Question : NTDS will not start... On SBS 2008

This is the second in a series of what might be dumb newbee questions but here goes...

I can log in to my SBS 2008 in my administrator account.  I have been having trouble getting VMWare Player to start due to what appears to be some sort of permissions issue.  Now, during my attempts to resolve this issue, someone suggested that I run a command (which I can't recall) which showed several tests.  One that cause him significant concern was the NTDS not running.  He stated that effectively the computer was not doing anything real as a domain server.  He informed me that the server was not functioning as a DS under these conditions.  I have since learned the at SBS 2008 is always a DS if it starts and you can log into it.  Now, that may be an overstatement but it is basically what I took from the discussion.

What could NTDS not running be caused by?  Is this something that I should be freaking about?  This server operates as a database server and shares a directory in which lives a third party database interface applications which is run via some dumb terminals.

Where should I start and diagnostics should I run to figure out the problem.

Answer : NTDS will not start... On SBS 2008

In the SBS Native Tools console drill into the Computer (Local) console down to the Windows Logs node. In there you will find a custom filter already created for Administrator Events.

That should show you any critical events the server has been experiencing.

Philip