Working with the Domain Controller Diagnostic Utility - Part 2

Working with the Domain Controller Diagnostic Utility - Part 2 Picture 1 Working with the Domain Controller Diagnostic Utility - Part 1

Part 2 of this series will continue the series on working with the Domain Controller Diagnostic Utility by introducing some additional switches.

In the first part of this article series, I showed you that if you want to diagnose problems with a domain controller, simply enter the DCDIAG command, or you can use any existing switch. suitable for checking specific domain controller attributes. In this second part, we will introduce some more commands, however the number of commands that can be introduced is very large so in this article we will only introduce some typical commands then will introduce about some tests for some specific cases that you can do yourself.

/ C

We mentioned that, just enter the DCDIAG command without any switch, the Domain Controller Diagnostic Utility will perform a full set of tools for your domain controller test. However, there are a number of tests that the Domain Controller Diagnostic Utility is capable of performing, but it does not do so by default.

If you are not really sure what will happen to your domain controller, run the DCDIAG command attached to the / C switch. This will tell DCDIAG that you want to perform a comprehensive set of tests. The Domain Controller Diagnostic Utility will run every test that knows how to run, except for the DCPROMO and RegisterInDNS tests, which are the two tests that we will cover later.

You need to be aware that running a whole set of tests will take a lot of time. If there are tests that you know do not need to run, then you can use the / C switch in conjunction with the / SKIP switch. Then append a colon and the name of the test you want to ignore.

/ F

At the beginning of Part 1, we introduced what can be run with the DCDIAG command when there are no such instructions specified. You can go back for reference in Part 1, the output is obviously quite long. When we create a screen capture, we only run a default set of tests for our domain controller. The output may be much longer if you specify additional tests or if the tests find out there are problems with the domain controller.

In some cases, reading the results obtained from the screen when the tests are done is not practical. DCDIAG can export data faster than your readability. So there is a solution for this case. That is the role of the / F switch. This switch allows you to write test results to a log file. That way, the results can be read comfortably. More importantly, get a permanent copy of the output you want to refer to.

To use the / F switch, simply append a colon and path, the file name of the log file you want to create. For example, if you want to create a log file named TEST.LOG, enter DCDIAG /F:TEST.LOG . It should be noted that when specifying the / F switch, the output will be completely redirected to a log file. This means that the test output does not have to be written to the screen. With some activities involving multiple tests, the server may have problems but the tests will still be performed.

/ FIX

So far, all of the switches that we have introduced are original diagnostic methods. When you use them, they will make DCDIAG run its tests in some way, but DCDIAG only reports test results that cannot fix the problem it can find.

If DCDIAG reports a problem, you need to correct these problems by specifying the / FIX switch. Although this switch is very simple because it does not require you to provide any additional properties, there are quite a few important things to know about how to use it.

Before you can use the / FIX switch, remember what you're doing. You are instructing a utility to automatically make changes to your domain controller, which means that you are groping for Active Directory. The Domain Controller Diagnostic Utility is designed so that when using the / FIX switch, it will only perform the repair and assume that it is safe. However, the act of using this switch involves making changes to the domain controller that makes us remind you to be extremely cautious. This switch is designed for security purposes, but at any time working with complex issues like domain controllers, its evolution is not always the case.

In case that is the case, we recommend that you do not use the / FIX switch when you first use DCDIAG and should instead run your tests, it takes time to evaluate the previous results. when using the / FIX switch. If you decide to use this dangerous switch, we recommend that you make a full backup of the target domain controller before you proceed.

If you're the one who wants to break through, be wary of making a domain controller fix that is installing Windows on a backup computer, then that computer configuration acts as a domain controller. When you're done, wait until the copy creation process is complete, then proceed with your tests. That way you can rebuild Active Directory if something goes wrong with the repair process.

/KIỂM TRA

The last switch we want to show you is / TEST. Until now, most of the command line commands we introduced are about controlling the Domain Controller Diagnostic Utility when running different tests. You can see that the Domain Controller Diagnostic Utility runs a set of default tests, but you can also use either the / C switch or the / SKIP switch to run the corresponding additional tests.

The point that I want to show you so far lies in the assumption that you will run multiple tests. Then the / TEST switch simply specifies the name of the test you want to run. Then just append a colon and the name of the test after this switch.
It should be noted that the / TEST switch cannot be used to run multiple tests. As you can imagine, the / TEST switch cannot be compatible with the / SKIP switch because the two switches are contradictory.

Conclude

In this article, I have introduced some command transitions so that you can use the Domain Controller Diagnostic Utility. In the next part of this series, we will focus on the individual tests that you can perform on your own.