Azure & Active Directory Center

In the previous article we looked at the operations and processes regarding backup and recovery of AD DS information, namely the AD DS database and its objects. In this article we will be looking at the backup options for some of Active Directory’s other modules such as Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS). Your Active Directory monitoring solution should be tracking events for AD CS to ensure the information is backing up successfully.

In Part 2 of this series, we'll discuss backup and recovery options for Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) as a critical component of Active Directory Monitoring. AD DS stores information about the objects on your networks such as user accounts, passwords, user information such as phone numbers, addresses, etc. This information allows users to be authorized on your network to access information. Every organization, large or small, should be backing up this information to restore in the event of any loss of data. This article will cover Windows Backup technologies, tools, and processes for keeping this data intact for restore.

This is a 5-part series discussing how to backup and restore objects for Active Directory modules in Windows Server which is a critical component of Active Directory Monitoring for any organization.

It is always recommended to utilize Active Directory monitoring to help you maintain a healthy authentication and authorization infrastructure. The Windows Time service is a critical component in being able to authenticate users that are using the Kerberos V5 services used by Active Directory. However, some questions usually come up as to how the Windows Time service works and what information should you be looking for when your AD monitoring system finds issues.

In the previous blog article “The Active Directory Time Service – Part 1: AD Monitoring basics of W32time”, we discussed how Network Time Protocol (NTP) and the Windows Time Service work within Active Directory and why they are critical components of Active Directory Monitoring. In this next part, we will learn about how to configure NTP time sync both manually and by using Group Policy. Before we go and make any changes, we need to check the current settings.