Active Administrator 8.6.2 - User Guide

Opening the Diagnostic Console

Opening the Diagnostic Console

The Diagnostic Console opens in a separate window. You can move it aside while you work in Active Administrator.

IMPORTANT: To use the Diagnostic Console, you must set a default printer. Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2022 set the default printer automatically, but you should verify that it is set. NOTE: For assistance, use the Help menu within the console. You also can pause the cursor over items to display helpful tips.

To open the Diagnostic Console

•	Select a managed domain controller, and click . See Managing domain controllers.

-OR-

Select Active Directory Health | Analyze, select a domain controller, and click Diagnose.

Using components

Using components

The components on the Diagnostic Console home page correspond to the elements of the domain controller that is being diagnosed. Components change color to alert you to specific performance problems.

To see an explanation of the performance, hold the cursor over the component to open a tool tip. To see a definition, click the component to open a help box. From the help box, you can open the associated drilldown to view the associated statistics in table and graph format. See Using drilldowns.

Each component has a right-click shortcut menu from where you can open a help box, show the history in a graph, view details (opens the associated drilldown), restore default settings, view metrics, and view properties.

The home page for the selected domain controller displays the following types of components:

•	Network components

•	Dataflow components

•	LSASS components

•	File Replication components

•	AD Store components

•	Active Directory components

•	Operating System components

Network components

Network components

To see a definition, click the component to open a help box. From the help box, you can open a drilldown to view the associated statistics. See Using drilldowns.

 

Table 123. Network components

Network component	Description
Connected Users	The number of clients connected to this server. It does not show users connected to other applications that may be running on this computer; for example, Microsoft® Exchange or SQL Server®. It only shows the users that have established a Microsoft networking connection to the system. This component opens the Network drilldown.
LDAP Client Sessions	The number of LDAP clients that have sessions with this domain controller. This component opens the LDAP drilldown.
Ping Time	The ping time, or average round trip time, from the computer where the Diagnostic Console is running to the connected domain controller. This component opens the Network drilldown.
LDAP Bind Time	The time it took for the last LDAP client to bind to this domain controller. This component opens the LDAP drilldown.
LDAP Search Time	The time taken for a simple LDAP search against the domain controller. The time taken to bind to LDAP is not included in this value, providing a better representation of LDAP search performance.
Theoretical Bandwidth	The level of network traffic graphed against a theoretical maximum bandwidth. The maximum bandwidth is calculated by totaling the capacity of all network devices reported by the operating system. This component opens the Network drilldown.

Dataflow components

Dataflow components

Dataflows illustrate the rate at which data is moving through the system and change their speed and color to alert you to performance issues. You can display a dataflow as a flow and graph.

NOTE: Kerberos is the default authentication mechanism in most Active Directory® forests and is more secure than the older NTLM authentication. NTLM authentications are performed in many scenarios. Primarily, they are performed by programs that use LanMan APIs. However, they may also be performed when Kerberos is unavailable or when Kerberos authentication fails. NOTE: The following dataflow components are not available when running the Diagnostic Console on a server: • LSASS Kilobytes Read • LSASS Kilobytes Written • NTFRS/DFSR Kilobytes Read • NTFRS/DFSR Kilobytes Written

 

Table 124. Dataflow components

Dataflow component	Description
Authentications	The number of Kerberos and NTLM Authentications per second handled by the DC. This component should show activity over time. Prolonged periods of high usage or zero activity should be investigated. The PDC Emulator tends to show higher values for Kerberos authentication than other DCs as many older programs only authenticate with a PDC. Client programs can also ask for NTLM authentication as a preference over Kerberos.
Directory Searches	The number of search operations that have been requested by LDAP clients. This component opens the LDAP drilldown.
Directory Reads	The rate at which clients are reading data from the Active Directory Data Store. Global Catalog servers tend to have higher levels of directory activity than other domain controllers. This component opens the LSASS drilldown.
Directory Writes	The rate at which clients are writing data to the Active Directory Data Store. Global Catalogs tend to see higher levels of directory activity than other domain controllers. This component opens the LSASS drilldown.
DRA Inbound Kbytes	The number of kilobytes per second the server receives through replication. This component opens the Replication drilldown.
DRA Outbound Kbytes	The number of kilobytes per second that the server sends through replication. This component opens the Replication drilldown.
LSASS Kilobytes Read	The number of kilobytes per second that have been read from the Active Directory database by the LSASS process. The LSASS process is the part of Active Directory that is responsible for LDAP requests and for authentication requests. This component opens the LSASS drilldown.
LSASS Kilobytes Written	The number of kilobytes that have been written to the Active Directory database by the LSASS process. The LSASS process is the part of Active Directory that is responsible for LDAP requests and for authentication requests. This component opens the LSASS drilldown.
NTFRS/DFSR Kilobytes Read	The number of kilobytes that have been read from the Active Directory database by the NTFRS or DFSR process (depending on the type of replication service used). The process is the part of Active Directory that is responsible for file replication. This component opens the Activity tab on the Replication drilldown.
NTFRS/DFSR Kilobytes Written	The number of kilobytes that have been written to the Active Directory database by the NTFRS or DFSR process (depending on the type of replication service used). The process is the part of Active Directory responsible for file replication. This component opens the Activity tab on the Replication drilldown.