Checklist of Active Directory tasks

• Verify that all domain controllers are communicating with the central monitoring console or collector.
• View and examine all new alerts on each domain controller, resolving them in a timely fashion.
• Resolve alerts indicating the following services are not running: FRS, Net Logon, KDC, W32Time, ISMSERV. MOM reports these as Active Directory Essential Services.
• Resolve alerts indicating SYSVOL is not shared.
• Resolve alerts indicating that the domain controller is not advertising itself.
• Resolve alerts indicating time synchronization problems.
• Resolve all other alerts in order of severity. If alerts are given error, warning, and information status similar to the event log, resolve alerts marked error first.
• Identify a site that has no global catalog server.
• Review the Time Synchronization Report to detect intermittent problems and resolve time-related alerts.
• Review the Authentication Report to help resolve problems generated by computer accounts with expired passwords.
• Review the Duplicate Service Principal Name Report to list all security principals that have a service principal name conflict.
• Review a report of the top alerts generated by the Active Directory monitoring indicators and resolve those items that occur most frequently.
• Review the report that lists all trust relationships in the forest and check for obsolete, unintended, or broken trusts.
• Verify that all domain controllers are running with the same service pack and hot fix patches.
• Review all Active Directory reports and adjust thresholds as needed. Examine each report and determine which reports, data, and alerts are important for your environment and service level agreement.
• Review the Replication Monitoring Report to verify that replication throughout the forest occurs within acceptable limits
• Review the Active Directory response time reports.
• Review the domain controller disk space reports.
• Review all performance related reports. These reports are called Health Monitoring reports in MOM.
• Review all performance related reports for capacity planning purposes to ensure that you have enough capacity for current and expected growth. These reports are called Health Monitoring reports in MOM.
• Adjust performance counter thresholds or disable rules that are not applicable to your environment or that generate irrelevant alerts.
• Identify the global catalog servers in a site.
• Back up Active Directory and associated components.
• Perform a non-authoritative restore.
• Perform an authoritative restore of a subtree or leaf object.
• Perform an authoritative restore of the entire directory.
• Recover a domain controller through reinstallation.
• Restore a domain controller through reinstallation and subsequent restore from backup.
• Prepare for Active Directory Installation.
• Install Active Directory.
• Perform Active Directory post-installation tasks.
• Decommission a domain controller.
• Identify the current configuration of a domain controller.
• Rename a domain controller.
• Restore the original configuration of a domain controller.
• Add the global catalog to a domain controller and verify global catalog readiness.
• Remove the global catalog from a domain controller.
• Designate operations master roles.
• Reduce the workload on a PDC emulator.
• Decommission an operations master role holder.
• Seize operations master roles.
• Choose a standby operations master.
• Relocate directory database files.
• Return unused disk space from the directory database to the file system.
• Speed removal of an expired-tombstone backlog.
• Change the space allocated to the Staging Area folder.
• Relocate the Staging Area folder.
• Move SYSVOL by using the Active Directory Installation Wizard.
• Move SYSVOL manually.
• Update the SYSVOL path.
• Restore and rebuild SYSVOL.
• Configure a time source for the forest.
• Configure a reliable time source on a computer other than the PDC emulator.
• Configure a client to request time from a specific time source.
• Optimize the polling interval.
• Disable the Windows Time Service.
• Prepare a domain controller for long disconnection.
• Reconnect a long-disconnected domain controller.
• Remove lingering objects from an outdated writable domain controller.
• Remove lingering objects from a global catalog server.
• Create an external trust.
• Create a shortcut trust.
• Remove a manually created trust.
• Prevent unauthorized privilege escalation.
• Add a new site.
• Add a subnet to the network.
• Link sites for replication.
• Change site link properties.
• Move a domain controller to a different site.
• Remove a site.