Introductions are in order

My name is Ryan Sizemore, and I am a Software Engineer on the Active Directory team. Some of you may recognize me as the owner of the Windows Time Service blog. In that blog, I tried to shed light on the mysterious "Windows Time Service" regarding how it works, how to configure it, and how to troubleshoot problems when they occur. I started that blog because I felt that there was a serious lack of material and I was uniquely qualified to help.

Since that time, I have expanded my bag of projects to include AD-related Management Packs and Active Directory Administrative Center. Since I am no longer a developer for the Windows Time Service (yet I still want to contribute information to the topic) and I want to discuss topics in addition to the Windows Time Service, I decided to start a new blog. This blog will focus on the following topics:

• Windows Time Service
• AD-related Management Packs (including the Active Directory MP, the Lightweight Directory Service MP, and possibly other MPs)
• Active Directory Administrative Center
• General WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) development

Well, there is a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started. My first few posts will dive into the Active Directory Management Pack – a topic that has received far less attention that it deserves. I’ve spend the past few years working on the ADMP, and based on user feedback, it sounds like there are a lot of questions out there.

Suggestions?

Have a suggestion for a topic? Just leave a comment at the bottom of this post. I am putting together my first few posts, so if you have an idea, let me know. Remember: This blog is for you, the community, not me. Let me know what you are interested in hearing about (regarding the topics above) and I will try my best to get you the information.

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 16, 2011
  Perhaps there's a script to already do this out there, but is there a way, either by subnet range, reading a text file, or by pulling all workstation/server objects in a given domain, to report back on the current time and time zone setting on each of those hosts?  I am aware of the NET TIME command, but that only shows the current time and not the time zone.

• Anonymous
  November 17, 2011
  If you are only concerned with domain controllers, you should take a look at the w32tm /monitor command. Otherwise, I would suggest writing a script that utilized w32tm and the registry to get the current time and time zone settings.

• Anonymous
  February 18, 2012
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 31, 2012
  Ryan:  I was hoping you could address something I've never understood about Microsoft's W32tm recommendations. With many companies having remote workers who can go long periods of time without connecting via VPN or directly to the network, why doesn't Microsoft make a bigger deal about discussing the "AllSync" option?  Do I misunderstand it's utility as a way to ensure that remote users also stay synchronized with time while disconnected from the domain?  Why wouldn't you want to configure you domain machines (other than DCs) to use AllSync and specify an externally available time server for clients deemed "reliable" -- such as "time.nist.gov" (or leaving it at time.windows.com), for example?