Active Directory Cookbook for windows server 2003- P30 potx

Right-click on the Group Policy Objects container in the target domain and select Manage Backups.. 9.21.4 See Also MS KB 298444 A Description of the Group Policy Update Utility Recipe 9

' Initialize the Domain object

set objGPMDomain = objGPM.GetDomain(strDomain, "", objGPMConstants.UseAnyDC) ' Make sure backup location and ID are valid

set objGPMBackupDir = objGPM.GetBackupDir(strLocation)

set objGPMBackup = objGPMBackupDir.GetBackup(strBackupID)

WScript.Echo "Backup found:"

WScript.Echo " ID: " & objGPMBackup.ID

WScript.Echo " Timestamp: " & objGPMBackup.TimeStamp

WScript.Echo " GPO ID: " & objGPMBackup.GPOID

WScript.Echo " GPO Name: " & objGPMBackup.GPODisplayName

WScript.Echo " Comment: " & objGPMBackup.Comment

WScript.Echo

' Perform restore

set objGPMResult = objGPMDomain.RestoreGPO(objGPMBackup, _

objGPMConstants.DoNotValidateDC) ' This will throw an exception if there were any errors

' during the actual operation

on error resume next

objGPMResult.OverallStatus( )

if objGPMResult.Status.Count > 0 then

WScript.Echo "Status message(s): " & objGPMResult.Status.Count

for i = 1 to objGPMResult.Status.Count

WScript.Echo objGPMResult.Status.Item(i).Message

next

WScript.Echo vbCrLf

end if

' Print result

if Err.Number <> 0 then

WScript.Echo "Error restoring GPO " & objGPMBackup.GPODisplayName

WScript.Echo "Error: " & Err.Description

else

WScript.Echo "Restore successful."

WScript.Echo "GPO '" & objGPMBackup.GPODisplayName & _

"' has been restored."

end if

9.18.3 Discussion

To restore a GPO using GPMC, you first need a valid backup of the GPO The procedure for backing up a GPO is described in Recipe 9.17 You can then restore the GPO, even if the GPO has been deleted To restore a deleted GPO, use the following steps:

1 Right-click on the Group Policy Objects container in the target domain and select

Manage Backups

2 Highlight the GPO you want to restore and click the Restore Button

3 Click Yes to confirm

4 Click OK after the restore completes

If you don't have a valid backup of the GPO, but you do have another GPO that is identical or similar to the one you want to restore (perhaps in another forest), you can copy that GPO to replace the one you want to restore See Recipe 9.3 for more on copying GPOs

9.18.3.1 Using VBScript

To restore a GPO, I have to first get a handle to the backup I am going to restore from This is done by instantiating an object to the backup location with GPM.GetBackupDir, and then calling

GPMBackupDir.GetBackup with the GUID of the backup to be restored If you need to

programmatically search for the backup ID, you can use the GPMBackup.SearchBackups method

to find the most recent backup or a backup with a particular display name

After I obtain a GPMBackup object, I call the GPMDomain.RestoreGPO method The first

parameter is the GPMBackup object that represents the backup to restore The second parameter is

a validation flag, and I use the constant that causes the restore to not be validated against a domain controller

9.18.4 See Also

Recipe 9.3 for copying a GPO, Recipe Recipe 9.17 for backing up a GPO, and MSDN:

GPMDomain.RestoreGPO

Recipe 9.19 Simulating the RSoP

9.19.1 Problem

You want to simulate the RSoP based on OU, site, and security group membership This is also referred to as Group Policy Modeling

9.19.2 Solution

This must be run against a Windows Server 2003 domain controller

9.19.2.1 Using a graphical user interface

1 Open the GPMC snap-in

2 In the left pane, right-click Group Policy Modeling and select Group Policy Modeling Wizard

3 Select a domain controller to process the query and click Next

4 Under User Information and/or Computer Information, select either the container you want to simulate to contain the user or computer or select a specific user or computer account, and click Next

5 Select a site if necessary, and click Next

6 If you selected a target user container or user account in step 4, you will be presented with an option to simulate different group membership Click Next when you are done

7 If you selected a target computer container or computer account in step 4, you will be presented with an option to simulate different group membership Click Next when you are done

8 If you selected a target user container or user account in step 4, you will be presented with an option to simulate any additional WMI filters Click Next when you are done

9 If you selected a target computer container or computer account in step 4, you will be presented with an option to simulate any additional WMI filters Click Next when you are done

10 Click Next to start the simulation

11 Click Finish

12 In the right pane of the GPMC window, the results of the simulation will be displayed

9.19.3 Discussion

With GPMC, you can simulate the RSoP based on user-defined OU, site, group, and domain membership This is very powerful because it allows you to create one or more GPOs, simulate it being applied to a user and computer and determine whether any changes are necessary before deployment

