Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE--July 18, 2005

Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE, July 18, 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 tell you how to delegate authority for a DNS zone under Windows NT 4.0 and how to use a Group Policy Object (GPO) to set the default logon domain. I also explain how to undo the changes that Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) makes to the Group Policy tab of the Site, Domain, and Organizational Unit (OU) Properties dialog boxes. Finally, I discuss Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) 2.0, and tell you how to lock down the remote procedure call (RPC) ports that Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and later use.

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FAQs

Q. How can I delegate authority for a DNS zone under Windows NT 4.0?

A. Windows 2000 and later DNS interfaces have a simple New Delegation option. However, in some situations you might want to delegate zones under NT 4.0 DNS. For example, I recently had a client running a Windows Server 2003 environment, whose principal DNS server was running on NT 4.0, and we needed to use one of the server's zones for Active Directory (AD). However, because of the company's particular business and technology situation, we couldn't migrate the zone to Windows 2003 yet, which meant that the required service record (SRV RR) and desirable DDNS functionality wouldn't be available. The resolution was to leave the zone under NT 4.0 but delegate the subzones that AD uses to Windows 2003 DNS servers.

Although you can use the NT 4.0 Service Manager application to perform the delegation, it's easier to simply edit the DNS zone file. To do so, perform these steps:

The delegation will now be visible in the NT 4.0 Domain Name Service Manager application, as the figure shows. Clients that use the NT 4.0 server can now resolve the service records required for AD to function. After the zone delegation, you can run the Nslookup command to see how the service records are resolved, as the following example shows.

nslookupDefault Server: nt4mas01.migrate.testAddress: 192.168.2.1> set q=srv> _ldap._tcp.gc._msdcs.migrate.testServer: nt4mas01.migrate.testAddress: 192.168.2.1

Non-authoritative answer:_ldap._tcp.gc._msdcs.migrate.test SRV service location:priority = 0weight = 100port = 3268svr hostname = vpcdc01.migrate.testvpcdc01.migrate.test internet address = 192.168.2.100>Note that the answer is a nonauthoritative answer because it receives the answer from the delegated DNS server.

Q. How can I use a Group Policy Object (GPO) to set the default logon domain?

A. The default domain name is stored in the DefaultDomainName registry value, but no built-in Group Policy setting to control its value. You can easily create a custom .adm file that will let you configure the default domain for computers that have the GPO applied. To do so, save this code as defaultdomain.adm in the C:windowsinf folder.

CATEGORY "Logon Settings"   KEYNAME "SOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon"     POLICY "Default Domain"       PART "Default Domain" EDITTEXT         VALUENAME "DefaultDomainName"       END PART     END POLICY END CATEGORY

You can then add this template to an existing or new GPO's Computer Configuration section. To do so, select Add/Remove Templates. Click Add and select the defaultdomain.adm file. Because this registry subkey isn't in a standard, managed portion of the registry, you won't see it until you select Filtering under the View menu and clear the "Only show policy settings that can be fully managed" check box, as the figure shows.

The new policy will be available under Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Logon Settings, Default Domain. The policy sets the specified domain on computers that receive the policy, as the figure shows. During migrations between domains, this policy saves users from having to select a new domain from the drop-down list.

Q. I installed Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). How can I undo the changes it makes to the Group Policy tab of my Site, Domain, and Organizational Unit (OU) Properties dialog boxes.

A. When you install GPMC, it replaces the Group Policy tab within the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Active Directory Users and Computers and Active Directory Sites and Services snap-ins with a button that starts the GPMC, as the figure shows. You can't direct Group Policy management as you could before you installed GPMC.

If you want to continue to be able to change Group Policy from within the standard MMC snap-ins, perform the following steps. (However, I stress that GPMC is a superior interface, and in Windows Server 2003 Release Candidate 2 (R2) and later, GPMC will be built into the OS.)

These steps change the tab for the Domains Group Policy tab but not for the OU or Site property dialog boxes. To change these, perform the previous steps but change the registry key according to the values shown in the Table shows.

