Active directory clock Sync

[Guest]

Hi,
We have recently migrated to the AD environment. The company i work for is
into software development. AD by default synchronizes the entire domain time.
If there is a time difference of more than 5 minutes, the DC does not allow a
user to login. Being a software development company, the clock time is often
changed by the developers on the servers/desktops forward or backward by a
few months or years to test the software. This obviously does not go well as
AD requires a host to be in sync with the domain. The problem is that we have
to have AD allow a variation in time and still allow a user to login. Is
there a workaround or alternative to this issue ? The AD environment is
currently in mixed mode.
Thanks.

 

[Joe Richards [MVP]]

Test lab and virtual environments. You do not want to mess with time in your
production environment.

joe

 

[Fran]

. Is there a workaround or alternative to this issue ? The AD environment is

currently in mixed mode.

I recommend investing in VMWare or VirtualPC. It does a bunch of
things from a development environment:
1) You can create computers on your existing workstation and/or
server
2) Since the VM software separates the hardware from the OS you can
transport files from one PC to another, copy them, make backups, etc.
3) You have the ultimate flexibility for testing: If you screw up
one VM system you simply delete it and copy your "master" file over
and you have a new Virtual computer.
(if you're using VMWare 5.x you can create "snapshots" of your
current status so if things go really nuts you can pick up where you
left off without having to recreate all those steps that got you to
where you were at the time of the snapshot.)

We use this in our test systems all the time. Best money we spent!

-Fran-