Izzy's questions

I am designing a view that accesses tables in a linked server.

Every time I paste this query into the SQL pane, Intellisense removes the square brackets, and then complains that there's more than 3 prefixes. I've tried turning Intellisense off, but it keeps happening:

SELECT   Loc.Address1, Loc.Address2, Loc.Address3, BP.BusinessPartnerName
FROM     [REPORTING.SOMESERVER.CA].Toast.dbo.BusinessPartnerLocations AS Loc LEFT OUTER JOIN
         [REPORTING.SOMESERVER.CA].Toast.dbo.BusinessPartner AS BP ON Loc.BusinessPartnerID = BP.BusinessPartnerID

to this:

SELECT   Loc.Address1, Loc.Address2, Loc.Address3, BP.BusinessPartnerName
FROM     REPORTING.SOMESERVER.CA.Toast.dbo.BusinessPartnerLocations AS Loc LEFT OUTER JOIN
         REPORTING.SOMESERVER.CA.Toast.dbo.BusinessPartner AS BP ON Loc.BusinessPartnerID = BP.BusinessPartnerID

We have a Windows 2003 server we migrated from an old (but still active) domain, to a new domain in a new forest. There have been no problems with this machine except for something we noticed recently. Users that access the FTP service on this machine have to provide their OldDomain credentials.

• There are no local users on the server
• The FTP folder Sharing is set to Everyone Everything (we share the folder out too)
• The FTP folder Security has ACL restrictions, namely OldDomain\Domain Users and NewDomain\Domain Users
• The FTP site is set to allow Anonymous Connections (although when you connect it asks for credentials)

How would you determine the last FTP logon time/date for a bunch of local user accounts on a DMZ (standalone/workgroup) server running IIS FTP?

I know I could use a log aggregator and sift through it that way, but this server has been operational for approximately 8 years and I don't fancy that vector.

I have also tried the scripting route, but this is of no use because the users have never actually logged onto the machine, so there's no profile (rendering the WMI classes WIN32_UserAccount and WIN32_UserProfile useless). They're just used to access the FTP service.

Thanks in advance

As of this week, all Domain Admins in the organisation have had to submit to background and credit checks in order to maintain these rights, and quite possibly continuation of employment (afterall, what use is a Domain Admin to an organisation without any privs).

This seems like overkill to us. Although we're a large multinational natural resources corporation, we are not a military, government, or medical organisation, and we certainly don't work with children (although it does feel that way in some meetings).

So, I guess my rather general and open question is this:

• Have you been subject to background, security, and credit checks in the line of duty?
• If so, what type of organisation was it?
• Did you feel it was warranted, or overkill?

Thoughts and comments appreciated

Just a quick question. I need to be able to unlock user accounts from the command line, NOT using NET USER loginname /DOMAIN /ACTIVE:YES

This is because our corporation lives across 4 domains, and the NET command is tied to the computer domain, with no way to specify alternative domains. Also, using ADUC is not an option for this specific case.

Basically, does DSMOD USER userDN -disabled no actually unlock an account? I can test this on Thursday, but wanted to know if I had to get in early to script the solution instead.

Cheers