Applies To: Windows Server 2016. The following new features in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) improve the ability for organizations to secure Active Directory environments and help them migrate to cloud-only deployments and hybrid deployments, where some applications and services are hosted in the cloud and others are hosted on premises. Installing the Active Directory Administration Tools. To manage your directory from an EC2 Windows instance, you need to install the Active Directory Domain Services and Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services Tools on the instance.
The Active Directory snapshots are a point-in-time view of Active Directory from Windows Server 2008, which are created by using the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). In Windows Server 2012 R2 we are going to simply create Active Directory Snapshots using Ntdsutil.exe command. It works the same on Windows Server 2012 and 2016.
How to Create Active Directory Snapshots?
In order to create active directory snapshots using ntdsutil command line tool, you should open the cmd or PowerShell with domain admin privilege. So run the command prompt as administrators.
1. Run the PowerShell as Administrators and type “Ntdsutil” then press enter.
Windows 10 Active Directory Users And Co…
You can get the help by typing “help” command or “?“. It is better to use the help guide when you don’t know the exact structure of a command.
2. Type the “Snapshot” command to enter the snapshot environment.
3. Try to set the specific AD LDS instance as the active instance by typing “Activate Instance ntds” then press enter.
4. Type the List all to check whether the previews snapshots exist. Then create the active directory snapshots by “Create” command. Type “Create” and press enter.
The snapshot created successfully. Now try to mount and see the contents of the snapshot with active directory users and computers console.
Active Directory Management Tools 2016
How to Mount Active Directory Snapshots?
To mount an AD snapshot, use the “Mount” command and following by snapshot order number.
Active Directory Tools Windows 2016
1. From the preview opened PowerShell type “List all” to display the list of all snapshots. Then type “mount 2” and press enter to mount the snapshot with the order number of “2“.
Then Snapshot mounted successfully on drive c:$SNAP_********$. Go to drive C and see the mounted snapshot.
2. Try to connect to the mounted snapshot with the “Dsamain“command.
Note: Currently the Dsamain command is not working with PowerShell, try to run it with Command Prompt.
3. Now open the Active Directory Users and Computers with “dsa.msc” shortcut in Windows Run or open from Server Manager.
4. Right-click the Active Directory Users and Computers then click Change Domain Controller.
5. Select This Domain Controller or AD LDS instance and type the directory server name and port then hit enter and click OK to apply it.
Active Directory Admin Tools Windows Server 2016
6. Finally, you can see and explore all contents of mounted active directory snapshots using AD DS.
When you done the task with mounted snapshot, at the end try to unmount it with “unmount” command.
ntdsutil snapshot activate instance ntds list all unmount 4 unmount 2 list mounted
That’s all. Hope you learn something new about Windows Server 2012 R2.
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Active Directory received three major enhancements with the release of Windows Server 2016. This article will review Privileged Access Management, Azure AD Join, and Microsoft Passport.
Joseph Moody
Joseph Moody is a network admin for a public school system and helps manage 5,500 PCs. He is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in Cloud and Datacenter Management and blogs at DeployHappiness.com.
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Microsoft’s biggest focus for Windows Server 2016 is security. You can see this push across each server role. Hyper-V has shielded VMs, application servers have code integrity, and Active Directory Domain Services has Privileged Access Management.
Layered security is Microsoft’s top priority in Server 2016
However, the updates to Active Directory in Server 2016 are not completely related to security. Two big features stand out in particular. You should expect to hear a lot about Azure Active Directory Join over the next few months (especially if you support small/medium organizations). The second feature of note is Microsoft Passport. Though it is still a bit early to tell, Microsoft Passport has the potential to remove a lot of user frustrations (and IT concerns) with passwords. Enough with the exposition though. Let’s bite into some meat!
Privileged Access Management in Server 2016 ^
Privileged Access Management (PAM) is the Active Directory equivalent of Privileged Access Workstation (PAW). Where PAW focuses on desktop and server resources, PAM targets forest access, security groups, and membership.
