Tag: drsm

Active Directory Domain Services Offline and Defragmentation

by Samuel Mitchell, posted in Microsoft, Windows server

There is a tradition method of taking the Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) offline to perform maintenance on the database is using the Directory Service Restore Mode (DSRM). The steps are listed below:

  1. Log into your Domain Controller (DC)
  2. Open the command prompt
  3. Run the command:

    bcdedit /set safeboot dsrepair

  4. Reboot the DC so the it can enter into safe mode

To exit the safe mode, run the command

bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot

and then reboot for the DC to return to normal mode.

Another method of taking the AD DS offline is by stopping the AD DS service using the services applet (services.msc).

Now to perform defragmentation on the AD DS database is to use the NTDS utility.

Execute the following command at the prompt:

ntdsutil

activate instance ntds

files

compact to c:\

integrity

quit

quit

copy c:\ntds.dit c:\windows\ntds\ntds.dit

del c:\windows\ntds\*.log

Restart the AD DS services.

Restart-Service NTDS

Please note that you don’t have to restart the server after the maintenance of the database.