no Domain Admin rights to a Domain Server

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I have seen a simlar scenario to this one but the suggestions did not work in
my case. I am the Domain Admin of the servers and the
DomainName\Administrator account has had its rights taken away on a specific
server. I can logon locally to the machine but the rights are that of a
regular user.

Basically, the server belongs to engineering and the person in charge there
has removed access from anyone but himself. He does not have Domain Admin
rights but he was able to take control and remove any rights from anyone
else. Management is looking at this but I have been tasked with gaining
access back.

I tried to implement Group Policy and give back rights to the local admin
group with the restricted Group but this did not work as the server seems to
not have any permissions to run or query Group policy.

Other than formatting the server and re-installing is there a way to gain
access over the server given admin rights on the domain?
 
If the computer is still a member of the domain with proper DNS name
resolution and network connectivity [no interfering software firewall, etc]
then you should be able to gain access again. But if he removed it from the
domain then you no longer have any control over that computer. Also if he
disabled the workstation service then Group Policy would not work. You could
try using nltest to see if the computer still has a secure channel to the
domain controller. If it does not then it probably is not a member of the
domain anymore. The link below on nltest is a little old but I believe the
examples are still correct or you can use nltest /? to see the syntax for
nltest.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/158148/

Assuming it is still a member of the domain you could try using either a
Group Policy "startup" script with the net localgroup command to add domain
admins to the local administrators group as in net localgroup administrators
"domain\domain admins" /add . The problem with that approach is that it
would not take effect until the computer is restarted. The other approach
would be to create an OU with a Group Policy linked to it that had
Restricted Groups configured so that domain admins is a member of
administrators. Then you move that computer account into that OU and wait.
If the computer is not rebooted Restricted Groups will eventually apply but
could take up to two hours if the computer is using the default Group Policy
refresh intervals. See the link below on a good explanation on how to
implement Restricted Groups and I would put one other test computer into the
OU also to see if RG is working or not. You could reboot the test computer
or run gpupdate /force on it to see if RG is working instead of waiting
until the refresh interval. You will need to get the powers that be involved
to put an end to this cat and mouse game. If the computer is not a member of
the domain it needs to be joined to the domain again and the domain admins
group will be automatically added to the local administrators group. If the
user refuses to cooperate see the second link below on how to reset the
local administrator password so that you can gain access assumimg that
syskey type 2/3 has not been enabled.

Steve

http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Using-Restricted-Groups.html
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
 
I just wanted to say thank you Steven. It turns out in the end that creating
a group policy with the settings for the Restricted Users Group worked. I
had tried to reboot the server and to update group policy manually but this
did not work. I had to give it time for the group policy to take effect. In
the end I have been able to regain control of this server for adminstrative
purpose.

Again, thank you.
--
Donald Palmer, MCSE


Steven L Umbach said:
If the computer is still a member of the domain with proper DNS name
resolution and network connectivity [no interfering software firewall, etc]
then you should be able to gain access again. But if he removed it from the
domain then you no longer have any control over that computer. Also if he
disabled the workstation service then Group Policy would not work. You could
try using nltest to see if the computer still has a secure channel to the
domain controller. If it does not then it probably is not a member of the
domain anymore. The link below on nltest is a little old but I believe the
examples are still correct or you can use nltest /? to see the syntax for
nltest.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/158148/

Assuming it is still a member of the domain you could try using either a
Group Policy "startup" script with the net localgroup command to add domain
admins to the local administrators group as in net localgroup administrators
"domain\domain admins" /add . The problem with that approach is that it
would not take effect until the computer is restarted. The other approach
would be to create an OU with a Group Policy linked to it that had
Restricted Groups configured so that domain admins is a member of
administrators. Then you move that computer account into that OU and wait.
If the computer is not rebooted Restricted Groups will eventually apply but
could take up to two hours if the computer is using the default Group Policy
refresh intervals. See the link below on a good explanation on how to
implement Restricted Groups and I would put one other test computer into the
OU also to see if RG is working or not. You could reboot the test computer
or run gpupdate /force on it to see if RG is working instead of waiting
until the refresh interval. You will need to get the powers that be involved
to put an end to this cat and mouse game. If the computer is not a member of
the domain it needs to be joined to the domain again and the domain admins
group will be automatically added to the local administrators group. If the
user refuses to cooperate see the second link below on how to reset the
local administrator password so that you can gain access assumimg that
syskey type 2/3 has not been enabled.

