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If you rename your DC by renaming a Domain Controller in the normal way you would rename a computer (using the System > Rename this PC gui), you didn’t do it right and your metadata is likely irreversibly damaged. However, I have seen success in this situation when multiple DC’s exist by demoting a re-promoting the DC. If only a single DC exists I would say its maybe a good idea to follow the below guide as it may get your out of the proverbial but probably not recommended and you may have to rely on backups.  Use the below method carefully to rename your DC in a right way and for a smooth migration Step 1: Getting ready. Open a command prompt. (Windows key+r (run) + cmd) Step 2: Adding an alternate computer name. SYNTAX : netdom computername <currentDC FQDN> / add:<newDCName FQDN> In the command prompt, type (minus quotes) “netdom computername wrongname.domain.local /add:server.domain.local“   This should return with “Added (NAME) as an alte...

I had a set of Windows 2008R2 servers today that were having trouble backing up the system state via Windows Server Backup – they would fail with the error “System writer is not found in the backup”. I scoured the ‘net and talked to colleagues, and all of the resolutions I could find involved re-registering components, re-securing things in the Cryptography Service (prompted by CAPI or CryptSvc errors in the event log), setting ownership on WinSXS folders, etc. I did not have any such errors in my logs to indicate a permissions issue – in fact, I saw no errors at all (usually good – not so much when something is broken!). However, every time I ran “vssadmin list writers”, indeed the system writer was missing. After taking a procmon, I noticed that the last thing that was searched were some setupapi.ev* files in \Windows\Inf: I decided, on a whim, to replace these files with files from another server I had that was working – I stopped the VSS and CryptSvc services (th...

The AD replication PowerShell cmdlets that we’ll look at are available on Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.0 and Windows 8.1. You must install Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for AD DS on non-domain controllers to use these PowerShell cmdlets. 1. Get-ADReplicationFailure The Get-ADReplicationFailure PowerShell cmdlet can be used to check AD replication status for all or specific Active Directory domain controllers. The Get-ADReplicationFailure cmdlet helps you get the information about replication failure for a specified server, site, domain, or Active Directory forest. For example, to get the replication status for a specific domain controller, failure counts, last error, and the replication partner it failed to replicate with, execute the command below: Get-ADReplicationFailure DC1.mydomain.local You can also set the scope to see the replication status for all domain controllers in a specific site. As an example, the below command r...

I was researching how to change the Subnet Mask of a DHCP scope on a Windows 2008 server. It turns out you can’t change the subnet without deleting the scope and recreating it. If there are a lot of customizations to the scope, though, like reservations and scope options, it’s no easy task to delete and recreate the scope. Luckily   I found one page   that explains how to export the scope to a text file, make changes, and then reimport it. The whole process takes only a couple of minutes, and you end up with a deleted and rebuilt scope that has all your customizations intact. Use the below command to export the scope configuration Syntax: C:\>netsh dhcp server \\”Server name” scope “scope subnet” dump>c:\dhcp.txt Example: C:\>netsh dhcp server \\Test01 scope 192.168.1.0 dump>c:\dhcp.txt That creates a text file you can edit to change the Subnet, and whatever else you want changed. Then you have to delete the s...