CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windows-servicesactive-directory
user2062958
user2062958

Reputation: 13

Changing Service Account Passwords

I have been tasked with changing the password to all service accounts within the organization, and would appreciate a few pointers from sombody who has tackled this before..

I have identified each service account- as well as each machine and service using that account. What I would like is some guidance as to how this process is actually executed. This is a production environment, and I don't want to go breaking things during work hours.

Is the process as simple/tedious as changing the service account password, then logging onto each server, locating each service and changing relevant info under the "Log on" tab?

is there a better way of doing this? Thank you for the advice/guidance.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3530

Answers (1)

danabnormal
danabnormal

Reputation: 472

Thats pretty much it.

What I would suggest tho is duplicating the accounts with the same permissions (but affix '2013' on the end or something) and then while you go around changing the passwords, redirect the services to that account as well.

The reason for this is that, at least a few times, some random legacy application has gone down during service account resets purely because noone knew it was using it/had missed it in the refresh/didn't know about it. This way everything you touch should be OK, and you can then monitor the now 'legacy' accounts for any use.

/edit Actually changing the username/password CAN be scripted, but that all depends on how cautious you want to be about the change and whether you want to be able to easily halt the execution! See http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/79644be9-b5e1-4d9e-9cb5-eab1ad866eaf for an example. (You will also need to think about what range of OSs you need to do this on - PowerShell will only work on some, VBS will for the others but then you have further considerations, and NT4...... ;) )

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions