The first step in the journey to the cloud is to install and configure Azure AD Connect. This will synchronize users in local Active Directory to Azure AD and will allow you to use cloud services like OneDrive For Business, Sharepoint Online, Exchange Online, or Microsoft Teams.

Before installing the service itself, we have to set an alternate UPN suffix as in Azure AD. In Active Directory Domains and Trusts add a new UPN suffix. The suffix should be equal to the custom domain name in Azure AD.

Users synchronizing to Azure AD should have that UPN suffix set:

In the Azure AD panel, select Azure AD Connect and then “Download Azure AD Connect”

Start the installer and select “Customize”

Hit install

Select Password Hash Synchronization and login with your Azure AD global admin

Select Create new AD Account and enter Enterprise Admin credentials. The tool will automatically set the correct permission on the OU without adding Domain Admin rights to the user.

You will notice that a new user named MSOL_xxx has been created.

This is just a warning. We already set the correct UPN suffix.

Deselect the top checkbox and select the OU containing AD Users. Service users should not be synchronized.

Leave everything else on default settings and then hit install.

With the synchronization service you can check what objects have been synced and the last time a sync ran.

In Azure AD the synced user should show up. You can see that the correct UPN has been configured on the user.

If you want to manually start AD Sync, in Windows PowerShell enter this command:

Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta

When synchronizing on-prem users to Azure AD, there is a chance that Exchange attributes like msexchHideFromAddressLists are missing in Active Directory because the Exchange schema has never been updated, since there has never been a local installation of Microsoft Exchange. In that case, you could either extend the AD schema to include Exchange attributes or you could work with Azure AD synchronization rules, which is safer in my opinion.

On the Azure AD server, open Synchronization Rules Editor

Edit the rule “in from AD – User join”. This will disable the rule itself and create a new one. Give the rule a descriptive name and a precedence of 50.

Under Transformations, add a new rule:

Expression msexchHideFromAddressLists IIF(IsPresent([msExchAssistantName]),IIF([msExchAssistantName]=”HideFromGAL”,True,False),NULL) Update

Now, you can set the attribute msExchAssistantName to HideFromGAL on the AD user. This will tell Azure AD Connect to set msexchHideFromAddressLists to true on the cloud side.

Obviously, you could use another attribute to achieve the same goal. Just change the if statement slightly.

IIF(IsPresent([msExchAssistantName]),IIF([msExchAssistantName]=”HideFromGAL”,True,False),NULL)

References:

https://jackstromberg.com/2018/08/how-to-hide-users-from-the-gal-in-office-365-synchronized-from-on-premises/

On old Windows Active Directory environments, you might need to upgrade the Sysvol share from File Replication Service to Distributed File System Replication. This is very easy to do and it should be done asap in your environment.

Unfortunately I do not have screenshots to share with you, but here are the steps:

With dfsrmig /getmigrationstate you can see the status of the migration. Dfsrmig has 4 states starting from 0:

• State 0 – started
• State 1 – prepared
• State 2 – redirected
• State 3 – eliminated

Step 1:

dfsrmig /setglobalstate 0

Wait untill all Domain Controllers have the state “started”. You can check the state with dfsrmig /getmigrationstate. Be very patient as it might take some time to replicate changes particularly if you have Domain Controllers on remote offices.

Step 2:

dfsrmig /setglobalstate 1

Wait until all Domain Controller have the state “prepared”. You can check the state with dfsrmig /getmigrationstate. Once again, be very patient and double check the output.

Step 3:

dfsrmig /setglobalstate 2

Wait until all Domain Controller have the state “redirected”. You can check the state with dfsrmig /getmigrationstate. Be very patient and double-check the output.

Step 3:

dfsrmig /setglobalstate 3

Wait until all Domain Controller have the state “eliminated”. You can check the state with dfsrmig /getmigrationstate. Be very patient and double-check the output.

In addition to the last migration state, make sure the File Replication Service service is disabled on every Domain Controller.

References:

https://www.rebeladmin.com/2015/04/step-by-step-guide-for-upgrading-sysvol-replication-to-dfsr-distributed-file-system-replication/

So last time we created a Master-VHDX on Hyper-V with Windows Server 2019 in order to save space. Today we are installing the first Domain Controller with a fresh domain. Very straight forward stuff.

Before installing Active Directory Directory Services, the computer should have a decent name.

Give it a fixed IP address. Since this is going to be a lab, I am not going to plan the IP design. The Default Gateway does not exist yet. Also, the secondary DNS server will be installed later on a Server Core version.

From Server Manager Add Roles and Features, Select Role-based or feature-based installation

Select the Active Directory Directory Services Role

Everything else can be left on default.

Once the installation is completed, the server can be promoted to a Domain Controller.

Since there is no existing forest, the root domain name must be defined:

Define a new password for the Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM). DSRM allows you to perform an authoritative restore of single or multiple AD objects through ntdsutil (from cmd).

This warning can be safely ignored.

The NetBIOS domain name can be used when logging into a domain computer, for example AJNI\Domainuser. The UserPrincipalName can be also used – domainuser@ajni.it.

The rest can be left to default.

The server will restart, after that the domain will be up and running!

The next blog post will be covering the installation of an additional Domain Controller (the second DNS server 10.10.10.11) with Windows Server 2019 Core Edition.

Stay tuned !