Welcome to the 19th installment of “Learn Active Directory Design and Administration in 15 Minutes a Week,” a weekly series aimed at current IT professionals preparing to write the new Windows Active Directory Design and Administration exams (70-219 and 70-217 respectively), as well as newcomers to the field who are trying to get a solid grasp on this new and emerging directory service from Microsoft.
Jason Zandri continues his series with a first look at the Active Directory Domains and Trusts Microsoft Management Console (MMC), an important tool for your Windows domain controller.
This installment is going to take a first look at the Active Directory Domains and Trusts Microsoft Management Console and offer a review of some of the concepts surrounding the tool’s use and functionality.
The Active Directory Domains and Trusts Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is part of the administrative tools that are installed by default on systems that have been configured as domain controllers.
The tool can also be installed on a Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP Professional workstation in order to administer the domain from a console other than the domain controllers themselves by installing and utilizing the proper ADMINPAK administrative tools (Adminpak.msi).
[NOTES FROM THE FIELD] – In order to maintain either a Windows 2000 domain or a Server 2003 domain from a Windows 2000 Professional or an XP Professional workstation, you should download and install the appropriate Adminpak (Adminpak.msi) when the CDROM you need is not available.
Windows 2000 Administration Tools must only be installed on Windows 2000 computer, (Server or Professional) and only used to manage a Windows 2000 Active Directory.
Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools may be installed on either a Windows Server 2003 server or a Windows XP Professional workstation. These tools can manage Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 Active Directories.
Windows .NET Administration Tools cannot be installed on a Windows 2000-based computer.
The Adminpak.msi tools can NOT be installed on any earlier operating system such as NT4.
When you install the Administration Pack, all of the available tools in the Administration Pack are installed by default. You can also opt to install individual, specific Server Administration Tools by using Windows Installer command line switches:
msiexec /i adminpak.msi ADDLOCAL= /qb
TOOLNAME is the name of the Server Administration Tool that you want to install singly.
In order to install the Active Directory Domains and Trusts Microsoft Management Console you would enter:
msiexec /i adminpak.msi ADDLOCAL= FeADTools /qb
This would actually install all three of the Active Directory Tools at once;
- Active Directory Domains and Trusts
- Active Directory Sites and Services
- Active Directory Users and Computers