Active Administrator 8.7 - User Guide

Managing inactive accounts

Managing inactive accounts

You can manage inactive users and computers by configuring tasks to run after a specified number of days. You also can send out an email notification to specified users.

Topics 

•	Configuring inactive users and computers

•	Checking for inactive users and computers

•	Viewing inactive users and computers history

•	Reporting on inactive accounts

•	Purging stale accounts

To manage inactive accounts

1	Select Security & Delegation | Inactive Accounts.

2	Configure the tasks to perform on inactive accounts. See Configuring inactive users and computers.

3	Use the tool bar to manage inactive accounts.

 

Table 22. Inactive accounts tool bar

Option	Description
Run	Run the current configuration to check for inactive users and computers. See Configuring inactive users and computers and Checking for inactive users and computers.
Save	Save changes to the current configuration.
Refresh	Refresh the display.
History Source	Select a source for the inactive account history.
Go	Go to the selected source for inactive account history.
Refresh History	Refresh the inactive account history.
Filter	Filter the list of inactive account history archives.
Clear Filter	Clear the filter and restore all archives to the list.
Report	Run an Inactive Accounts History Report. See Reporting on inactive accounts.

Configuring inactive users and computers

Configuring inactive users and computers

You can configure Active Administrator® to perform tasks based on how long a user account or computer has been inactive. Next, select the domains to monitor, configure organizational units or criteria to exclude areas from being monitored, and add email recipients to receive notifications of inactive accounts.

To configure inactive users and computers

1	Select Security & Delegation | Inactive Accounts.

2	Select Users & Computers, if necessary.

3	Configure inactive users.

a	By default, inactive user accounts are managed. To disable, clear the Manage Inactive Users check box.

b	By default, a user is considered inactive if the user has not logged in after 60 days. To change the value, type a number in the box. The value must be greater than 13 days.

c	To create a report of inactive users, select Identify Inactive Users Only. You can select to exclude accounts with passwords set to never expire from the report. No other tasks are performed on the inactive accounts.

-OR-

Select Perform the Following Actions to perform the selected tasks on the inactive accounts.

 

Table 23. Actions for inactive accounts

Option	Description
Leave User in Place	Select to leave the user account in its original location.
Move User to	By default, inactive user accounts are moved to the InactiveUsers OU, which is created at the root of the domain. To change the value, type in the box. NOTE: If you enter the name of an OU or a sub-OU, such as VK/InactiveUsers, and that OU or sub-OU is not present on the managed domain, the OU or sub-OU is created when you click Save.
Purge stale users	By default, inactive accounts are purged after 30 days of inactivity. You can set up a schedule, send notifications, and prevent specific users from being deleted. See Purging stale accounts.
Disable User -Days until disabled	By default, the user account is disabled once it has met the inactive user account requirement. If required, you can also set the number of days before the user account is disabled after it has been deemed inactive. To leave the user account enabled, clear the check box.
Reset Password to a Random Password	By default, the user’s password is set to a random password. To leave the password as is, clear the check box.
Exclude accounts that have passwords set to not expire	By default, user accounts with passwords set to not expire are excluded from the selected tasks. To include those accounts in the selected tasks, clear the check box.
Execute this program or script	Select to run a program or script. Type a path or browse to locate the program or script to run. NOTE: The script must be a local path on the Active Administrator server.
Script arguments (optional)	Type arguments, or browse to build arguments by selecting parameters from a list. To build arguments 1 Click the browse button. 2 Build the argument in the lower pane by typing switches and inserting parameters from the list. To insert a selected parameter from the list, double-click the parameter or click Insert. The parameter is inserted at the location of the cursor. EXAMPLE Type /dom:, double-click %DOMAIN%; or select %DOMAIN%, and click Insert. Repeat for additional parameters. /dom:%DOMAIN% /t:%TYPE% /sid:%SID% 3 Click OK.
Execute program or script in this folder (optional)	Browse to locate a working folder in which to run the selected program or script. If you leave this box blank, the working folder is the System directory on the Active Administrator server. NOTE: The working folder must be a local path on the Active Administrator server.

 

4	Set up inactive computers.

a	By default, the selected tasks are performed on inactive computers. To disable the feature, clear the Managed Inactive Computers check box.

b	By default, computers are considered inactive after 200 days. To change the value, type a number in the box. The value must be greater than 29 days.

c	Select Identify Inactive Computers Only to include inactive computers on the preview report only. No other tasks are performed on the inactive account.

-OR-

Select Perform the Following Actions to perform the selected tasks on the inactive account.

