Windows Scoping: The Secret Sauce to Squashing Windows Gremlins Faster!

hello everyone. My name is Tagore Nadh and I am a senior technical advisor on the Microsoft Directory Services Support team. In this article, I’ll explain why scoping is important with some good examples.

Common scoping questions:

• What are your goals and why?
• Can you provide a detailed description of the problem?
• What works and what doesn’t?
• When does it happen and when does it not happen?
• Where are problems observed, and where are they not?
• What is the extent of the problem?
• Can you share details about the environment in which the issue occurs?
• What error message do you see?
• How do you quantify the problem?
• How will I be notified of problems?
• What troubleshooting steps have you already taken?
• How does this issue affect my business?
• Can you clarify what you are trying to achieve by solving this problem?

nextMicrosoft support engineers narrow down the issue to the specific component causing the issue.

Scoping example 1:

What are your goals and why?

End users have reported incidents where they are unable to log in using domain credentials to client computers in the Bangalore region.

Can you provide a detailed description of the problem?

Any user on the Bangalore site will not be able to log in to the client computer using domain credentials.

How long has it been since the problem occurred?

from sunday

What has changed?

Network hardware switch upgrade over the weekend

How often does the problem occur?

An ongoing issue is that users are unable to log in to client computers using their domain credentials.

What works and what doesn’t?

Users cannot log in to the domain from client computers in the Bangalore site. / You can log in using your local administrator credentials.

When does it happen and when does it not happen?

From Sunday to Saturday, any user could log in to the client computer using their domain credentials.

Where are problems observed, and where are they not?

Bangalore, India/all other sites are not affected.

What is the extent of the problem?

All users in Bangalore are affected, approximately 300 out of the company’s total of 10,000 users.

Can you share details about the environment in which the issue occurs?

Production environment

• 1 forest/1 domain – Contoso.com
• 10 advertising sites
• The affected site name is Bangalore.
• Client OS: Windows 10 23H2 and Windows 11 23H2
• How many domain controllers are there in that site? 4 Windows 2019 operating system
• Names of DCs: DC1, DC2, DC3, and DC4
• Is DNS Microsoft AD integrated or third party? Microsoft AD integration
• Are your clients pointing to the same site domain controller for DNS? Yes, DC1 is the primary DNS and DC2 is the alternate DNS.
• Do you use DHCP? yes

What error message do you see?

There is no logon server available to process the request.

How do you quantify the problem?

300 users are affected.

How will I be notified of problems?

An end user on the Bangalore site reported this issue.

What troubleshooting steps have you already taken?

• Tried logging in locally on the client machine – it works
• I tried pinging the domain name but it didn’t work and the request timed out.
• Does ping domain controller IP address work? – yes
• Can I access resources using IP? No, you will be prompted for credentials.

How does this issue affect my business?

• The problem is in the production environment.
• 300 users cannot perform the task.
• Because it is the end of the month, loan requests cannot be completed on time and other regular bank financial operations are also affected.
• If your request isn’t processed on time, you could lose $1 million in business.

Can you clarify what you are trying to achieve by solving this problem?

Troubleshoot user logon issues using domain credentials on workstations in the Bangalore site.

solve: These scoping answers helped Microsoft support engineers quickly focus on domain controllers. The E drive was discovered to have an Active Directory database file (NTDS.DIT) residing over network fiber channel on a different network segment through an upgraded network hardware device. A quick reboot of the domain controller resolved the issue by re-establishing the connection to the network drive hosting the Active Directory database files.

memo: It is important to follow the same approach when dealing with multiple subproblems of a main problem. The cause of each problem may be different.

Scoping example 2:

What are your goals and why?

As we work on deploying development servers, we mitigate reported security vulnerabilities for existing and new servers based on Qualys scans. The project deadline is one week away.

Can you provide a detailed description of the problem?

The SSL/TLS vulnerabilities below are detected by Qualys Scan on several newly installed and existing servers.

• SSL certificate is not trusted
• SSL certificate expiration
• SSL certificate signed using a weak hashing algorithm
• SSL certificate with incorrect hostname
• SSL medium strength cipher suite support (SWEET32)

How long has this vulnerability existed?

Over the past 8 months, there has been a vulnerability on 10 of our existing servers, and a vulnerability on our new server for a week.

How often do Qualys scans occur?

The scan runs once a month.

Can you share details about the environment where the issue occurs?

• Non-Prod environment development
• 1 forest/1 domain – Contoso.com
• Number of servers affected: 25
• Running in-house or third-party applications: Yes, multiple

What error message do you see?

No error message

How do you quantify the problem?

25 servers affected

How will I be notified of problems?

The security team proposed fixing vulnerabilities based on priority.

A vulnerability was discovered in a Qualys scan.

What steps have you already taken and what help do you need?

Qualys scan reports include a mitigation plan. Do you need advice from Microsoft on recommendations on how to implement it?

What is the business impact of this?

Our security team reported non-compliance issues. If not resolved within one week, the server may be automatically shut down. This affects developers, makes applications untestable, and delays project schedules.

Can you clarify what you are trying to achieve by solving this problem?

What is the best method or approach to address reported vulnerabilities?

suggestion: The new servers will apply the mitigation plan suggested by Qualys. It is not trivial to follow the same mitigations on existing servers running internal/third-party applications without verifying the compatibility of each mitigation plan. A step-by-step approach is needed. Apply and test mitigations one at a time to avoid unexpected behavior. The servers all host unique applications with different configurations, so apply the same approach to one server at a time.

memo: It is important to follow the same approach when handling multiple subtasks of your main goal. The goals of each task may be different.

conclusion: Scoping the problem is a fundamental step in problem solving to ensure thorough understanding and effective resolution. By systematically gathering detailed information and focusing on key aspects of a problem, you can prioritize and resolve problems more efficiently. This approach not only helps resolve current issues, but also prevents future occurrences, ultimately providing a more stable and trustworthy experience for all CSS customers.