Vat of Knowledge

So. You’ve decided you need to use Vista on your domain to create/edit/delete user accounts, and you have Exchange on the network too? Microsoft has finally improved this functionality with Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows Vista and Windows 7.

RSAT

Microsoft finally released it, March 28th, 2008. Not sure why I have not yet seen this, but here it is in all it’s glory. It only took Microsoft 423 days to do it, but they did it. It includes the following tools for Windows 2003 from your Vista workstation:

• Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Tools
• • Active Directory Users & Computers
  • Active Directory Sites & Services
  • Active Diretory Domains & Trusts
  • ADSI Edit
  • Cluster management
• Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) Tools
• Active Directory Certification Authority Tools
• DHCP Server Tools
• DNS Server Tools
• Terminal Services tools
• Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Services Tools
• Group Policy Management Tools
• Network Load Balancing Tools

To download, click this link Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows Vista. After you install the “Windows Update 941314″, you can then install it! Yeah, it’s not as straight forward as you would think. Here’s the article that goes into more detail about installation, http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=941314. In a nutshell, open Add/Remove Programs and Turn Windows features on or off and add the remote administration tools you want to install.

This tool also works to administer Windows Server 2008 networks and servers as well. They also have the same tool for Windows 7 here, Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7

Admin Pack

The following instruction is older and may be outdated. I had previously used this method to work with ADUC and it worked fine. I did, however, copy and register all the Exchange DLL files as seen below, so I’m am not 100% sure if RSAT has Exchange functionality without performing the Exchange System Manager section below.

The admin pack for Windows 2003 can be downloaded here. Once installed, it may be necessary to register the admin pack. If you are seeing “MMC could not create the snap-in” error, then this article is for you:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/930056

Exchange System Manager files

So now you need the ESM files in order to see the Exchange General, Exchange Advanced and other Exchange specific tabs in Active Directory. Since ESM won’t install on Vista, here is what you can do. I’ve written a script that will automate the process for you. It copies over the necessary dll files to your system32 directory and registers the maildsmx.dll file for you as well. You will need to map to your mail server’s c:\ drive to utilize this script:

::Get Exchange tools running from Vista workstation

net use y: /d
net use y: \\mailserver\c$ /user:domain\adminuser adminpassword
copy “y:\program files\Exchsrvr\bin\address.dll” “%windir%\system32″ /y
copy “y:\program files\Exchsrvr\bin\escprint.dll” “%windir%\system32″ /y
copy “y:\program files\Exchsrvr\bin\exchmem.dll” “%windir%\system32″ /y
copy “y:\program files\Exchsrvr\bin\glblname.dll” “%windir%\system32″ /y
copy “y:\program files\Exchsrvr\bin\maildsmx.dll” “%windir%\system32″ /y
copy “y:\program files\Exchsrvr\bin\pttrace.dll” “%windir%\system32″ /y
copy “y:\windows\system32\netui0.dll” “%windir%\system32″ /y
copy “y:\windows\system32\netui1.dll” “%windir%\system32″ /y
copy “y:\windows\system32\netui2.dll” “%windir%\system32″ /y
regsvr32 /s “%windir%\system32\maildsmx.dll”
net use y: /d

This should get you up and running! Please leave a comment if anything was omitted or left out, or if you have any trouble using this method.