John Policelli's Blog

Covering Identity and Access Solutions, Unified Communications, Collaboration, and Infrastructure

Category Archives: Publications

TechNet Magazine Article “AdminSDHolder, Protected Groups and SDPROP” Finally Updated

As I’ve mentioned on my blog before, a TechNet Magazine article that I wrote had some errors in it. When I was informed of these errors, I fixed them and asked the TechNet Magazine team to revise the online version of this article. This was a few weeks after it was published. After several repeated attempts, and several months, the online version of this TechNet Magazine article has been updated.

The link to the article is http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.09.sdadminholder.aspx.

Some additional information on this subject:

Thank you Active Directory Documentation Team Blog

The Active Directory Documentation Team blog has a post on it titled Other places to find good information. The post states:

I want to take the opportunity to thank the people who are out there providing information everyday to people using Active Directory. As I say thank you, I will link to their sites, so our readers can find them easily

I was pleased to see Kurt Hudson included me on this ‘thank you.’

Thanks Kurt :)

Clearing the Air: My TechNet Magazine Article – AdminSDHolder, Protected Groups and SDPROP

As I’ve mentioned on my blog before, a TechNet Magazine article that I wrote had some errors in it. When I was informed of these errors, I fixed them and asked the TechNet Magazine team to revise the online version of this article. This was a few weeks after it was published. However, after repeated attempts, the TechNet Magazine article has not been revised (I sent another request today).

As you may know, I presented at The Experts Conference 2010 a few days back. I came across a recent post on a well known mailing list, where someone that I assume attended my presentation ridiculed me for referencing the TechNet Magazine article. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t a good idea for me to provide a link to the TechNet Magazine article in my TEC presentation when the errors have not been fixed yet.

So, in my effort to clear the air…

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MVP Again for 2010

I found out this morning that I was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) designation for 2010. This is the third year that I have been designated as a Microsoft MVP in the Directory Services expertise. It’s truly humbling!

One of the many perks with the MVP program is the Executive Recognition Letter, which is Microsoft’s way of having MVP’s “expert participation recognized more broadly in the form of a letter from Rich Kaplan, Corporate Vice President of Customer and Partner Advocacy, that outlines the impact of the MVP program and the significance of the MVP Award.”

In previous years, I haven’t shared this letter too much, but I thought I would this time around. The letter is below:

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I’m presenting at The Experts Conference (TEC) 2010 in Los Angeles

I was very happy to hear that I was selected to present at TEC 2010 in Los Angeles.

TEC was previously known as DEC (Directory Experts Conference). The conference has been expanded to include training on Exchange and SharePoint, and effectively renamed to TEC. Here’s a snippet for the TEC 2010 Website:

For the 9th consecutive year, the TEC team will deliver expert-led, 400-level training on vital Microsoft technologies. In addition to its highly-acclaimed training on Microsoft Directory & Identity technologies, TEC 2010 will bring back a full agenda of Exchange training, staging the world’s leading authorities on Microsoft’s powerful messaging platform. And, this year, for the first time ever, we are pleased to introduce an entirely new TEC for SharePoint training conference!

I will be presenting in the Directory & Identity track. My session is called An In-Depth Look at AdminSDHolder, Protects Groups, and SDPROP.

Here is the abstract for my session:

Active Directory includes a number of built-in controls, which collectively provide an additional level of security for members of privileged groups. Even though these controls have been in place since the inaugural release of Active Directory a decade ago, administrators are still impacted by this functionality regularly. In this session, John Policelli will dive into the AdminSDHolder object, Protected Groups, and the Security Descriptor Propagator. Real-world examples, demos, and theory will be used to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how these built-in controls interoperate and how you can use them to further secure members of privileged Active Directory groups.

I’ve attended DEC/TEC for several years, and it has proven invaluable each time. I have yet to find any comparable conferences. For more information on TEC 2010, please go to http://www.theexpertsconference.com/. I hope to see you there!

“Introducing the Active Directory Recycle Bin in Windows Server 2008 R2” Article Published on informIT.com

One powerful feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 is its ability to recover objects from Active Directory, which is very handy in those "Uh oh" moments. John Policelli, author of Active Directory Domain Services 2008 How-To, explains what the Active Directory Recycle Bin does and how to use it.

Read the online article by going to: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1374789

Active Directory and Active Directory Domain Services Port Requirements MS Document Published

Does this sound familiar…you need to determine the port requirements for Active Directory and you find yourself having to refer to multiple KB articles. Well I have found myself in this situation many times, and I am happy to report that Microsoft has published a document that covers all Active Directory components (i.e. Replication, Trusts, GCs, RODCs, DNS, User and Computer Authentication, Group Policy, and Active Directory Web Services). I personally requested this whitepaper from MS, and helped the MS documentation team create it. The document can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd772723(WS.10).aspx.