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The Historical Answer

With Windows NT, prior to the advent of Active Directory, there was one Primary Domain Controller (DC) per domain, and every other DC was a Backup.

The Modern Answer

When Active Directory was introduced with Windows 2000, domain controllers became fully multi-master. There is no primary domain controller. However, there are two caveats that may confuse you.

FSMO Operations Masters

Though Active Directory is multi-master, certain operations must take place in a way that ensure consistency across the domain controllers. For this reason, one DC will be designated as the Operations Master for each role. This is notthe same thing as a Primary Domain Controller, because there are currently 5 master roles, and a different DC could hold each role. To view the current Operations Masters, run the following at a Windows command prompt: NetDOM /query FSMO In Powershell, you have to run two commands: Get-ADDomain | Select-Object InfrastructureMaster, RIDMaster, PDCEmulator Get-ADForest | Select-Object DomainNamingMaster, SchemaMasterReferences:

Assumption: You have SELinux Enforcing on your database server. If you’re still solving problems by permanently setting SELinux to Permissive, I don’t think you can really call yourself an IT professional. Here are the commands to set the SELinux context of all text MySQL log files to var_log_t so that they can be rotated by logrotate:

semanage fcontext -a -t var_log_t "/var/lib/mysql(/.*.log(-[0-9]+(.gz)*)*)+"
restorecon -R -v -F /var/lib/mysql

NOTE: This expression will also match the file /var/lib/mysql/tc.log and change its context, which will prevent MySQL from starting. If your version of MySQL uses tc.log, here is one possibility:

Summary: The Synology DS 1515+ is a capable little NAS with a large feature set, but it has some software reliability issues and limited technical support.

Hardware

The DS1515+ is a compact unit that feels sturdy. It holds five 2.5" or 3.5" drives, and 3.5" drives can be installed without any tools. You will need a Phillips-head screwdriver to install an additional RAM module, but that’s also a very simple process. The fans are also easily replaceable.

On RedHat and CentOS 6 and 7, anacron generates syslog messages that are mangled when they are forwarded by rsyslog. I found the cause and a solution in a comment by Tomas Heinrich on this old Fedora bug. Sadly, that bug was closed instead of getting fixed, probably because Fedora is oriented toward desktop users who are not generally forwarding syslog messages! Syslog uses the following default template for messages: "%TIMESTAMP% %HOSTNAME% %syslogtag:1:32%%msg:::sp-if-no-1st-sp%%msg%" The syslogtag field is truncated to 32 characters, but cronie-anacron includes a lot of data in its tag. The tag gets truncated to 32 characters, resulting in invalid syslog. If you try to send them to Logstash, you’ll get errors like this: {"message":"Nov 4 19:01:01 my-web-03 run-parts(/etc/cron.hourly)[1858 starting 0anacron","@version":"1","@timestamp":"2016-11-05T00:01:01.146Z","port":55456,"type":"syslog","tags":["_grokparsefailure"],"host_ip":"192.168.17.23"} Unfortunately, the problem is with the sending host, not Logstash, so you have to update the rsyslog config on every host that generates anacron messages. I prefer to do this in /etc/rsyslog.d to keep the configs more manageable. Add these two lines, which add a template that has no restriction on the length of the tag field, and activate the template when forwarding: $Template fwd,"%TIMESTAMP% %HOSTNAME% %syslogtag%%msg:::sp-if-no-1st-sp%%msg%" $ActionForwardDefaultTemplate fwd I placed these lines in /etc/rsyslog.d/logstash.conf along with my other Logstash-specific rsyslog configs.

This post documents how to resolve the following error message, which may appear for no particular reason, and flood the Windows event log: Failed to schedule Software Protection service for re-start at 2116-09-14T16:54:27Z. Error Code: 0x80041316. The following steps will resolve the error on Windows Server 2012r2, but based on other links, similar steps should work for Windows 8, 8.1, or Server 2012.

Root Cause

The root cause, in my case, was a corruption in the XML files that control task scheduling for the Software Protection service. I am not sure what caused this error, but it appeared to start after a domain controller was not shut down cleanly. Microsoft’s official documentation reports that another cause may be a mismatch between the permissions used to run the task and the permissions on the files that control the task. However, most people have reported that the problem is caused by corrupted XML files. Also, note that the Microsoft documentation is inaccurate when it states that the task must run as the NETWORK SERVICEaccount. If the task is triggered by an interactive user logon, it should run as accountInteractive.

If you are a Linux or OS X power user, then you’re used to having all the necessary tools built into your OS. When you log into a Windows system (What! No command line?) you may feel lost. These tools and shortcuts will help you be productive on Windows systems.

Windows Shortcuts

• Alt-x is a magic shortcut key on Windows 8 and Server 2012. It pops up a little menu in the lower right corner of the screen which contains just the items that an admin needs. Try it!

Windows Programs

If you want Windows to work a little bit like Linux or OS X, you need to install a few of these free programs. Some are gratis, and some are libre.

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) is a useful tool for auditing the configuration and update status of Windows computers. Most of the time, its reports are useful and easy to understand. However, some of its responses are baffling, and some of its suggested solutions haven’t been updated since Server 2003. Here is my collection of odd MBSA reports, and how to resolve them.

Internet Explorer

MBSA Reports:

The use of Internet Explorer is not restricted for administrators on this server

Solution: Enable IE Enhanced Security Configuration in the Server Manager