Best practice domain controller windows 2008 r2

Depending on an attacker's preparation, tooling, and skill, modification or even irreparable damage to the AD DS database can be completed in minutes to hours, not days or weeks. What matters isn't how long an attacker has privileged access to Active Directory, but how much the attacker has planned for the moment when privileged access is obtained.

Compromising a domain controller can provide the most expedient path to wide scale propagation of access, or the most direct path to destruction of member servers, workstations, and Active Directory. Because of this, domain controllers should be secured separately and more stringently than the general Windows infrastructure.

This section provides information about physically securing domain controllers, whether the domain controllers are physical or virtual machines, in datacenter locations, branch offices, and even remote locations with only basic infrastructure controls. In datacenters, physical domain controllers should be installed in dedicated secure racks or cages that are separate from the general server population.

When possible, domain controllers should be configured with Trusted Platform Module TPM chips and all volumes in the domain controller servers should be protected via BitLocker Drive Encryption. BitLocker generally adds performance overhead in single-digit percentages, but protects the directory against compromise even if disks are removed from the server. BitLocker can also help protect systems against attacks such as rootkits because the modification of boot files will cause the server to boot into recovery mode so that the original binaries can be loaded.

If you implement virtual domain controllers, you should ensure that domain controllers run on separate physical hosts than other virtual machines in the environment. Even if you use a third-party virtualization platform, consider deploying virtual domain controllers on Hyper-V Server in Windows Server or Windows Server R2, which provides a minimal attack surface and can be managed with the domain controllers it hosts rather than being managed with the rest of the virtualization hosts.

If you implement System Center Virtual Machine Manager SCVMM for management of your virtualization infrastructure, you can delegate administration for the physical hosts on which domain controller virtual machines reside and the domain controllers themselves to authorized administrators.

You should also consider separating the storage of virtual domain controllers to prevent storage administrators from accessing the virtual machine files. If you intend to co-locate virtualized domain controllers with other, less sensitive virtual machines on the same physical virtualization servers hosts , consider implementing a solution which enforces role-based separation of duties, such as Shielded VMs in Hyper-V. This technology provides comprehensive protection against malicious or clueless fabric administrators including virtualization, network, storage and backup administrators.

It leverages physical root of trust with remote attestation and secure VM provisioning, and effectively ensures level of security which is on par with a dedicated physical server. In locations in which multiple servers reside but are not physically secured to the degree that datacenter servers are secured, physical domain controllers should be configured with TPM chips and BitLocker Drive Encryption for all server volumes.

When you select a result in the tile, a preview pane in the tile displays result properties, including an indication of whether the role is compliant with the associated best practice. If a result is not compliant, and you want to know how to resolve the problems described in the result properties, hyperlinks in error and warning result properties open detailed resolution help topics on the Windows Server TechCenter.

BPA scan results are not automatically saved or archived. Running a new scan on a model or submodel overwrites the results of the last scan. Results can be included again at any time. When you exclude results, they are also excluded from view on managed servers. Other administrators cannot see excluded results on managed servers. To exclude results from view in a local Server Manager console only, create a custom query instead of using the Exclude Result command.

The Exclude setting is persistent; results that you exclude remain excluded in future scans of the same model on the same computer, unless they are included again. As in the Best Practices Analyzer tile in Server Manager, you can exclude individual result objects, or you can also exclude a set of results whose fields category, title, and severity, for example are equal to or contain specified values.

For example, you can exclude all Performance results from a set of scan results for a model. In the Best Practices Analyzer tile for the role or server group, right-click a result in the list, and then click Exclude Result. To view excluded results in the GUI, run the built-in Excluded results query. Click Saved Search Queries , and then click Excluded results. After running the Excluded results query, note that the tile subheading text, a description of the results that are displayed in the list, changes to Excluded results.

Only excluded results are displayed in the list. The second section of the command filters the results of the Get-BPAResult cmdlet to retrieve only those scan results for which the value for a result field, represented by Field Name , matches the text in quotation marks.

The final section of the command, following the second pipe character, excludes the results that are filtered by the previous section of the cmdlet.

When you want to view scan results that were excluded, you can include those scan results. The Include setting is persistent; included results remain included in future scans of the same model on the same computer. In the Best Practices Analyzer tile for the role or server group, right-click an excluded result in the Excluded results query list, and then click Include Result. The result is no longer displayed in the list of excluded results.

Clear the query by clicking Clear All to view the included result in the list of all included results. Easy to follow. No jargon. Pictures helped. Didn't match my screen. Incorrect instructions. Too technical. Not enough information. Not enough pictures. Any additional feedback? To do that,. Note — There are no line breaks for the command and I have listed it as above to allow readers to focus on the parameters.

The following table explains the PowerShell arguments and what it will do. Using this can specify whether DNS role need to install with active directory domain controller. This Parameter can use to define the active directory site name. Using this parameter can define the active directory replication source. By default, it will use any available domain controller. But if need we can be specific.

This parameter will use to define the folder path to store active directory database file Ntds. This parameter will force command to execute by ignoring the warning. It is typical for the system to pass the warning about best practices and recommendations.

Once execute the command it will ask for SafeModeAdministrator Password. Please use a complex password to proceed. This will be used for DSRM. Now we have the new domain controller. In the preceding command, DC22 is the domain controller running Windows Server Before we upgrade forest and domain functional levels, first we need to decommission the old DC which is running with windows server R2. On the next page, type a new password for the local administrator account.

After you demote your last domain controller running with windows server R2, we can raise Domain and Forest Functional level to windows server Windows server is the same. To upgrade the domain functional level, we can use the following PowerShell command in the Windows server domain controller. Although the migration is complete, we still need to verify whether it's completed successfully.

The following command will show the current domain functional level of the domain after the migration:. The following command will show the current forest functional level of the domain after migration:. The following screenshot shows events and in the Directory Service log, which verify the forest and domain functional level updates:.

We can use the following command to verify the list of domain controllers and make sure that the old domain controller is gone:. This marks the end of this blog post. You must be a registered user to add a comment. If you've already registered, sign in. Otherwise, register and sign in. Products 72 Special Topics 41 Video Hub Most Active Hubs Microsoft Teams.

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