Archive for the ‘Active Directory’ Category

Steps to enable BitLocker on your computer

Posted: September 19, 2010 in Active Directory, System Information, Vista
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Steps to enable BitLocker on your computer:

  1. Click Start Control Panel Security BitLocker Drive Encryption.
  2. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, verify that the proposed action is what you requested, and then click Continue.
  3. From the BitLocker Drive Encryption screen, click Turn On BitLocker on the Windows OS volume. If your TPM is not initialized, you will see the Initialize TPM Security Hardware Wizard. Follow the directions to switch on the TPM and reboot your computer. Once the TPM is initialized, click Turn On BitLocker on the system volume again.
  4. In the Save the recovery password dialog box, you will see the following options:
  • Save the password on a USB drive. Saves the password to a removable drive.
  • Save the password in a folder. Saves the password to a network drive or other location.
  • Print the password. Prints the password.
  1. Choose any of these options to preserve the recovery password.
  2. From the “Encrypt the selected disk volume” dialog box, confirm the Run BitLocker System check box is checked and click Continue.
  3. Confirm you want to reboot the computer by clicking Restart Now. The computer reboots and BitLocker ensures that the computer is BitLocker-compatible and ready for encryption. If it is not, you will see an error message alerting you to the problem before encryption starts.
  4. If it is ready for encryption, the Encryption in Progress status bar is displayed. You can monitor the ongoing completion status of the disk volume encryption by dragging your mouse cursor over the BitLocker Drive Encryption icon in the toolbar at the bottom of your screen.

BitLocker Components

Posted: September 19, 2010 in Active Directory, System Information, Vista
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BitLocker contains four main components: a single Microsoft TPM driver, an API called TPM Base Services (TBS), BitLocker Drive Encryption, and a WMI provider.

Like most hardware, a TPM chip needs a driver to expose its functionality to the operating system and, ultimately, to applications. By including the Microsoft TPM driver within Windows Vista, we gain increased stability and can more easily leverage the TPM’s security features. To use a TPM with BitLocker, you must allow Vista to use the Microsoft driver. The Microsoft driver works with TPM chips that are at version 1.2 or newer.

TPM Base Services (TBS) is an application programming interface (API) that allows applications to access the services provided by a TPM. In this aspect, even though it is part of the Windows operating system, BitLocker is an “application” that uses TBS. The advantage of this architecture is that other applications could also make use of the TPM. After Vista is in the marketplace for a while, I believe we will see other security applications that call on TBS. TBS also allows the TPM to be managed within Windows Vista from the TPM Management Console, instead of forcing users to navigate through endless BIOS screens.

BitLocker Drive Encryption, itself, is the OS component that encrypts and decrypts data on the volume, and uses the TPM to validate the pre-OS boot components. BitLocker has a number of options that can change its default behaviour, many of which are exposed through Group Policy settings.

BitLocker is also totally scriptable and manageable. In addition to Group Policy options, BitLocker and TBS both include Windows Management Interface (WMI) providers. WMI is the Windows implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), so any WBEM console can also be used with BitLocker. More usefully, though, this WMI interface allows BitLocker to be scripted, and Vista includes a scripted utility called manage-bde.wsf, which allows you to configure and control BitLocker from the command line or a batch file, either locally or remotely.

It is also worth noting here, even though we talk about it in more detail later in the chapter, BitLocker integrates with Active Directory Domain Services to store TPM and BitLocker information that can be used for recovery.

Outlook Anywhere

Posted: September 19, 2010 in Active Directory, Exchange Server, Outlook, Server, Server 2003, Server 2008, System Information
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Outlook Anywhere uses the HTTP protocol to encapsulate RPC information for sending

between the Outlook client (version 2003 and 2007) and the Exchange Server 2010 server. For

this service to run properly the RPC over HTTP Proxy service has to be installed on the Client

Access Server. This can be achieved either by adding this as a feature via the Server Manager,

or by entering the following command on a PowerShell Command Prompt:

ServerManagerCmd.exe -i RPC-over-HTTP-proxy

When the RPC over HTTP Proxy is installed use the following steps

to configure Outlook Anywhere:

1. Open the Exchange Management Console;

2. In the navigation pane, expand “Microsoft Exchange On-Premises”;

3. In the navigation pane, expand “Server Configuration”;

4. Click on “Client Access” and select your Client Access Server;

5. In the Actions pane, click on “Enable Outlook Anywhere”.

6. On the Enable Outlook Anywhere page enter the External host name. Make sure that

this name is also available in the certificate you created on the previous Paragraph. Select

the authentication methods used by clients, i.e. Basic Authentication or NTLM authentication.

For now leave these settings on default and click Enable to continue;

7. This will activate the Outlook Anywhere service on this service, and it may take up to 15

minutes before the service is actually useable on the Client Access Server. Click Finish to

close the wizard

Configure a Send Connector to the Internet

Posted: September 19, 2010 in Active Directory, Exchange Server, Server 2003, Server 2008, System Information
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Exchange Server 2010 cannot send out SMTP messages to the Internet by default. To achieve

this you’ll need to create an SMTP connector, which is a connector between one or more

Hub Transport Server and the Internet. Since this information is stored in Active Directory,

all Hub Transport Servers in the organization know of its existence and know how to route

messages via the SMTP connector to the Internet.

To create an SMTP connector to the Internet, follow these steps:

1. Logon to the Exchange Server 2010 server using a domain administrator account, and

open the Exchange Management Console;

2. Expand “Microsoft Exchange On-Premises” and then expand the Organization

Configuration.

3. Click on the Hub Transport, and then click on the “Send Connectors” tab in the middle

pane;

4. In the Actions Pane click on “New Send Connector”;

5. On the Introduction page enter a friendly name, “Internet Connector” for example,

and in the “Select the intended use for this Send connector” drop-down box select the

Internet option. Click Next to continue;

6. On the Address Space page, click on the Add button to add an address space for the

Internet Connector. In the address field enter an asterisk *, leave the cost on default and

click OK. Click Next to continue;

7. On the Network settings page you can select if the Send Connector will use its own

network DNS settings to route E-mail to other organizations, or to use a smart host.

Change this according to your own environment and click Next to continue;

8. On the source server page you can choose multiple source servers for the Send

Connector. You can compare this to Bridgehead Servers in Exchange Server 2003. When

you enter multiple Hub Transport Servers, the Exchange organization will automatically

load balance the SMTP traffic between the Hub Transport Servers. Since we have only

one Hub Transport Server installed we can leave this as default. Click Next to continue;

9. Check the Configuration Summary, and if everything is ok click on New to create the

Send Connector;

10. On the Completion page click Finish.

You have now created a Send Connector that routes messages from the internal Exchange

Server 2010 organization to the Internet.

Email Address Policies

Posted: September 19, 2010 in Active Directory, Exchange Server, Server, Server 2003, Server 2008, System Information
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Exchange recipients clearly need an email address for receiving email. For receiving email

from the Internet, recipients need an email address that corresponds to an accepted domain.

Recipients are either assigned an email address using an Email Address Policy, or it is also

possible to manually assign e-mail addresses to recipients.

To configure Email Address Policies follow these steps:

1. Logon to an Exchange Server 2010 server with domain administrator credentials and

open the Exchange Management Console;

2. Expand the “Microsoft Exchange On-Premises”;

3. Expand the Organization Configuration;

4. Click on Hub Transport in the left pane;

5. In the middle pane there are eight tabs, click on the on labelled E-Mail Address Policies;

6. There will be one default policy that will be applied to all recipients in your organization.

For now the default policy will be changed so that recipients will have the E-mail address

corresponding to your Accepted Domain. Click on New E-mail Address policy to create a

new policy;

7. On the Introduction page enter a new Friendly Name. Click the Browse button to select

a container or Organizational Unit in Active Directory where you want to apply the

filter. Select the Users container. Click Next to continue;

