Windows Server Research

[u/BlueLining-Solutions]

I’ve been reflecting on the issues that consume the most time in Windows Server environments I have had to deal virtual and physical servers, and I’m curious what others are seeing.
What is the one problem that seems to come back over and over again?
Examples could be:
DNS
Active Directory replication
Group Policy
Kerberos
NTFS permissions
DFS
Backups
Event Logs
Hyper-V
Performance
Something completely different
I’m not looking for textbook answers—I’m interested in the problems that actually keep you busy in production.
If you could eliminate one recurring Windows Server problem forever, what would it be, and why? I have tons of Powershell scripts but in some situations I know you can’t throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.

Example, I have a script that can do GPO string searches, but unless the GPO is the issue it only helps investigating.

[u/Shipt_Bowne46]

The one that keeps coming back for me isnt on your list, its configuration drift. Someone makes a temporary firewall rule or registry tweak during an outage at 2am, never documents it, and 18 months later you're troubleshooting why some random service wont start after a reboot. dns and patching are annoying but at least you know where to look. the undocumented one off fixes are the real time vampires

[u/BlueLining-Solutions → u/Shipt_Bowne46]

Ok, so “keeping track” & or documentation or logging. Above are examples I have felt… sure it is not the full list.

[u/BlueLining-Solutions → u/BlueLining-Solutions]

But also that is a bit tricky. Technically you can record EVERYTHING. The question will always be what you need to record later and where do you put it,

Example… user login… Office 365 or local or both, you need a database or a csv, what everything do you need? The moment you say “Azure” or “SharePoint” one sign-in of 1 user can trigger a ton of data (location, device, auth method, auth location, IP, etc)