Active Administrator 8.8.1 - User Guide

Searching for GPO settings

Searching for GPO settings

To help you manage GPOs in your domains, you can search for specific GPO settings to verify the correctness of the setting or to check for changes that may have been made. You can search for settings in the Live GPO, in the repository, in GPO history, and in GPO backups.

To search for GPO settings

1	Select Group Policy | GPO Settings Search.

2	Select the GPO setting on which to search.

3	If available, select the specific parameter on which to search. Not every GPO setting has specific parameters.

4	Select the area in which to search. You can search for settings in the Live GPO, in the repository, in GPO history, and in GPO backups.

5	If you do not see the domain you need, click Add Domain, select the domain, and click OK.

6	Click Search.

Managing GPO history

Managing GPO history

History is kept for all Group Policy objects (GPOs) in your domains. The Group Policy history service automatically checks for changes and saves the changes to a file share on your network. The default folder created during installation is GPOHistory.

In GPO history, you can see exactly who made changes to the group policies and what they changed. If you do not like a change that someone made, you can roll back to a previous version of the GPO.

Topics 

•	Rolling back Group Policy

To manage GPO history

1	Select Group Policy | GPO History.

2	Select a domain controller.

3	Select a Group Policy.

The right pane displays the history versions, which are ordered by date of when the changes were made. You can view the revisions of the GPO, who made the changes, and on which domain controller the change was made.

4	Use the tool bar to manage the GPO history.

 

Table 82. GPO history tool bar

Option	Description
Refresh	Refresh the Group Policy History list.
Edit GPO	Open the Group Policy Management Editor for the linked GPO.
Edit Comments	View basic information about a GPO history item, and add or edit comments.
Remove	Remove the selected GPO history item.
Remove GPO	Remove the selected GPO.
Roll Back	Rollback the GPO to the selected GPO history item. See Rolling back Group Policy.
More | GPO Settings	View detailed settings of the selected GPO history item.
More | Show Changes	View changes made to a selected GPO history item. You can export the report to a PDF, HTML, MHT, RTF, Excel, CSV, Text, or Image file.

Rolling back Group Policy

Rolling back Group Policy

If you notice changes that were not supposed to occur, you can roll back to a previous version of the Group Policy object (GPO). Rolling back causes the GPO to be set back in time to the exact settings as they were at a previous date.

To roll back Group Policy

1	Click Group Policy | GPO History.

2	Select a domain controller.

3	Select the GPO to roll back.

▪	To filter the list, start typing in the Filter Group Policies box.

▪	To make changes to the GPO, click Edit GPO.

4	In the right pane, select a version to roll back to, and click Roll Back.

5	Select if you want to roll back the GPO Security Filters and/or GPO Links.

6	Type a reason and comment to explain the rollback for auditing purposes, and then click OK.

7	Click Yes.

NOTE: If the default domain policy is included in the version, a warning message displays. To overwrite the default, click Yes. Upon completion of the rollback, the list of GPO revisions increase by one to ensure that the GPO is applied the next time polices are refreshed.

Using the GPO repository

Using the GPO repository

Active Administrator® provides an offline repository for editing Group Polices. The offline repository makes a copy of the Group Policy object (GPO) that you can edit without interfering with the normal operation of Active Directory®. When editing is complete, you can publish the changed GPO to Active Directory in a single operation.

The offline repository uses a system of checking in and out to maintain the integrity of the GPOs in the repository. When a GPO is added to the repository, it is actually a copy of the GPO that gets added; the actual GPO is not affected. The copy in the repository can then be checked out and changed, and then checked in and applied when needed. When a GPO is published from the repository, a copy of the GPO is then copied over the online GPO, thus effectively making any changes to that GPO live.

Topics 

•	Adding a GPO to the repository

•	Editing a GPO offline

To use the GPO repository

1	Select Group Policy | GPO Repository.

2	Select a domain.

NOTE: If you do not see a domain listed, you must first add a copy of the Active Directory GPO to the repository. See Adding a GPO to the repository.

Group policy objects that in the repository display in the upper pane. These GPOs are copies of the GPOs in Active Directory. You can edit these GPOs without affecting the live GPOs.

The bottom pane displays the check in/out history for the selected GPO. To view the history of publishing the GPO to Active Directory, click Publish to Active Directory History.

3	Use the options on the tool bar to edit Group Policy objects offline.

 

Table 83. GPO repository tool bar

Option	Description
Refresh	Refresh the GPO’s in Offline Repository list.
Publish	Write over the GPO in Active Directory with the selected GPO in the offline repository. See Editing a GPO offline.
Add	Add a copy of the Active Directory GPO to the repository. See Adding a GPO to the repository.
Remove	Remove the selected GPOs from the repository. NOTE: Removing a GPO from the repository does not remove the GPO from the system. The GPO in the repository is a read-only copy of the GPO that resides in Active Directory.
Edit GPO	Edit a checked-out offline GPO. See Editing a GPO offline.
Check In/Out	Check out a GPO for offline editing. When you are finished editing, check the GPO back into the repository. See Editing a GPO offline.
More | Offline GPO Settings	Show the unique id, number of revisions, created date, modified date, status of computer and user settings, Group Policy filters and Group Policy links for the selected Group Policy object in the selected domain.
More | Compare Offline GPO to Live GPO	Prior to publishing an offline GPO to Active Directory, you can compare the offline GPO to the live GPO. See Comparing Group Policy objects.