Using the Command Prompt for Active Directory Configuration

One advantage of Active Directory is that you can use the command-line utility to configure Active Directory. Many IT administrators like to use command-line commands to configure and maintain their Active Directory environment. One advantage to using command-line commands is the ability to do multiple changes at once using batch files.

Another advantage to knowing how to manipulate Active Directory using the command prompt is working with Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core. Server Core is an installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 that has no GUI windows. One of the ways to configure Server Core is to use commands in the command prompt window.

Table 7.1 shows you many of the command prompt commands and explains how each command affects Active Directory.