This tip is geared towards Windows admins who manage Active Directory servers and end user machines. If you fit into this category, a tool you might find useful is the Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner.

This free tool scans your entire network and diagnoses potential problems or warnings,  mostly as they relate to Active Directory. If any problems are found, you are given links to information on Microsoft’s site which can help you resolve them.

The scan includes:

• Configuration of sites and subnets in Active Directory
• Replication of Active Directory, the file system, and SYSVOL shared folders
• Name resolution by the Domain Name System (DNS)
• Configuration of the network adapters of all domain controllers, DNS servers, and e-mail servers running Microsoft Exchange Server
• Health of the domain controllers
• Configuration of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) for all domain controller

If you have never gone through an AD upgrade on a machine with problems, it isn’t fun. This is a simple tool which can inform you of anything which may be ‘flying under the radar’.