 

Table 24. Actions for inactive computers

Options	Description
Leave Computer in Place	Select to leave the user account in its original location.
Move the Computer to	By default, inactive computer accounts are moved to the InactiveComputers OU, which is created at the root of the domain. To change the value, type in the box. NOTE: If you enter the name of an OU or a sub-OU, such as VK/InactiveUsers, and that OU or sub-OU is not present on the managed domain, the OU or sub-OU is created when you click Save.
Purge stale computers	By default, inactive accounts are purged after 30 days of inactivity. You can set up a schedule, send notifications, and prevent specific computers from being deleted. See Purging stale accounts.
Disable Computer -Days until disabled	By default, the computer account is disabled once it has met the inactive account requirement. If required, you can set the number of days before the computer account is disabled after it has been deemed inactive. To leave the computer account enabled, clear the check box.
Execute this program or script	Select to run a program or script. Type a path or browse to locate a program or script to run. NOTE: The script must be a local path on the Active Administrator server.
Script arguments (optional)	Type arguments, or browse to build arguments by selecting parameters from a list. To build arguments 1 Click the browse button. 2 Build the argument in the lower pane by typing switches and inserting parameters from the list. To insert a selected parameter from the list, double-click the parameter or click Insert. The parameter is inserted at the location of the cursor. EXAMPLE Type /dom:, double-click %DOMAIN%; or select %DOMAIN%, and click Insert. Repeat for additional parameters. /dom:%DOMAIN% /t:%TYPE% /sid:%SID% 3 Click OK.
Execute program or script in this folder (optional)	Type a path or browse to locate a working folder in which to run the selected program or script. If you leave this box blank, the working folder is the System directory on the Active Administrator server. NOTE: The working folder must be a local path on the Active Administrator server.

5	Select a time of day to check for inactive accounts.

6	Select domains to monitor.

a	Click Domains.

b	Click Add, select a domain to monitor for inactive accounts, and click OK.

c	By default, all domain controllers are included in checking for inactive accounts. To exclude a domain controller, clear the check box.

NOTE: You must have at least one domain controller that is not excluded in order to check for inactive users and computers.

7	By default, all organizational units, users, and groups are included in checking for inactive accounts. To save time, you can select organizational units, or users and groups to exclude when checking for inactive accounts.

a	Click Exclusions.

b	Click Add.

c	Choose the domain.

d	You can choose to exclude selected organizational units, to exclude selected users and groups, or to use a condition to identify exclusions (for user and computer objects only).

NOTE: To reload the list of OUs, click Refresh. All selections are cleared and any newly added OUs appear in the list.

To exclude organizational units

a	Select Exclude Organizational Unit.

b	Click Add.

c	Select one or more organizational units to exclude. If you select an OU, all the OUs below it are also selected, but you can clear the check box to remove it from the selection.

d

Click OK.

To exclude users or groups

a	Select Exclude Users and Groups.

b	Click Add.

c	Select one or more users and groups to exclude.

d

Click OK.

To use a condition

a	Select to either Start with or End with a condition (user and computer objects only).

b	Type the condition.

e

Click OK.

8	Set up notifications.

NOTE: The email server must be configured to send notifications. See Setting email server options.

a	Click Notifications.

By default, the Active Administrator owner email address that was added during installation automatically receives email notifications for both inactive users and computers.

NOTE: The Active Administrator owner was identified in the AA Configuration Wizard. To change the AA Owner email address, see Managing email addresses.

b	To add more email recipients, click Add, type an email address, and click OK.

c	Select to include either both inactive user and computer accounts or just one type by clearing or enabling the Users and Computers check box.

9	To preview the list of inactive users and computers, click Preview.

To sort the contents by a column, click the column header.

 

NOTE: To manage the Inactive Accounts email address list, see Managing email addresses.

10	To setup a schedule for email notifications, select Users and Computers, click Set Schedule, select how often to send the email, the time zone, and start time, and click OK.

11	Click Save.

Checking for inactive users and computers

Checking for inactive users and computers

You also can create a schedule to check for inactive users and computers. See Configuring inactive users and computers.

To check for inactive users and computers

1	Select Security & Delegation | Inactive Accounts.

2	If necessary, make any changes to the configuration. See Configuring inactive users and computers.

3	Click Run Now.

4	Click Yes.

5	To view the progress of the task, select Configuration | Tasks. See Managing tasks.

Viewing inactive users and computers history

Viewing inactive users and computers history

To view inactive users and computers history

1	Select Security & Delegation | Inactive Accounts.

2	Click History.

3	From the History Source list, select the live database or an archive database.

4

Click Go.

5	Select the domain to examine.

NOTE: If you do not see the domain you need, the domain was not added to the configuration. See Configuring inactive users and computers.

The Archives column lists all the past occurrences when the selected domain was checked for inactive users and computers.

▪	To filter the list of archives, click Filter, enable the filter, select the date, and click Filter.

▪	To remove the filter, click Clear Filter.

6	Select an archive to view. To sort the contents by a column, click the column header.

▪	The Users area lists the inactive users discovered during the selected archive run.

▪	The Computers area lists the inactive computers discovered during the selected archive run.