Active Administrator 8.6 - Installation Guide

Configuring group policy history

You can set how often selected domain controllers are polled for Group Policy Object (GPO) changes. The polling interval is set to 60 seconds by default. We recommend a polling interval of 60 seconds as this gives administrators enough time to make a few changes to the GPO without creating new versions for every change.

NOTE: After you complete the configuration wizard, you can use the Active Administrator Console to manage group policy history by selecting Configuration | GPO History Settings.

Configuring Active Directory backups

Administrators can select a domain that contains Windows Server® 2012 (or later) domain controllers and back up Active Directory® user and group objects in that domain. When a situation occurs that requires a user or group object to be restored, administrators can select the object from a list and restore either the object with all the attributes it possessed when it was backed up, or only attributes the administrator selects. In the case of an organizational unit object, administrators have the option of either restoring all objects it contains or all objects it contains of a particular type.

IMPORTANT: Active Administrator® restores only selected user, group, and organizational unit (OU) objects, and their attributes from the backup file. If you require a backup file that restores Active Directory in its entirety, we recommend that you use an Active Directory disaster recovery product.

The Active Administrator AD Object Backup Service backs up the listed domains based on the settings in the Run backup boxes. If you are using Windows Server 2012 or later, Yes displays in the Supports Password Recovery column.

IMPORTANT: If you choose to disable Password Recovery, passwords are not backed up. If you restore a backup that does not contain passwords, you must unjoin, and then rejoin computer accounts.

By default, an Active Directory backup creates temporary files during processing and stores the backup files when the backup is complete under the folder C:\ActiveAdministrator\ADBackups\DOMAIN_domainname (where domainname is the fully qualified name of the domain being backed up). You can specify the folder where the temporary files are processed and where the backup files are stored.

NOTE: After you complete the configuration wizard, you can use the Active Administrator Console to manage Active Directory backups by selecting Configuration | Recovery Settings.

NOTE: If there are existing backup files in the existing share, you must move them manually. Only newly created backup files are stored to the new share path.

Configuring Active Administrator users

Active Administrator® users have unrestricted access to the Active Administrator Console. By default, the user installing and running the configuration wizard is automatically considered an Active Administrator user.

NOTE: Upon initial installation, the Domain Admins group is added automatically to the list. If you remove the Domain Admins group from the list and do not add any groups or users, the Domain Admins group is added automatically the next time you start the configuration wizard. After you complete the configuration wizard, you can use the Active Administrator Console to manage users by selecting Configuration | Role Based Access.

Configuring service accounts

The Domain Administrator account provides the necessary permissions for the Active Administrator® foundation and notification services to operate properly.

NOTE: After you complete the configuration wizard, use the AA Server Manager to manage service account logons.