delegate control wizard:
create a custom task to delegate
active directory object type – only the following objects in the folder: user objects
permissions, clear “general” checkbox, check “property-specific” checkbox
select read lockouttime and write lockouttime
complete wizard

source:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/294952

logo = Set-AdfsWebTheme -TargetName custom -Logo @{path=”c:\theme\script\logo.png”}
illustration = Set-AdfsWebTheme -TargetName custom -Illustration @{path=”c:\theme\illustration\illustration.png”}
sign-in page description = Set-AdfsGlobalWebContent -SignInPageDescriptionText “HTML”
onload.js = Set-AdfsWebTheme -TargetName custom -AdditionalFileResource @{Uri=’/adfs/portal/script/onload.js’;path=”c:\theme\script\onload.js”}

auto-append @mydomain.com or prepend mydomain\:
i used the following code as a great starting point
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/bfde6a72-a522-4d12-907d-3f96577ab3a0/windows-server-2012-r2-adfs-proxy-error-enter-your-user-id-in-the-format-domainuser?forum=Geneva

and

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/d0b2089f-e4be-494c-b488-21493f62bc58/adfs-2012-r2-forms-authentication-default-login-domain?forum=Geneva

i ended up altering this portion:
var lowerUserName = userName.value.toLowerCase();

//If underscore is not present then prepend mydomain\
if(userName.value.indexOf(‘_’) == -1)
{
  userName.value = ‘mydomain\\’ + userName.value;
}

//If underscore is present and @mydomain.com is then append @mydomain.com
if(userName.value.indexOf(‘_’) != -1)
{
  var li = lowerUserName.lastIndexOf(‘@mydomain.com’);
  if (li == -1)
    {
      userName.value = userName.value + ‘@mydomain.com’;
    }
}
return true;
}

also chrome’s built-in javascript console is very helpful for debugging

changing placeholder text:
https://jasonomar.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/customizing-the-placeholder-on-the-adfs-3-0-login-page/
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/2879e51a-5db2-4fad-a2b4-f9ce67f4c021/adfs-30-the-placeholder-text-change-seems-not-working-for-ie89?forum=Geneva

i recently installed windows updates on a domain controller in late march 2015. the updates included KB3002657 which apparently has been causing problems with a lot of NAS devices. the issue we experienced was users getting asked for credentials when trying to access the FS7600 CIFS shares (even though they already had an active kerberos session). when a user entered their AD credentials the credentials would be rejected. the problem was intermittent since only one DC had the updates applied.

klist
setspn -l [dns name]
the above did not list the fs7600, even though it should have

setspn -l fs7600 (assuming “fs7600” is the computer account name)
this returned info…

we then did the following to resolve the issue:
setspn -S HOST/[hostname] fs7600
setspn -S HOST/[FQDN] fs7600
setspn -S nfs/[hostname] fs7600
setspn -S nfs/[FQDN] fs7600
klist

info: http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3002657

also to reboot the fs7600 controllers w/ firmware 3.x:
SSH in
native-FluidFS-CLI
CLI/hardware/NAS-appliances/reboot-controller

update 7/24/2015:
update KB3068457 also creates this issue which affects mac users trying to access NAS shares.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3068457

problem: after successfully renaming a computer that is running sql server, the sql server instance still lists the old computer name. this is especially problematic for logins that are defined as OLD-COMPUTER-NAME\username.

solution:
sp_dropserver [old computer name];
GO
sp_addserver [new computer name], local;
GO

then restart the SQL service or reboot the computer
i also removed the security login with the old computer name listed and then readded it so that it was now listed as NEW-COMPUTER-NAME\username.

source:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143799.aspx

problem: from within one of the uccx desktop apps the logs – “agent logs – state” and “agent logs – call” show as blank. also the desktop app may report “partial service”.

solution: from uccx serviceability restart the cisco desktop recording and statistics service (this is not disruptive)

pre-reqs:
SSL certs on exchange servers
email domain “mycompany.com” added to office365 tenant and on-prem exchange’s accepted domains

error: “subtask checkprereqs execution failed” after running the wizard.
cause: on-prem exchange does not meet the min. update level for the office 365 tenant. in our case it was CU6.
source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2988229

windows nslookup
nslookup -d2 mydomain.com returns extensive DNS info

running in interactive mode:
nslookup
server [DNS server IP]
set type=a (or mx, ns, cname, soa, srv, ptr)

great site for dns health check: http://www.intodns.com

note: NS records should match domain registrar NS records

in windows DNS the command dnscmd /statistics will return useful statistics such as total queries received

windows ping
C:\WINDOWS\system32>ping 192.168.1.10

Pinging 192.168.1.10 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.10: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.10: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.10: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.10: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.10:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 6ms, Average = 3ms

determining max packet size:
ping -f -l 1500 [host]
-f = do not fragment
-l [size] = size of packet
if the response is “Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set” then the packet size is too large for the destination
source: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21086718

display hops/router IP addresses:
ping -i 3 [host]
-i [TTL] = specify TTL value
-n [#] = specify number of ping requests
the various hops can be displayed by manipulating the TTL value
however, it is simpler to retrieve this info from tracert/traceroute

ping loop:
ping -t [host]