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Managing domain controller connections

You can manage domain controller connections by displaying information about currently discovered LDAP and domain controller servers, resetting and rediscovering LDAP and domain controller servers, managing the preferred domain controller list, enabling encrypted communications with the domain controller, and displaying information about currently configured preferred domain controllers.

  • Displaying information about discovered servers
    You can display information related to discovered LDAP servers and domain controllers on your CIFS server.
  • Resetting and rediscovering servers
    Resetting and rediscovering servers on your CIFS server allows the CIFS server to discard stored information about LDAP servers and domain controllers. After discarding server information, the CIFS server reacquires current information about these external servers. This can be useful when the connected servers are not responding appropriately.
  • Managing domain controller discovery
    Beginning in ONTAP 9.4, you can modify the default process by which domain controllers (DCs) are discovered. This enables you to limit discovery to your site or to a pool of preferred DCs, which can lead to performance improvements depending on the environment.
  • Adding preferred domain controllers
    ONTAP automatically discovers domain controllers through DNS. Optionally, you can add one or more domain controllers to the list of preferred domain controllers for a specific domain.
  • Commands for managing preferred domain controllers
    The following commands are used for adding, displaying, and removing preferred domain controllers.
  • Enabling SMB2 connections to domain controllers
    Beginning in ONTAP 9.4, you can enable SMB version 2.0 to connect to a domain controller. Doing so is necessary if you have disabled SMB 1.0 on domain controllers. Beginning in ONTAP 9.4, SMB2 is enabled by default.
  • Enabling encrypted connections to domain controllers
    Beginning with ONTAP 9.8, you can specify that connections to domain controllers be encrypted.