
-
Easy Automatic Storage And Backups
-
Integrates Deeply With Power BI
-
Microsoft-Managed Dedicated Cache Tiers
Managed Solution’s Team has the experience and expertise to architect Azure solutions tailored for your environment. Call us at 800- 313-2109 or fill out the contact form and someone with get back to you shortly!
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Pay as you Go SQL Server Cloud Products
Unmatched scalability & uptime. As your company grows so do the demands on the database that support core business functions.
Better Performance: Are your applications keeping up with your business? With physical and operational security built in Azure, SQL Database can help you meet the most stringent regulatory compliance.
Intelligent Cloud Database
Industry-first enterprise-class cloud data warehouse that can grow, shrink, and pause in seconds
SQL Data Warehouse independently scales compute and storage, so you pay for query performance only when you need it. Unlike other cloud data warehouses that require hours or days to resize, SQL Data Warehouse lets you grow or shrink compute power in minutes. Take full advantage of storage at cloud scale, and apply query compute based on changing performance needs. When compute is paused, you pay only for storage, leveraging our market-leading on-demand price per terabyte.
Deploy secure infrastructure quickly with no maintenance costs:
SQL Data Warehouse is easy to deploy in seconds.
The service is a fully managed offering which removes you from the hassle of spending time on software updates and maintenance. SQL Data Warehouse has built-in database backups to support self-service restore; the service automatically backs up your data to Azure storage as it snapshots database restore points.
Make sure your apps are keeping up with the speed of your business with SQL Server:
-
Relational Database that Learns and Adapts
-
Scale Performance on the Fly, Without App Downtime
-
Full Enterprise-Cass SQL Server Experience
-
Works Seamlessly with Power BI, Machine Learning, HDInsight, and Data Factory
-
Compute and Storage are Billed Separately
Managed Solution’s Team has the experience and expertise to architect SQL database and reporting systems tailored for your environment. Contact us for more information 800-307-0296
[/vc_column_text][vc_raw_js]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[/vc_raw_js][/vc_column][/vc_row]