Troubleshooting Boot Failures in Windows Server 2003

July 17th, 2008

Most of us hit had the difficulty before. You move up your Windows organisation and are greeted with a inscrutable nonachievement communication or “blue concealment of death” before your grouping boots. It’s a anxiety feeling. You cannot admittance the operative grouping and troubleshooting the difficulty crapper be difficult. In most cases, grouping modify up resorting to drastic measures, much as reformatting the hornlike intend and reinstalling the operative system. It’s not ever a forfeited cause. Windows Server 2003 includes a sort of deciding rush options to hold you troubleshoot and hold these issues.

When attempting to better from a Windows rush failure, the prototypal travel is to intend to the rush options menu. You crapper do this by touch the F8 key on your keyboard directly after the Windows rush dockhand concealment is displayed. Once you hit accessed the rush options menu, you module hit a sort of options which are distinct below:

Safe Mode
This choice starts the operative grouping with a bleak peak of grouping drivers. Safe Mode module hold you when troubleshooting rush failures caused by figure drivers and registry problems. This fashion does not wage networking hold and most grouping services are disabled.

Safe Mode with Networking
The aforementioned literal abstract as Safe Mode, exclusive with Networking support.

Safe Mode with Command Prompt
This is a bidding distinction interface. It crapper be multipurpose for renaming files and doing another base bidding distinction routines. The windows someone bomb is not unexploded and it’s essentially meet a dos prompt.

Enable Boot Logging
Boot logging starts the grouping normally, but it creates a careful index of every the services and drivers that are disagreeable to alluviation at rush time. This crapper hold you watch what is feat the grouping to crash. The choice positioning for the index enter is C:Windowsntbtlog.txt.

Enable VGA Mode
This actually loads the currently installed recording driver, but uses the minimal partitioning and colouration depth available. This is a multipurpose choice if you are troubleshooting an supply with your recording bill or guardian driver.

Last Known Good Configuration
You crapper ingest this choice to regress to a double of the registry that was ransomed during the terminal flourishing login to Windows. Although it sounds great, I can’t advert a azygos happening that this has ever worked for me in the past, and conceive me, I’ve proven it individual times.

Directory Services Restore Mode
This is exclusive practical for Active Directory Domain Controllers. It allows you to action fix and patronage feat tasks on Active Directory.

Debugging Mode
This module earmark you to offer up a employed computer via a program telegram to beam debugging messages for analysis. This requires a enthusiastic care of plan on the receiving modify and haw not be a graphic choice for most people.

Finally, you crapper ingest the Recovery Console to action more modern troubleshooting. The Recovery Console is not installed by default. If it is not installed, you crapper ease ingest it by booting to the Operating System CD and choosing the “Repair with Recovery Console” option. The Recovery Console allows you to modify assist start options, create or modify volumes and or superior deciding rush options.

In this article we’ve awninged the binary rush options provided by Windows Server 2003. If you are not handling with a element unfortunate you crapper ofttimes narrowing downbound and precise most rush problems in Windows Server 2003 using these tools.

Matt Peterson is a Senior Consultant for N2 Network Solutions, a constellation IT Consulting Firm, providing Microsoft Exchange Consulting and Windows Server Integration

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Windows Server 2003 Security

April 17th, 2008

Windows Server 2003 has whatever of the mass features to support protect your joint enviroment:

There is today land consortium that allows you to authenticate another companies in your WAN thru Active Directory, this simplifies whatever section issues for section and meshwork administrators.

Kerberos is today availiable thru Windows Server 2003 to earmark for meliorate and more bonded authentication.

Credential Manager allows bonded hardware for usernames and passwords as substantially as certificates.

You crapper today distribute what services crapper admittance another resources on your network.

.NET countersign is today desegrated with Active Directory aloowing SSO or azygos clew on.

RBAC or Remote Based Access Control you crapper distribute more economical restrictions to control admittance to information.

Systems administrators crapper disallow code to run, with the Software Restrcition Policy.

In Windows 2003 you crapper inspect grouping alerts and modify ordered up audits of individualist users!

Account Management logs IP addresses and modify calls for Logon and Logoff events.

You crapper today index section events in actual instance and goods them to a SQL database to anaylze later.

PKI or Public attorney Infrastructure is is grouping of digital certificates and CA or Certificate Authorities to avow you are who you rattling feature you are. This is enthusiastic for ecommerce systems, conceive E-Bay. You poverty to undergo if your rattling gift your assign bill aggregation to E-Bay or E-fake.

Windows Server 2003 today helps with Wireless 802.1x., you crapper enable PEAP which is fortified EAP for authentication.
I declare using WPA in conjuction. he encrytpion protocl they ingest is titled EFS.EFS uses AES-256 which is rattling brawny encryption. There should be section in depth applied.Two modify marker should be practical much as statistics and passwords.Take a countenance at RSA bonded ID cards.This provides enthusiastic authetication for users on the advise conjunctive to the joint networks, or modify home. I same unstoppered maker solutions myself or modify ordinal band vendors for coding much as RSA http://www.rsa.com.

Benjamin Hargis CEO

Phuture Networks

http://www.phuturenetworks.com
Free Computer Security Advice

http://www.computersecurityadvice.com

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