Windows Server 2016 Rsat Download
At its core, PAM utilizes Microsoft Identity Manager (MIM) and does require an AD forest functional level of 2012R2+. Microsoft believes that an organization with a business use for PAM is an organization that should assume an already-breached AD environment. Because of this, MIM creates a new AD forest when PAM is configured. This AD forest is isolated for the use of privileged accounts. Because MIM creates it, it is free of any malicious activity.
Configuring AD DS with notes on Azure Active Directory
With this secure forest, MIM can now provide the ability to manage and escalate permission requests. Similar to other permission flow applications, like AGPM, MIM provides workflows for administrative privileges through the use of approval requests. When a user is granted additional administrative privileges, he or she is made a member of shadow security groups in the new trusted forest.
Through the use of an expiring links feature, membership to the sensitive security groups is time-controlled. If a user is allotted an hour of additional permissions, the escalated membership is removed after an hour. This timed permission set is stored as a time-to-live value.
All of this is designed to be transparent to the user. By using a forest trust and secondary secure accounts in the new forest, users can receive these additional permissions without having to log off of their primary machines. The Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) is aware of multiple time-bound group memberships. Users in multiple shadow security groups have their Kerberos ticket lifetime limited to the lowest time-to-live value.
What is Azure Active Directory Join? ^
Azure AD Join is to AD Domain Services as Intune is to SCCM. Azure AD Join is primarily aimed at smaller organizations that do not yet have an Active Directory infrastructure. Microsoft calls these organizations cloud-first/cloud-only organizations.
The core purpose of Azure AD Join is to provide the benefits of an on-premises AD environment without the accompanying complexity. Devices purchased with Windows 10 can be self-provisioned into Azure AD. This allows an organization without full-time IT staff to manage many of its company resources in-house.
Organizations already using Office 365 may benefit the most from Azure AD Join. With a Windows 10 device, a user can use the same account to log on, check email, sync Windows settings, etc. When needed, IT support can configure MDM policies and configure the Windows store for the organization.
One big potential market for Azure AD Join is education. Currently, Google’s Chromebook is a dominant platform. While there isn’t any doubt that a traditional domain-joined mobile device is more customizable than a Chromebook, price and speed aren’t strong points for Windows devices. A very cheap device capable of joining Azure AD with access to a configurable store and Office 365 apps could do a lot to stop the jump to rival platforms.
Microsoft Passport may take the pain out of passwords ^
Credential recycling is one of the top security issues targeting users. I think every administrator knows someone who uses the same password across many services. When an employee uses the same username, such as an email address, exploiting a credential chain becomes much easier. Once you have one credential set, you have them all.
Microsoft Passport aims to change that. By utilizing two-factor authentication, Passport can provide more security than a simple password without the complexity of traditional solutions like physical smart cards. It is designed to be paired with Windows Hello (the built-in biometric sign-in for Windows 10 Pro/Enterprise).
Sign-in options control the PIN setup
Passport’s two-factor authentication is made up of the user’s existing credentials plus a credential specific to the device the user is using (which is linked to the user). Each user on a device has a specific authenticator (called a hello) or a PIN. This provides confirmation that the person entering the credentials is actually the user.
This technology can be deployed in a traditional on-premises AD environment or in Azure AD. In some configurations, you will need a domain controller running Windows Server 2016. By using Microsoft Passport, IT administrators do not have to worry about password recycling as the second authentication method is always required. Excessive password policies (such as longer lengths or shorter expirations) may be modified due to the increased security that Passport provides. An easier logon process can make users quite a bit happier with IT.
Each of these Active Directory improvements targets the ever-widening audience for Windows Server. PAM provides a way to mitigate privilege credential theft in highly secure environments. Azure AD Join provides the benefits of AD to small organizations that lack the funds and infrastructure for an on-premises solution. Finally, Microsoft Passport aims to change the way authentication occurs. By complying with the FIDO alliance, Microsoft Passport can work across a variety of platforms and devices (and hopefully see wide adoption).