Using the Connections Menu

Several Ntdsutil operations send LDAP or RPC commands to a particular server. The Connections menu appears as a selection within several other menus in Ntdsutil and provides a way to connect to a specific server or domain. By default, your connection is authenticated using the credentials of the logged-on user. You can also specify the credentials to use when authenticating to a server. Table C.2 lists and describes the connection commands.

Table C.2 Connection Commands

Command

Description

Clear creds

Clears any previously defined credentials and disconnects any previous connections to prevent ambiguity about which credentials are in use during subsequent commands.

Connect to domain %s
(where %s identifies a target domain)

Finds any domain controller for the domain specified by % s and connects to it using the default credentials or any credentials specified earlier by Set creds .

Connect to server %s
(where %s identifies a target domain controller)

Connects to the domain controller specified by % s using the default credentials or any credentials specified earlier by Set creds .

Info

Displays the credentials now in use and the current connection state.

Set creds %s %s %s
(where the first %s represents the domain, the second %s represents the user name, and the third %s represents the password)

Sets the credentials for use in subsequent Connect To commands. Use the literal string "Null" to specify a null password.