utilman to CMD - no utilman.exe if booting from Win 2025??

[Mike Leone]

I am trying to fix my broken DC (although at this point, I'm suspecting it might be a lost cause, and I may have to rip it out by the roots using ntdsutil ...).

Anyway, I booted from a Win 2025 ISO. And I see no utilman.exe ... Then it occurs to me that, being Nutanix, I need to have special drivers to see the C: drive. And I don't know how to have those drivers available on a repair boot like this ...

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[Wright, John M]

Utilman.exe is at c:\windows\system32.  You can rename it to utilman.exe.bak, then copy cmd.exe to utilman.exe.

 

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From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Mike Leone
Sent: Thursday, July 3, 2025 10:25 AM
To: NTSysAdmin <ntsys...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [ntsysadmin] utilman to CMD - no utilman.exe if booting from Win 2025??

 

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[Mike Leone]

     

On Thu, Jul 3, 2025, 10:39 AM Wright, John M <John....@newvista.org> wrote:

Utilman.exe is at c:\windows\system32.  You can rename it to utilman.exe.bak, then copy cmd.exe to utilman.exe.

That's just it. I didn't see a C:, because I need special disk drivers because it's running on Nutanix. When I build a regular VM, I have to mount the driver's as a CD ROM, so I can load them to be able to install the HD.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ntsysadmin/DM6PR12MB43721805150739FB6E1E17859143A%40DM6PR12MB4372.namprd12.prod.outlook.com.

[Philip Elder]

Does the DC hold any FSMO Roles?

 

If not, trash it.

 

Use AD Sites to delete it, delete its object in ADUC, and then clean up references to it in DNS (A, AD). Make sure to go through absolutely ALL folders in DNS to remove references to it’s DNS A record and GUID record. DNS is the one place Microsoft has consistently missed the mark on AD DC clean-up.

 

So long as the Forest/Domain levels are 2016 (IIRC) using Sites should clean-up the metadata nicely. You can use NTDSUtil if not sure.

 

Install a fresh OS, Role, and DCPromo.

 

If it holds the FSMO Roles then do a Seize on one of the other DCs. Make sure that replicates to ALL DCs before running DCPromo on the newly stood up OS.

 

Once this one is rebuilt you can gracefully transfer the FSMO Roles back.

 

From an elevated PoSh:

# Check FSMO

Get-ADForest | Format-Table SchemaMaster,DomainNamingMaster

Get-ADDomain | Format-Table PDCEmulator,RIDMaster,InfrastructureMaster

 

Need to move them gracefully?

 

# Transfer and Check

$DestinationDC = "NewDCName"

Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity $DestinationDC -OperationMasterRole 0,1,2,3,4 -confirm:$false

Get-ADForest | Format-Table SchemaMaster,DomainNamingMaster

Get-ADDomain | Format-Table PDCEmulator,RIDMaster,InfrastructureMaster

 

Need to seize them because the PDCe died?

 

# Seize FSMO Roles

$DestinationDC = "NewDCName"

Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity $DestinationDC -OperationMasterRole 0,1,2,3,4 -Force -confirm:$False

Get-ADForest  | Format-Table SchemaMaster,DomainNamingMaster

Get-ADDomain  | Format-Table PDCEmulator,RIDMaster,InfrastructureMaster

 

Oh, and if the dead DC was your time holder, which means also the PDCe then make sure to set it back up:

 

REM PDCe USA

w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual "/manualpeerlist:0.us.pool.ntp.org,0x1 1.us.pool.ntp.org,0x1 2.us.pool.ntp.org,0x1 3.us.pool.ntp.org,0x1" /reliable:yes

w32tm /config /update

net stop w32time && net start w32time

w32tm /resync /force

w32tm /query /source

 

W32tm /query /status /verbose

 

*Make sure Time Sync with the host is DISABLED for all VMs in a domain.

 

Philip Elder MCTS

Senior Technical Architect

Microsoft High Availability MVP

MPECS Inc.

E-mail: Phili...@mpecsinc.ca

Phone: +1 (780) 458-2028

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From: ntsys...@googlegroups.com <ntsys...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Mike Leone
Sent: Thursday, July 3, 2025 08:25
To: NTSysAdmin <ntsys...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [ntsysadmin] utilman to CMD - no utilman.exe if booting from Win 2025??

 

I am trying to fix my broken DC (although at this point, I'm suspecting it might be a lost cause, and I may have to rip it out by the roots using ntdsutil ...).

--

[Mike Leone]

On Thu, Jul 3, 2025 at 10:52 AM Philip Elder <Phili...@mpecsinc.ca> wrote:

Does the DC hold any FSMO Roles?

Nope, this was a brand new DC we were trying to add. If it had done so successfully, THEN we were going to move roles onto it.

 

If not, trash it.

Yeah, that's what we've talked about doing. I remember doing it years and years ago, using NTDSUTIL ...

 

 

Use AD Sites to delete it, delete its object in ADUC, and then clean up references to it in DNS (A, AD). Make sure to go through absolutely ALL folders in DNS to remove references to it’s DNS A record and GUID record. DNS is the one place Microsoft has consistently missed the mark on AD DC clean-up.

I remember. Yeah, it'll be fine-toothed comb, line by line checking ..

There is no GUID record, that I can see (altho I haven't looked absolutely everywhere yet).

 

 

So long as the Forest/Domain levels are 2016 (IIRC) using Sites should clean-up the metadata nicely. You can use NTDSUtil if not sure.

Yes, I upgraded the DFL/FFL to Win2016 before I started.

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ntsysadmin/86a128998ee74cdf96f6b7dca4e11ac8%40MPECSInc.Ca.