How to prioritize which Domain Controller clients attempt to bind to first.

When a client boots on your network, it needs to bind to a domain controller for authentication and to receive Group Policy. It is always a best practice to have at least DCs per AD site. Both DCs will allow for a client to bind to them. If you want one DC to be preferred over the other, you simply need to change one property in DNS.

On one of your DCs, open the DNS console.

Expand Forward Lookup Zones

Expand <Domain name>. In this case Contoso.com

Expand _Sites

Expand <Site name. In this case Default-First-Site-Name.

Expand _TCP

Double click the resource record of the server that you do not want as the primary domain controller for this site.

Change the priority to something other than zero. Zero is the highest priority. This will tell clients to attempt to bind to the other DC before attempting to bind to this one.

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How to list all the AD LDS instances on a server

AD LDS allows you to provide directory services to applications that are free of the confines of Active Directory. To list all the AD LDS instances on a server, follow this procedure: Log into the server in question Open a command prompt. Type dsdbutil and press Enter Type List Instances and press Enter . You will receive a list of the instance name, both the LDAP and SSL port numbers, the location of the database, and its status.

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Where did a User’s Account Get Locked Out?

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Jason Yoder, MCT

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