9.19.4 See Also

Recipe 9.20 for viewing the RSoP

Recipe 9.20 Viewing the RSoP

9.20.1 Problem

You want to view the actual RSoP for a user and computer This is a great tool for determining if policies are being applied correctly on a client

9.20.2 Solution

9.20.2.1 Using a graphical user interface

The RSoP snap-in is available only on Windows Server 2003 and Windows

XP

Open the RSoP snap-in by running rsop.msc from the command line This will cause the RSoP snap-in to evaluate the group policies for the target computer and pop open a MMC console so that you can browse the applied settings

You can target a different computer by right-clicking the top of the tree in the left pane and

9.20.2.2 Using a command-line interface

> gpresult

With the Windows Server 2003 version of gpresult, you can specify a /S option and the name

of a computer to target, which allows you to run the command remotely With Windows 2000, there is a /S option, but it enables super verbose mode There is no way to target another

computer with the Windows 2000 version For a complete list of options with either version, run

gpresult /? from a command line

9.20.3 Discussion

If you implement more than a few GPOs, it can get confusing as to what settings will apply to users To address this problem, you can query the resultant set of policy on a client to determine what settings have been applied

The registry on the target computer is another source of information You can view the list of policies that were applied to the computer by viewing the subkeys under this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group

Policy\History

The settings that were applied are not stored in the registry, but you can obtain the GPO name, distinguished name, SYSVOL location , version, and where the GPO is linked

9.20.4 See Also

Recipe 9.19 for simulating the RSoP

Recipe 9.21 Refreshing GPO Settings on a Computer

9.21.1 Problem

You've made some changes to a GPO and want to apply them to a computer by refreshing the group policies for the computer

9.21.2 Solution

9.21.2.1 Using a command-line interface

On Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP, use this command:

> gpupdate [/target:{Computer | User}]

On Windows 2000, use this command:

> secedit /refreshpolicy [machine_policy | user_policy]

9.21.3 Discussion

The new gpupdate command is a much-needed improvement over the older secedit utility With gpupdate you can force all settings to be applied with the /force option (the default is only changed settings) You can apply the computer or user settings of GPOs using the /target

option, and you can force a logoff or reboot after the settings have been applied using the

/logoff and /boot options

9.21.4 See Also

MS KB 298444 (A Description of the Group Policy Update Utility)

Recipe 9.22 Restoring a Default GPO

9.22.1 Problem

You've made changes to the Default Domain Security Policy, Default Domain Controller

Security Policy, or both, and now want to reset them to their original configuration

9.22.2 Solution

This tool can be run only from a Windows Server 2003 domain controller

9.22.2.1 Using a command-line interface

The following command would replace both the Default Domain Security Policy and Default Domain Controller Security Policy You can specify Domain or DC instead of Both, to only restore one or the other

> dcgpofix /target:Both

Note that this must be run from a domain controller in the target domain where you want to reset the GPO

9.22.3 Discussion

If you've ever made changes to the default GPOs and would like to revert back to the original settings, the dcgpofix utility is your solution dcgpofix works with a particular version of the schema If the version it expects to be current is different from what is in Active Directory, it will not restore the GPOs You can work around this by using the /ignoreschema switch, which will restore the GPO according to the version dcgpofix thinks is current The only time you might experience this issue is if you install a service pack on a domain controller (dc1) that extends the schema, but have not installed it yet on a second domain controller (dc2) If you try to run

dcgpofix from dc2, you will receive the error since a new version of the schema and the

dcgpofix utility was installed on dc1

Chapter 10 Schema

Introduction

Recipe 10.1 Registering the Active Directory Schema MMC Snap-in

Recipe 10.2 Enabling Schema Updates

Recipe 10.3 Generating an OID to Use for a New Class or Attribute

Recipe 10.4 Generating a GUID to Use for a New Class or Attribute

Recipe 10.5 Extending the Schema

Recipe 10.6 Documenting Schema Extensions

Recipe 10.7 Adding a New Attribute

Recipe 10.8 Viewing an Attribute

Recipe 10.9 Adding a New Class

Recipe 10.10 Viewing a Class

Recipe 10.11 Indexing an Attribute

Recipe 10.12 Modifying the Attributes That Are Copied When Duplicating a User Recipe 10.13 Modifying the Attributes Included with Ambiguous Name Resolution Recipe 10.14 Adding or Removing an Attribute in the Global Catalog

