Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE--April 4, 2005

Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE, April 4, 2005, —brought to you by the Windows IT Pro Network and the Windows 2000 FAQ site
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FAQs

Commentary
by John Savill, FAQ Editor, [email protected]

In this issue, I show you how to use a command line to set IP address information on a client's NIC. You'll learn how to move users between forests and how to use a script to determine the number of processors in a machine. I also explain how to run the DHCP service on a DC by using an account other than the DC's account, and finally, I tell you how to troubleshoot why the SMS client wasn't deployed to a particular workstation.

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FAQs

Q. How can I use a command line to set IP address information on a client's NIC?

A. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP provide the Netsh utility, which, among its many capabilities, can configure the IP properties of NICs. To set a static IP address, use this format:

netsh interface ip set address local static   

as in the following example:

netsh interface ip set address local static 192.168.1.15255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 1

(Some command lines wrap to two lines here because of space constraints.)To set a client's NIC DNS settings, run this command:

netsh interface ip set dns local static 192.168.1.150primary

To set a client back to DHCP, run these commands:

netsh interface ip set address local source=dhcpnetsh interface ip set dns local source=dhcp

Q. How can I move users between forests?

A. Typically, the Windows 2000 Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT) is the best option for moving users between forests because it can also migrate passwords. If you require more flexibility than ADMT offers, you can use a Microsoft tool called ClonePrincipal (Clonepr), which is designed for interforest user and group copying. (You might already be aware of MoveTree, which is a tool used for intraforest moves only, although it does maintain passwords.)You can download ClonePrincipal at http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/WindowsServ/2003/all/techref/en-us/Default.asp?url=/Resources/Documentation/windowsserv/2003/all/techref/en-us/clonepr.asp . The tool consists of several script files that you can modify and a DLL that contains much of the tool's logic. ClonePrincipal copies user objects to the target forest instead of moving them, so the user object in the original forest is unaffected. ClonePrincipal can copy users from Windows NT 4.0 and Active Directory (AD) sources. It also populates the SIDHistory attribute, which helps maintain access to resources that the original account had, for example to files on a file server.

Q. How can I use a script to determine the number of processors in a machine?

A. You can use a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) script to easily ascertain the number of processors on a machine. To do so, use these VBScript commands in a script file:

Set oShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")Set oEnv = oShell.Environment("SYSTEM")WScript.Echo oEnv("NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS")

Q. How do I run the DHCP service on a domain controller (DC) by using an account other than the DC's account?

A. After you install DHCP on a DC, for security purposes you might want to configure the DHCP service to run under a specific set of credentials other than the DC's computer account. When running on the DC account, the DHCP service could overwrite dynamic records that shouldn't be modified (e.g., the DC's service records), thereby posing a potential security risk. You can reduce this risk by running the DHCP service under alternate credentials, which you configure by running this command:

netsh dhcp server set dnscredentials   

You can use any account with this command; just make sure to set its password to not expire.

Q. How can I determine why the Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) client wasn't deployed to a particular workstation?

A. If the SMS client doesn't install on certain machines, you can determine the cause by performing these steps:

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