Note that you don't need to delete the old value that GPMC added; you can have both values, and the property dialog box will display two Group Policy tabs--one that points to GPMC and one that has the old built-in Group Policy management functionality.

To add the old-style Group Policy tab, save the following registry file as restoregp.reg and execute it.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMMCNodeTypes\{19195a5b-6da0-11d0-afd3-00c04fd930c9}ExtensionsPropertySheet]"{D70A2BEA-A63E-11D1-A7D4-0000F87571E3}"="Group Policy"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMMCNodeTypes\{bf967aa5-0de6-11d0-a285-00aa003049e2}ExtensionsPropertySheet]"{D70A2BEA-A63E-11D1-A7D4-0000F87571E3}"="Group Policy"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMMCNodeTypes\{bf967ab3-0de6-11d0-a285-00aa003049e2}ExtensionsPropertySheet]"{D70A2BEA-A63E-11D1-A7D4-0000F87571E3}"="Group Policy"

Q. What's Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) 2.0?

A. Microsoft has released the second major version of the MBSA tool, which you can download at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4b4aba06-b5f9-4dad-be9d-7b51ec2e5ac9&DisplayLang=en.MBSA 2.0 is supported on Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000. The tool scans various machine configurations including

MBSA can scan local or remote computers and can simultaneously scan multiple computers, depending on domain membership or IP range. MBSA runs in a friendly, intuitive interface that guides you though its use. The tool connects to Microsoft servers to download information about the latest available fixes, then scans the selected computers to determine whether they comply with company policy. If MBSA finds a problem, it provides information about how to resolve the problem.To run MBSA in command-line mode, use the mbsacli.exe command instead of the standard mbsa.exe command.

Q. How can I lock down the remote procedure call (RPC) ports that Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and later use?

A. Usually the Exchange RPC protocol dynamically assigns a port between 1024 and 65535 for its System Attendant, Information Store, and Name Service Provider Interface (NSPI) services. Opening up such a port range on a firewall isn't desirable, so you can set the three mentioned services to use a specific port by making a registry change on each back-end Exchange server.

To set the System Attendant to a static port, navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesMSExchangeSAParameters registry subkey and set the TCP/IP Port value to the required port. Also under this key, set the TCP/IP NSPI Port to the required static port (different from the TCP/IP Port) for the Exchange Directory NSPI Proxy Interface.

Finally, configure the Information Store static port by setting the TCP/IP Port value to the required port under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesMSExchangeISParametersSystem subkey. Microsoft recommends you use ports in the 5000 to 65535 range for these values.

Additionally, when Microsoft Outlook 2000 and later clients request address book content from the Exchange server, the Exchange DSProxy service initially passes back address book information based on Global Catalog (GC) information for the first query. However, it subsequently refers address book queries to a GC to avoid making the Exchange DSProxy service perform additional tasks.

To avoid having the Outlook clients talk directly to a domain controller (DC) and thus avoid having to open additional firewall ports, you can stop the Exchange server from referring clients to DCs by setting the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesMSExchangeSAParametersNo RFR Service registry subkey value to 1.

It's important to note that turning on the No RFR Service will also cause the Exchange server to authenticate the client, which means that during the entire Outlook client connection no Active Directory (AD) communication is required. Ordinarily, the Exchange server would instruct the Outlook client to authenticate to a DC. You can find more information about these settings in the Microsoft article "Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 static port mappings" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=270836 ).

Here's the registry file you can use to set these values for the test Exchange environment. In our example, we used ports 40000, 40002, and 40004.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesMSExchangeSAParameters]"No RFR Service"=dword:00000001"TCP/IP Port"=dword:00009c40"TCP/IP NSPI Port"=dword:00009c42[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesMSExchangeISParametersSystem]"TCP/IP Port"=dword:00009c44

After you make these configuration changes, you need to restart the Exchange server. Now the only ports that you need to open on the firewall between the clients and the server are ports 135 (the RPC end point mapper) and 40000, 40002, and 40004.

Note that if you're using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 on Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later with Exchange Server 2003, you can use RPC over HTTP functionality, which means you would need to open only port 443 for HTTP Secure (HTTPS) communication.

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