Set home directories even if it's a hidden share

There exists an issue with DSMOD that prevents you from modifying the -hmdir with a share that has a dollar sign in it. According to the dsmod.exe example:

The special token $username$ (case insensitive) may be used to place the
SAM account name in the value of -webpg, -profile, -hmdir, and
-email parameter.
For example, if the target user DN is
CN=Jane Doe,CN=users,CN=microsoft,CN=com and the SAM account name
attribute is "janed," the -hmdir parameter can have the following
substitution:

-hmdir \users\$username$\home

The value of the -hmdir parameter is modified to the following value:

- hmdir \users\janed\home

This does not work if your home directory is structured like so:

-hmdir \users$\$username$\home

The value returned by DSMOD is actually:

- hmdir \users$\$username$\home as opposed to the proper
\users$\janed\home

To fix this you can use the awesome ADFIND and ADMOD from Joeware.

The command to fix set it correctly would be:

adfind -b "OU=TEST - Trentent,DC=lab,DC=com" -adcsv -f "(&objectClass=user)" samAccountName | admod homeDirectory::\\test\test$\{{samAccountName}} homeDrive::Z:

Go Joe!

AD Script to Link GPO's via the command line

I've modified a script I found online to allow standard batch file passthrough for linking a GPO to a OU.

Usage: cscript.exe linkGPO.vbs "Test GPO" "lab.com" "OU=AD Project,DC=lab,DC=com"

If WScript.Arguments.Count = 3 Then
strGPO = WScript.Arguments.Item(0)
strDomain = WScript.Arguments.Item(1)
strOU = WScript.Arguments.Item(2)
Else
Wscript.Echo "Usage: linkGPO.vbs ""GPO Name"" ""Domain name"" OUs"
Wscript.Echo "Usage: linkGPO.vbs ""Test GPO"" ""lab.com"" ""OU=AD Project,DC=lab,DC=com"""
Wscript.Quit
End If


' This code links a GPO to an OU
' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------
'strGPO = "zCCS IE 7" ' e.g. "Sales GPO"
'strDomain = "lab.com" ' e.g. "rallencorp.com"
'strOU = "OU=Offices,OU=AD Project,DC=lab,DC=com" ' e.g. "ou=Sales,dc=rallencorp,dc=com"
intLinkPos = -1 ' set this to the position the GPO evaluated at
' a value of -1 signifies appending it to the end of the list
' ------ END CONFIGURATION ---------

set objGPM = CreateObject("GPMgmt.GPM")
set objGPMConstants = objGPM.GetConstants( )

' Initialize the Domain object
set objGPMDomain = objGPM.GetDomain(strDomain, "", objGPMConstants.UseAnyDC)

' Find the specified GPO
set objGPMSearchCriteria = objGPM.CreateSearchCriteria
objGPMSearchCriteria.Add objGPMConstants.SearchPropertyGPODisplayName, _
objGPMConstants.SearchOpEquals, cstr(strGPO)
set objGPOList = objGPMDomain.SearchGPOs(objGPMSearchCriteria)
if objGPOList.Count = 0 then
WScript.Echo "Did not find GPO: " & strGPO
WScript.Echo "Exiting."
WScript.Quit
elseif objGPOList.Count > 1 then
WScript.Echo "Found more than one matching GPO. Count: " & _
objGPOList.Count
WScript.Echo "Exiting."
WScript.Quit
else
WScript.Echo "Found GPO: " & objGPOList.Item(1).DisplayName
end if

' Find the specified OU
set objSOM = objGPMDomain.GetSOM(strOU)
if IsNull(objSOM) then
WScript.Echo "Did not find OU: " & strOU
WScript.Echo "Exiting."
WScript.Quit
else
WScript.Echo "Found OU: " & objSOM.Name
end if

on error resume next

set objGPMLink = objSOM.CreateGPOLink( intLinkPos, objGPOList.Item(1) )

if Err.Number <> 0 then
WScript.Echo "There was an error creating the GPO link."
WScript.Echo "Error: " & Err.Description
else
WScript.Echo "Sucessfully linked GPO to OU"
end if

Excel Find Text Formula

=IF(ISNUMBER(FIND("My Documents Folder Redirect",A1)),"Yes","No")

This excel formula searches that the formula (A1) "contains" the text "My Documents Folder Redirect". If it does, it puts Yes in the field it's run in. If not, No.

Cool AD Tools and one liners

Cool tools:
http://www.joeware.net/freetools/

One Liners:
http://www.pcman.net/active-directory-command-line-one-liners

invalid pxe server list format - Altiris

I restarted our Altiris server and our PXE services wouldn't come up. Trying to start them resulted in:

File not found

I then checked the path listed in the service and found that, indeed, our PXE files where not in the location that the service was trying to start them in:

F:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE

The missing files were:

PXEService.exe

PXEmtftp.exe

PXEMgr.exe

PXECfgService.exe

They were located here:

F:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE\MasterImages\UpSrv\51

I don't know why it wasn't looking for them in the longer path, but I copied those files to the directory it wanted (\PXE)

I then attempted to start the services and they all started correctly.

Then I attempted to PXE boot one of my VM's. This failed with an error stating:

"invalid pxe server list format"

Attempting to troubleshoot this, I used procmon and saw that it was downloading bstrap.0 successfully then generating the error. I enabled logging for the PXE Server in Altiris and set the logging level for "Errors". I then restarted all the Altiris services. When I restarted the PXE Server service, I got this error message:

E [11:32:26 05/03] (3480): Enter: SetupDHCP(...)

E [11:32:26 05/03] (3480): SetupDHCP: Auto Detect, configure option 60.

(3480)Failed to load Dll Library.

(3480)Failed to load Dll Library.

(3480)Failed to load Dll Library.

(3480)Failed to load Dll Library.

I then fired up Process Monitor and did a file trace while restarting PXE Server. It informed me it could not find the following files:

I then copied those missing DLL's from the F:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE\MasterImages\UpSrv\51 directory to the F:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE directory and restarted the PXE Server Service.

I then attempted to PXE boot my VM and lo and behold, it worked again.