Recipe 10.15 Finding the Nonreplicated and Constructed Attributes

Recipe 10.16 Finding the Linked Attributes

Recipe 10.17 Finding the Structural, Auxiliary, Abstract, and 88 Classes

Recipe 10.18 Finding the Mandatory and Optional Attributes of a Class

Recipe 10.19 Modifying the Default Security of a Class

Recipe 10.20 Deactivating Classes and Attributes

Recipe 10.21 Redefining Classes and Attributes

Recipe 10.22 Reloading the Schema Cache

Introduction

The Active Directory schema contains the blueprint for how objects are structured and secured,

what data they can contain, and even how they can be viewed Having a thorough understanding

of the schema is paramount for any Active Directory administrator Understanding key concepts,

such as class inheritance, class types, attribute syntax, and attribute indexing options, is critical to

being able to adequately design an Active Directory infrastructure and should be considered

mandatory for any developer that is writing applications or automation scripts that utilize Active

Directory

If you are one of the lucky few who is designated as a schema administrator (i.e., member of the

Schema Admins group), then the importance of the schema is already well known to you This

chapter serves a guide to accomplishing many of the day-to-day tasks you will need to do as a

schema administrator If you feel you need more nuts and bolts information on how the schema

works, I suggest reading Chapter 4 of Active Directory, Second Edition (O'Reilly)

The Anatomy of Schema Objects

An interesting feature of Active Directory that is not common among other LDAP

implementations is that the schema is stored within Active Directory as a set of objects This

means that you can use similar interfaces and programs to manage the schema as you would any

other type of object

All schema objects are stored in the Schema container (e.g.,

cn=schema,cn=configuration, <ForestRootDN>) The schema is comprised of two classes of

objects, classSchema and attributeSchema Unsurprisingly, the classSchema objects define

classes and attributeSchema objects define attributes The Schema container contains a third

type of object called subSchema, also known as the abstract schema, which is defined in the

LDAP v3 specification (RFC 2251) There is only a single subSchema object in the Schema

container, named cn=Aggregate, and it contains a summary of the entire schema

Table 10-1 and Table 10-2 contain useful attributes of classSchema objects and

attributeSchema objects, respectively

Table 10-1 Attributes of classSchema objects

Attribute Description

adminDescription Description of the class

auxiliaryClass Multivalued attribute containing any auxiliary classes defined

Table 10-1 Attributes of classSchema objects

Attribute Description

for the class

defaultHidingValue Boolean that determines whether objects of this class are hidden

by default in administrative GUIs

defaultSecurityDescriptor Default security descriptor applied to objects of this class

governsID Object identifier (OID) for the class

isDefunct Boolean that indicates whether the class is defunct (i.e.,

deactivated)

lDAPDisplayName Name used when referencing the class in searches or when

instantiating or modifying objects of this class

mayContain Multivalued attribute that contains a list of attributes that can be

optionally set on the class

mustContain Multivalued attribute that contains a list of attributes that must

be set on the class

objectClassCategory Integer representing the class's type Can be one of 1

(structural), 2 (abstract), 3 (auxiliary), or 0 (88)

possibleInferiors Multivalued list of other object classes this object can contain

possSuperiors Multivalued list of object classes this object can be subordinate

to

rDNAttID Naming attribute (i.e., RDN) of instances of the class

schemaIDGUID GUID of the class

showInAdvancedViewOnly Boolean that indicates whether instances of this class should

only be shown in Advanced mode in the administrative GUIs

systemAuxiliaryClass

Multivalued attribute containing any auxiliary classes defined for the class This can only be modified internally by Active Directory

systemFlags Integer representing additional properties of the class

systemMayContain

Multivalued attribute that contains a list of attributes that can be optionally set on the class This can only be modified internally

by Active Directory

Table 10-1 Attributes of classSchema objects

Attribute Description

systemMustContain

Multivalued attribute that contains a list of attributes that must

be set on the class This can only be modified internally by Active Directory

systemPossSuperiors Multivalued list of object classes this object can be subordinate

to This can only be modified internally by Active Directory

Table 10-2 Attributes of attributeSchema objects

Attribute Description

adminDescription Description of the attribute

attributeID OID for the attribute

attributeSecurityGUID GUID to be used to apply security credentials to a set of

objects

attributeSyntax OID representing the syntax of the attribute This is used in

conjunction with oMSyntax to define a unique syntax

isDefunct Boolean that indicates if the attribute is defunct (i.e.,

deactivated)

isMemberOfPartialAttributeSet Boolean that indicates if the attribute is a member of the

partial attribute set (i.e., the global catalog)

isSingleValued Boolean that indicates whether the attribute is single

valued or multivalued

linkID

If this is populated, it will contain an integer that represents a link (either forward or backward) to another attribute

lDAPDisplayName

Name used when referencing the attribute in searches or when populating it on objects Note that this value may not

be the same as cn

oMSyntax

An integer representing the OM type of the attribute This

is used in conjunction with attributeSyntax to determine a unique syntax for the attribute

schemaIDGUID GUID of the attribute

searchFlags Integer representing special properties related to searching

with the attribute This includes how the attribute is