Steve

http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Using-Restricted-Groups.html
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

Donald Palmer said:
I have seen a simlar scenario to this one but the suggestions did not work
in
my case. I am the Domain Admin of the servers and the
DomainName\Administrator account has had its rights taken away on a
specific
server. I can logon locally to the machine but the rights are that of a
regular user.

Basically, the server belongs to engineering and the person in charge
there
has removed access from anyone but himself. He does not have Domain Admin
rights but he was able to take control and remove any rights from anyone
else. Management is looking at this but I have been tasked with gaining
access back.

I tried to implement Group Policy and give back rights to the local admin
group with the restricted Group but this did not work as the server seems
to
not have any permissions to run or query Group policy.

Other than formatting the server and re-installing is there a way to gain
access over the server given admin rights on the domain?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Great. Thanks for reporting back that you were able to what you wanted and
what worked. Glad to help!

Steve


Donald Palmer said:
I just wanted to say thank you Steven. It turns out in the end that
creating
a group policy with the settings for the Restricted Users Group worked. I
had tried to reboot the server and to update group policy manually but
this
did not work. I had to give it time for the group policy to take effect.
In
the end I have been able to regain control of this server for
adminstrative
purpose.

Again, thank you.
--
Donald Palmer, MCSE


Steven L Umbach said:
If the computer is still a member of the domain with proper DNS name
resolution and network connectivity [no interfering software firewall,
etc]
then you should be able to gain access again. But if he removed it from
the
domain then you no longer have any control over that computer. Also if he
disabled the workstation service then Group Policy would not work. You
could
try using nltest to see if the computer still has a secure channel to the
domain controller. If it does not then it probably is not a member of the
domain anymore. The link below on nltest is a little old but I believe
the
examples are still correct or you can use nltest /? to see the syntax for
nltest.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/158148/

Assuming it is still a member of the domain you could try using either a
Group Policy "startup" script with the net localgroup command to add
domain
admins to the local administrators group as in net localgroup
administrators
"domain\domain admins" /add . The problem with that approach is that it
would not take effect until the computer is restarted. The other approach
would be to create an OU with a Group Policy linked to it that had
Restricted Groups configured so that domain admins is a member of
administrators. Then you move that computer account into that OU and
wait.
If the computer is not rebooted Restricted Groups will eventually apply
but
could take up to two hours if the computer is using the default Group
Policy
refresh intervals. See the link below on a good explanation on how to
implement Restricted Groups and I would put one other test computer into
the
OU also to see if RG is working or not. You could reboot the test
computer
or run gpupdate /force on it to see if RG is working instead of waiting
until the refresh interval. You will need to get the powers that be
involved
to put an end to this cat and mouse game. If the computer is not a member
of
the domain it needs to be joined to the domain again and the domain
admins
group will be automatically added to the local administrators group. If
the
user refuses to cooperate see the second link below on how to reset the
local administrator password so that you can gain access assumimg that
syskey type 2/3 has not been enabled.

Steve

http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Using-Restricted-Groups.html
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

Donald Palmer said:
I have seen a simlar scenario to this one but the suggestions did not
work
in
my case. I am the Domain Admin of the servers and the
DomainName\Administrator account has had its rights taken away on a
specific
server. I can logon locally to the machine but the rights are that of
a
regular user.

Basically, the server belongs to engineering and the person in charge
there
has removed access from anyone but himself. He does not have Domain
Admin
rights but he was able to take control and remove any rights from
anyone
else. Management is looking at this but I have been tasked with
gaining
access back.

I tried to implement Group Policy and give back rights to the local
admin
group with the restricted Group but this did not work as the server
seems
to
not have any permissions to run or query Group policy.

Other than formatting the server and re-installing is there a way to
gain
access over the server given admin rights on the domain?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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