First of all, good luck in the new job. I've experienced a similar environment to that (at least on the AD front). You can find out quite a few things about the AD infrastructure with a standard domain account. For example, you can load the adminpak and support tools on an XP workstation. Fire up AD related snap-ins as well as LDP and see what you find out. On the Exchange front, you should at least be able to arrange Exchange View-only Admin permissions. Again, you can get a lot of info that way. Try to build up a picture of the AD and Exchange environments with the access level you have. You can probably get some early wins with your boss as I'm sure you'll find plenty of areas for improvement.
You will probably need to establish as good a relationship as you can with the outsource partner. Perhaps this won't be easy if things are already rocky, but you won't be able to effect any changes without the appropriate levels of access. Also try to get any documentation they have about the infrastructure out of them now, as this will be easier than trying to do it when they've gone. Tony -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kern, Tom Sent: Saturday, 30 July 2005 10:22 a.m. To: [email protected] Subject: [ActiveDir] Advice I'm starting a new job in a week as a AD/Exchange engineer(I posted about my anxieties before on the list). This company used to outsource all their AD/Exchange infrastructure and now they want to take control of it. As it stands, their relationship with the outsourcing firm is rocky. While the DC's and Exchange server are physically in the company, no one has Domain or Enterprise admin rights. And no one, including me, is about to attempt elevation of privilges with all the numerous ways to "hack" a DC when you have physical access. That would be in poor taste. My questions to the list are, if you were coming into such an enviorment, what are the first things you would do and look for? How much as a regular user can you glean of the AD/Exchange enviorment and what would be your first steps? Thanks very much. -------------------------- Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net) List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
