Free Domain Controller Health Assessment

Replication is the domain controller health assessment control area that defines expected configuration, ownership, supporting evidence, and review cadence. A reviewer should be able to confirm the current state from system exports, admin-console settings, monitoring records, tickets, and maintained documentation. For replication, the relevant evidence usually includes review job success history, protected workload scope, immutable-copy status, last restore test, retention settings, and recovery dependency mapping. Review the related RTO, RPO, 3-2-1 backup, immutable storage, air gap, restore verification, retention policy, recovery runbook, ransomware isolation, then confirm which systems or users are affected, which logs prove the control is operating, and how exceptions are approved, tracked, and revisited. Common review sources include backup console, restore-test logs, storage reports, DR runbooks, cloud backup policy, ticketing evidence.

DNS are the operating area where policy, configuration, monitoring, and support records need to agree with the actual environment. A reviewer should be able to confirm the current state from system exports, admin-console settings, monitoring records, tickets, and maintained documentation. For dns, the relevant evidence usually includes inspect zone changes, resolver paths, DHCP scope utilization, alert thresholds, log retention, NTP synchronization, and monitoring coverage gaps. Review the related forwarders, secure dynamic updates, DHCP failover, reservations, lease scope utilization, syslog, SNMP, NetFlow, SIEM correlation, then confirm which systems or users are affected, which logs prove the control is operating, and how exceptions are approved, tracked, and revisited. Common review sources include DNS/DHCP consoles, SIEM, syslog server, network monitoring dashboards, packet captures, availability reports.

Roles are the technical and administrative control set used to prove this part of the environment is configured, maintained, and reviewed. A reviewer should be able to confirm the current state from system exports, admin-console settings, monitoring records, tickets, and maintained documentation. For roles, the relevant evidence usually includes export user and role assignments, review inactive or guest accounts, compare MFA/Conditional Access coverage, and sample recent joiner-mover-leaver tickets. Review the related MFA enforcement, least privilege, RBAC, break-glass accounts, stale identities, SSO/SAML, sign-in logs, privileged access groups, then confirm which systems or users are affected, which logs prove the control is operating, and how exceptions are approved, tracked, and revisited. Common review sources include Microsoft Entra admin center, Active Directory Users and Computers, sign-in logs, audit logs, access reviews, PowerShell exports.

Backups are the domain controller health assessment control area that defines expected configuration, ownership, supporting evidence, and review cadence. A reviewer should be able to confirm the current state from system exports, admin-console settings, monitoring records, tickets, and maintained documentation. For backups, the relevant evidence usually includes review job success history, protected workload scope, immutable-copy status, last restore test, retention settings, and recovery dependency mapping. Review the related RTO, RPO, 3-2-1 backup, immutable storage, air gap, restore verification, retention policy, recovery runbook, ransomware isolation, then confirm which systems or users are affected, which logs prove the control is operating, and how exceptions are approved, tracked, and revisited. Common review sources include backup console, restore-test logs, storage reports, DR runbooks, cloud backup policy, ticketing evidence.

Documentation is the operating area where policy, configuration, monitoring, and support records need to agree with the actual environment. A reviewer should be able to confirm the current state from system exports, admin-console settings, monitoring records, tickets, and maintained documentation. For documentation, the relevant evidence usually includes sample recent tickets and changes, verify approval and rollback records, compare documentation against production, and confirm named owners. Review the related SLA, RACI, change advisory review, rollback plan, runbook accuracy, configuration management, evidence repository, operational KPIs, then confirm which systems or users are affected, which logs prove the control is operating, and how exceptions are approved, tracked, and revisited. Common review sources include ticketing system, documentation portal, change calendar, asset inventory, monitoring alerts, configuration exports.

Monitoring is the technical and administrative control set used to prove this part of the environment is configured, maintained, and reviewed. A reviewer should be able to confirm the current state from system exports, admin-console settings, monitoring records, tickets, and maintained documentation. For monitoring, the relevant evidence usually includes inspect zone changes, resolver paths, DHCP scope utilization, alert thresholds, log retention, NTP synchronization, and monitoring coverage gaps. Review the related forwarders, secure dynamic updates, DHCP failover, reservations, lease scope utilization, syslog, SNMP, NetFlow, SIEM correlation, then confirm which systems or users are affected, which logs prove the control is operating, and how exceptions are approved, tracked, and revisited. Common review sources include DNS/DHCP consoles, SIEM, syslog server, network monitoring dashboards, packet captures, availability reports.

Ownership is the domain controller health assessment control area that defines expected configuration, ownership, supporting evidence, and review cadence. A reviewer should be able to confirm the current state from system exports, admin-console settings, monitoring records, tickets, and maintained documentation. For ownership, the relevant evidence usually includes sample recent tickets and changes, verify approval and rollback records, compare documentation against production, and confirm named owners. Review the related SLA, RACI, change advisory review, rollback plan, runbook accuracy, configuration management, evidence repository, operational KPIs, then confirm which systems or users are affected, which logs prove the control is operating, and how exceptions are approved, tracked, and revisited. Common review sources include ticketing system, documentation portal, change calendar, asset inventory, monitoring alerts, configuration exports.

Testing is the operating area where policy, configuration, monitoring, and support records need to agree with the actual environment. A reviewer should be able to confirm the current state from system exports, admin-console settings, monitoring records, tickets, and maintained documentation. For testing, the relevant evidence usually includes sample recent tickets and changes, verify approval and rollback records, compare documentation against production, and confirm named owners. Review the related SLA, RACI, change advisory review, rollback plan, runbook accuracy, configuration management, evidence repository, operational KPIs, then confirm which systems or users are affected, which logs prove the control is operating, and how exceptions are approved, tracked, and revisited. Common review sources include ticketing system, documentation portal, change calendar, asset inventory, monitoring alerts, configuration exports.