8. On the Conditions page you can select conditions on how the recipients in the container

will be queried, for example on State, Province, Department, Company etc. Do not select

anything for this demonstration, and click Next to continue;

9. On the E-mail Addresses tab click the Add button, the SMTP E-mail Address pop-up

will be shown. Leave the local part default (Use Alias) and select the “Select the accepted

domain for the e-mail address” option and click Browse;

10. Select the Accepted Domain you entered earlier , click OK twice and

click Next to continue;

11. On the Schedule page you have the option to apply the policy immediately or schedule

a deploy during, for example, non-office hours. This is useful when you have to change

thousands of recipients. For now leave it on Immediately and click Next to continue;

12. Review the settings, and if everything is ok then click New to create the policy and apply

it immediately;

13. When finished successfully click the Finish button.

You can check the E-mail address on a recipient through the EMC to confirm your policy

has been correctly applied. Expand the Recipient Configuration in the left pane of the

Exchange Management Console and click on ‘Mailbox’. In the middle pane a list of recipients

should show up, although right after installation only an administrator mailbox should be

visible. Double click on the mailbox and select the E-mail Addresses tab. The Administrator@

yourdomain.com should be the primary SMTP address.

Accepted Domains

Posted: September 19, 2010 in Active Directory, Exchange Server, Server 2008, System Information
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The first thing for Exchange Server 2010 to configure is the accepted domains. In order to

receive SMTP messages from the Internet, an Exchange server has to know what domains

it will be receiving email for, as well as which domains it is responsible for. These are called

‘accepted domains’, and there are three types:

• Authoritative Domain – For this type of domain, the Exchange organization is fully

responsible and there will be no other messaging environment responsible. This

Exchange organization will also generate NDR (Non Delivery Report) messages when

mailboxes are not available.

• Internal Relay Domain – The Exchange organization will receive mail for this type of

domain, but it will relay all messages to an Exchange organization within the company.

• External Relay Domain – And for this type of domain, the Exchange organization will

receive mail, but it will relay all messages to a messaging platform outside the company.

For all three scenarios the MX records for the domain will be pointing to your Exchange

organization, and mail will be initially delivered to your Exchange servers.

Accepted domains are configured on the organization level and, as such, are known by all

Hub Transport Servers. If you are using an Edge Transport Server as well, the accepted

domain information will also be synchronized to the Edge Transport Servers.

To configure accepted domains follow these steps:

1. Logon to an Exchange Server 2010 server with domain administrator credentials and

open the Exchange Management Console;

2. Expand the “Microsoft Exchange On-Premises”;

3. Expand the Organization Configuration;

4. Click on Hub Transport in the left pane;

5. In the middle pane there are eight tabs, click on the Accepted Domains one;

6. One entry will appear, and the name will be the local domain (FQDN) that’s used when

installing the Active Directory. In the Actions pane click on New Accepted Domain;

7. In the New Accepted Domain Wizard enter a (friendly) name and the Accepted Domain

itself, for example yourdomain.com. When entered, select the type of Accepted Domain

in your Exchange Organization. In this example select the “Authoritative Domain”. Click

New to continue;

8. The Accepted Domain will now be created, and you can now click Finish on the Completion

window.

You have just created an accepted domain in your Exchange organization; the Exchange

server will accept messages for this domain, and if no recipients are found a NDR (Non

Delivery Report) will be generated.

Post-setup configuration

Posted: September 19, 2010 in Active Directory, Exchange Server, Server 2003, Server 2008, System Information
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When the installations of both the internal Exchange organization and the Edge Transport

Server are finished, the “post setup” configuration can be started. As in Exchange Server 2007,

there are a couple of additions and changes in the configuration that have to be made to the

Exchange Server 2010 instance before mail can be sent or received from the Internet.

• Enter an Exchange Server 2010 license key.

• Enter accepted domains and setup email address policies.

• Configure a Send Connector to send e-mail to the Internet.

• Configure the Hub Transport Server to accept anonymous SMTP if an Edge Transport

Server is not used.

• Add a Certificate to the Client Access Server role.

• Configure the Client Access Server role.

Installing the Edge Transport Server role

Posted: July 20, 2010 in Active Directory, Exchange Server, Server 2003, Server 2008, System Information
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When all the prerequisite software for the Exchange Server 2010 Edge Transport Server role is

installed, you can move on to the Exchange server itself

1. Logon to the server with local administrator credentials, go to the installation media and

start the setup.exe installation program

2. Once all prerequisite software is installed correctly, the first two options are grayed out

and you can directly select “Install Exchange Server 2010”

3. On the Introduction Page click Next

4. Accept the License Agreement and click Next

5. Select whether or not you want to participate in the Error Reporting Feature and click

Next

6. On the Installation Type page select “Custom Installation” and click Next. If needed you

can select another directory where the Exchange software is installed

7. On the Server Role Selection page select the Edge Transport Server role. Notice that

when you select this role the other roles (Mailbox, Client Access & others) are grayed out

immediately. Click Next to continue.

8. The setup program will now perform a readiness to check to see if your server is capable

of running the Edge Transport Server role. When successfully completed click Install to

continue.

9. The Exchange binaries will now be copied to the local disk, the Management Tools will

be installed and the Edge Transport Server will be installed. This can take quite some

time to finish.

10. When finished you can continue configuring the Edge Transport Server using the

Exchange Management Console.

The Edge Transport Server is now installed, but not yet configured. It is possible to configure

everything, like the Accepted Domains, Send Connectors etc., manually using the Exchange

Management Console. An easier way is to use a synchronization process which synchronizes

information from the Hub Transport Server within the company’s Active Directory and

Exchange organization to the Edge Transport Server in the DMZ. This process is called the

Edge Transport Synchronization, or Edge sync.

How to Install Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services

Posted: July 19, 2010 in Active Directory, Exchange Server, Server 2008, System Information
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The Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS), previously known as Active

Directory Application Mode or ADAM, can be installed using the Windows Server 2008

Server Manager. To install the AD LDS follow these steps:

1. Logon to the server, click the Start button and select the Server Manager.

2. In the Server Manger, click “Roles” and in the action click “Add Roles”.

3. Click Next on the “before you begin” page.

4. On the “select server role” page, select the “Active Directory Lightweight Directory

Services” and click Next.

5. On the Introduction page, click Next.

6. On the Confirmation page, click Install.

7. On the Installation Results page, click Finish.

The Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services role is now installed and the server is

ready for the Edge Server Role.

Types of Recovery from System Failures in Server 2003

Posted: May 23, 2010 in Active Directory, Server, Server 2003, System Information
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Here are some of the new features:

  • Automated System Recovery (ASR). This feature simplifies the restoration of the operating system partition.
  • Goodbye, Emergency Repair Disk. There is no more ERD in Windows Server 2003. The only repair options are the Recovery Console or ASR.
  • Emergency Management Services (EMS). If a server cannot be reached via the network, EMS provides an out-of-band connection to the server via a serial port.
  • Online Crash Analysis. The kernel-mode debugging utilities in Windows Server 2003 can now run on the same machine as the operating system they are monitoring. This permits running a variety of debugging chores at the console.
  • Volume Shadow. Locked files create problems for backup programs. Users get irate when you tell them that you can’t restore a file because it was locked during the backup while they were working from home. The Volume Shadow service takes a snapshot of a locked file so that the backup program can save the snapshot.
  • System Restore. This feature, only present on XP, periodically takes snapshots of the system configuration that you can use as checkpoints for rolling back the system to a previous configuration.
  • Online event tracking. If an application fails or otherwise causes a system error, the system collects information about the failure and sends that information to Microsoft, where it is compiled and analyzed for trends.
  • Shutdown Event Tracker. This “feature,” if you want to call it that, requires that you specify a reason each time you shut down a system. This reason is put in the Event log. If the system crashes, you must specify a reason when the system restarts.
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