Test Layout

I just saw that a colleague Brian Svidergol ( @bsvidergol ) has released a free ebook, named Windows Server 101, about the basics of Windows Server. I've worked with Brian on several projects and he knows his stuff. If you are new to working with Windows Server or want to brush up on the basics, I suggest you check it out: https://t.co/OC4ciZYVE9 (redirect through twitter) https://dl.orangedox.com/onKwZSVjAbbFFzBfs7 (direct link)

Certificate templates for Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) have multiple values related to versioning. In the Certificate Templates console, you can see two versioning attributes: Schema Version - This defines the options available in a Certificate Template. If you search for information about certificate template versions (such as https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725838(v=ws.11).aspx ), the reference to different versions is the schema version. These schema versions are consisten across Windows servers. Version - This number is unique for your AD CS implementation. When you modify the template, this version number is incremented. Byron Web Server template: Schema Version 2, Version 100.3 The version number for your certificate templates is composed of a major version number and a minor version number. In this example: Major version: 100 Minor version: 3 When you make any edit to a certificate template, the minor version number is incremented. Even minor edit

I was wanting to collect some performance information on a Windows 2008 R2 domain controller. One of the things you may not realize is that Windows Server includes some predefined data collector sets for common tasks and generates reports based on the data. Since I was having a performance issue on the DC, I wanted to run the Active Directory Diagnostics data collector set. Built-in data collector sets When I attempted to start the Active Directory Diagnostics data collector set (or any of the other predefined data collector sets), they didn't start. There was no error message or any indication of what the error might be. Ultimately my workaround was to create a new data collector set with the same settings. Fortunately, when you create a new data collector set, one of the options is to create from a list of templates, which includes Active Directory Diagnostics. The new data collector set ran without any issues. Selecting a template for a data collector set