‘Tis the season to ask the experts your burning or confounding questions about Active Directory and Identity Resilience! We’re excited to announce our first Commvault Community AMA (“Ask Me Anything”), running throughout December. Let’s ring out 2025 with some fun and deep insights!
Do you want to know more about forest-level recovery? Wondering how to recover active directory without active directory? Have an obscure trivia question related to AD or a serious question about AD and identity security best practices? Put it to Dan and Jerry here.
For those familiar with AMAs and with questions top of mind, you can always go straight to “reply” at the bottom of this post and put your question there.
Meet Dan Conrad and Jerry Carlson
First, meet our resident experts and AMA hosts...
Dan has been working with Active Directory since it launched in 2000, after cutting his teeth on NT. He’s supported environments from 12,000 users all the way past the million-user mark and has spent the last 17 years focused on identity security and recovery. He’s seen everything from routine restores to full forest rebuilds and loves helping teams get confident in recovering identity when things go sideways.
Jerry has recently joined Commvault to expand our depth in AD protection and identity security, and shares, “In the late 90’s I worked for a company called Novell. We had a “directory” called Novell Directory Services “NDS” this is similar to Active Directory and built on the similar foundation. I started work at Microsoft early 2000 when Active Directory was “born” and my first 2 years I spent implementing AD for one of the largest Automotive makers worldwide.
AMA tips and FAQs
Below is a quick overview of how we’ll conduct the AMA and award the prize. If you have general questions about the AMA format or how to participate, send me (Jenn) a direct message here or email here.
- Our AMA is not real-time but will be conducted “almost live” - asynchronously - throughout the month of December 2025. We know our Community membership is global and not everyone is online here at the same time. Two to three times per week, Dan and Jerry will review and reply to questions submitted up to that point.
- To ask your question and join the AMA, just reply to this thread at the bottom. If you have multiple topics, we recommend one question per reply for best feedback.
- The AMA will run during the month of December 2025. Details on the prize award and entry rules are below.
- Please follow our (common sense) community guidelines and terms of use – bring your most pressing and challenging AD questions, just be respectful and a good human. Admins reserve the right to moderate questions for any objectionable or inappropriate content.
- We welcome questions about best practices and different environments, but please do not post logs or specific details about your environment in the AMA. Where appropriate, we’ll connect with you offline and summarize guidance in the replies.
- Feel free to also vote up (“like”) other participants’ replies as well – that lets us know where there is a lot of interest.
- General how-tos for posting in the Community can be found here.
About the prize and drawing
Entering is simple:
- Submit a question (reply) to join the AMA.
- That’s it — you’re automatically entered!
You are welcome to submit multiple questions, but entries will be capped at one per person to keep things fair.
One lucky winner will receive a Commvault Recovery Kit, or, for certain international participants, an equivalent eGift card. Prize options are subject to availability and may be substituted with items of equal or greater value at Commvault’s discretion. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited.
Need inspiration?
Not sure what to ask? We’ve got you! Check out these AD-related demos from SHIFT and our resource page on Identity Recovery and Resilience for some starters.
We can’t wait to hear your questions and connect. Start thinking of what you’ve always wanted to know about Active Directory and how the industry continues to evolve around identity security and resilience. Good luck in the drawing!
