Posts Tagged ‘Active Directory’

Active Directory Naming and LDAP

Posted: March 4, 2011 in Active Directory, Exchange Server, Server 2003, Server 2008, System Information
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The LDAP is a standardized protocol used by clients to look up information in a directory. An LDAP-aware directory service (such as Active Directory) indexes all the attributes of all the objects stored in the directory and publishes them. LDAP-aware clients can query the server in a wide variety of ways.

 

Every object in Active Directory is an instance of a class defined in the Active Directory

schema. Each class has attributes that ensure unique identification of every object in

the directory. To accomplish this, Active Directory relies on a naming convention that

lets objects be stored logically and accessed by clients by a standardized method. Both

users and applications are affected by the naming conventions that a directory uses. To

locate a network resource, you’ll need to know its name or one of its properties. Active

Directory supports several types of names for the different formats that can access

Active Directory.

 

These names include:

■ Relative Distinguished Names

■ Distinguished Names

■ User Principal Names

■ Canonical Names

 

Review of Active Directory in Server 2008

Posted: January 5, 2011 in Active Directory, Server, Server 2008, System Information
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Active Directory is Microsoft’s implementation of a directory service. A directory service holds information about resources within the domain. Resources are stored as objects and include users, computers, groups, printers, and more.

In Windows Server 2008, five different server roles support Active Directory:

 

>Active Directory Domain Services

>Active Directory Certificate Services

>Active Directory Federation Services

>Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services

>Active Directory Rights Management Services

 

The primary role is Active Directory Domain Services. The other roles add to the capabilities of Active Directory. Objects include users, computers, groups, and more. The Active Directory database is stored only on servers holding the role of domain controllers.

 

A significant benefit of using Active Directory Domain Services is that it enables you as an administrator to manage desktops, network servers, and applications all from a centralized location.

 

Read-Only Domain Controllers in Server 2008

Posted: January 5, 2011 in Active Directory, Server, Server 2008, System Information
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A read-only domain controller (RODC) hosts a read-only copy of the Active Directory database. This is somewhat of an untrue, because changes can be made to the database. However, the changes can come only from other domain controllers, and the entire database isn’t replicated; instead, only a few select objects are replicated.

 

Usually, domain controllers are considered peers where they are all equal (with a few exceptions). Any objects can be added or modified such as adding a user or a user changing their password on any domain controller. These changes are then replicated to other domain controllers. However, with RODCs, changes to the domain controller can come only from other domain controllers. Moreover, the changes are severely restricted to only a few select objects.

 

The huge benefit of the RODC is that credentials of all users and computers in Active Directory are not replicated to the RODC. This significantly improves the security of domain controllers that are placed at remote locations.

 

Network Access Protection In Server 2008

Posted: January 5, 2011 in Active Directory, Server 2008
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Network Access Protection (NAP) is an added feature that can help protect your network

from remote access clients. NAP helps you protect the network from the clients.

Within a local area network (LAN), you can control client computers to ensure they are safe and healthy. You can use Group Policy to ensure that it’s locked down from a security perspective and that it is getting the required updates. Antivirus and spyware software can be pushed out, regularly updated and run on clients. You can run scripts to ensure that all the corporate policies remain in place.

 

However, you can’t control a client accessing your network from a hotel or someone other Place. It’s entirely possible for a virus-ridden computer to connect to your network and cause significant problems. The solution is NAP, which is a set of technologies that can be used to check the health of a client. If the client is healthy, it’s allowed access to the network. If unhealthy, it’s quarantined and allowed access to remediation servers that can be used to bring the client into Compliance with the requirements. Health policies are determined and set by the administrator.

 

In the network you  use Windows Software Update Services (WSUS) to approve and  install the updates on clients. Since the VPN client isn’t in the network, they might not have the required updates. The client would be quarantined, and a WSUS server could be used as a remediation server to push the updates to the client. Once the updates are installed, the client could be rechecked and issued a health certificate and then granted access to the network.

 

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.

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