Few questions about W2K management ( Defrag AD - Add, move partition)

[labeo]

Hello,

I need to do some hard things on lots of Domain Controllers.
The size of the NTDS.DIT is growing every year. It is now about 1Go.
It is normal, because there lots of turn over.

1 - I would like to know if it is possible to start W2K offline of AD
automatically. If it is so, I could send a script to defragment the
NTDS.

2 – Is somebody knows how to create or move partition with WHS. I know
that Volume Manager do it well, but it is quite expensive on more than
two hundred DC. (I did not find any exemple on Microsoft Script Center
web site )

Thanks for your help

 

[Herb Martin]

I need to do some hard things on lots of Domain Controllers.

The size of the NTDS.DIT is growing every year. It is now about 1Go.
It is normal, because there lots of turn over.

Actually that is NOT normal. Deleted account space if returned to
the pool of free space and "defragmentation" is "online and automatic."

1 Gig of NTDS.dit is equivalent to about 250,000 users. (Or other
objects but they usually don't amount to the largest portions).

The online degrag does not however "shrink" a database -- but that
is not really an issues unless you add tens of thousands (or more)
users and then delete them and want the space back.

The misnamed "offline defragmentation" procedure will shrink
the database, but it's needed for the normal "add a 100, delete
a 100 users" pattern in a large production system.

1 - I would like to know if it is possible to start W2K offline of AD
automatically. If it is so, I could send a script to defragment the
NTDS.

Not really, since you must boot in Directory Services Restore mode
which doesn't seem to be scriptable.

2 - Is somebody knows how to create or move partition with WHS. I know
that Volume Manager do it well, but it is quite expensive on more than
two hundred DC. (I did not find any exemple on Microsoft Script Center
web site )

How many Users and/or Computers do you have?

1 Gig is quite large for a database in most companies.

 

[labeo]

Actually that is NOT normal. Deleted account space if returned to

the pool of free space and "defragmentation" is "online and automatic."

1 Gig of NTDS.dit is equivalent to about 250,000 users. (Or other
objects but they usually don't amount to the largest portions).

Actually my NTDS.DIT is 1.4Go. When I defragment it I win 380Mo.

Not really, since you must boot in Directory Services Restore mode
which doesn't seem to be scriptable.

I Have found a tool (msconfig for W2k). It allow me to boot the system
in safe mode. Maybe there is a way to change it ?

How many Users and/or Computers do you have?

I have got more than 35000 users in the AD, and the schema has been
changed.
Maybe that's why the NTDS is so big.

 

[Herb Martin]

1 Gig of NTDS.dit is equivalent to about 250,000 users. (Or other

Actually my NTDS.DIT is 1.4Go. When I defragment it I win 380Mo.

I have got more than 35000 users in the AD, and the schema has been
changed.
Maybe that's why the NTDS is so big.

Sounds wrong. Users are the largest objects which are likely to
be in great numbers and you are off by a factor or 10-15.

I would wonder "what is in there"?