You know what I love above all other things? Resetting a domain! I mean, what can be more satisfying and energizing than watching one of your beloved hard drives crash and then taking the time to rebuild from scratch?  Such has been my lot these last several days.

On Thursday, May 6th, 2004, my domain controller's hard drive went out.  Fortunately it didn't go out hard, I could still reboot (periodically, and EXTREMELY slowly about 1.5 - 2.0 hrs per reboot).  Unfortunately, the crash occurred while I was backing up my data.  This is the second drive to go out on me in about a year.  Well, I've been in the process of rebuilding my Windows domain and Exchange server over the last few days - it wouldn't have taken so long but that we had company over for BBQs and such.

It wouldn't be so bad (missing email and stuff) except that I had to also rebuild a member server.  I couldn't simply change it's domain membership to the new domain because it is also a Certificate Server.  This member server also is my SQL Server, and IIS server, and File Server, et al.  Yes, being a very small, one-man shop has its pitfalls.

The good news is that I pretty much have the domain back up and operational...just a few thing lacking: a few databases, a few websites, and my source code control system.  That shouldn't take but a few more minutes tomorrow and I'll be cooking again.  A benefit of redoing everything is that I can revisit the initial configuration and more firmly cement into my feeble memory all the nuances to setting up DNS and DHCP as well as taking SQL Server databases and reconciling object ownership with new owners.  Not to mention file and folder ACLs.

Ah, the joy!  I just love computers!