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GPOADmin 5.17 - Quick Start Guide

Installing Quest GPOADmin

Installing Quest GPOADmin
Prerequisites for installation

The install will place all of the roles of GPOADmin on one computer. Ensure that the computer meets the system requirements mentioned above. To prepare for the install, you must perform the following steps:

1
Create a service account for GPOADmin in the root of the domain.
2
Add the service account to the local administrators group on the console computer.
3
Log in to the console as the service account.
4
Ensure that .NET Framework 4.8 and any associated fixes are installed.
5
Ensure that AD LDS is installed.
* 
NOTE: The service account created for GPOADmin should be the account used for AD LDS.
6
Ensure that Microsoft Group Policy Management Console with Service Pack 1 or Remote Server Administration Tools are installed.
7
Create a folder for the backup storage destination and share it on the network.
Ensure that the service account has full access to both the share and NTFS permissions.
* 
NOTE: When you uninstall GPOADmin, registry keys with any connection specific values such as “UseSQL”, “Servername”, “UserID”, and “Password” remain.

If you have no other Quest products installed, you can remove these by deleting the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Quest key. Otherwise, delete the KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Quest\GPOADmin key
To install Quest GPOADmin
1
Run the autorun.exe and select Install.
2
Select Quest GPOADmin and click Install.
3
In the Welcome screen, click Next.
4
Click View License Agreement, scroll down to read the licensing information, select I accept these terms, click OK, then click Next.
5
In the Choose Setup Type dialog box, select Complete.
6
In the Destination Folder dialog box, accept the default location or enter a new location to install GPOADmin and click Next.
7
In the Service Credentials dialog box, enter the service account name and password that you created earlier for use by the GPOADmin Service and click Next.
8
Click Install.
9
After the software has been installed and the Completed dialog box is displayed, click Finish.

Installing GPOADmin with msiexec.exe

If required, GPOADmin and its various components can be installed silently from the command line using the msiexec.exe utility. Please see the GPOADmin User Guide Appendix: GPOADmin Silent Installation Commands for details on the commands and examples for the following types of installation options:

•
All components (Complete GPOADmin installation)
•
Client and components
•
Watcher Service
•
GPMC Extension

Upgrading GPOADmin

During an upgrade, the previous version will be uninstalled and the new version installed. Settings are retained except for those noted below.

* 
NOTE:  

Once an upgrade has begun, you cannot rollback to a previous version. However, if an error occurs, you can manually restore the files from the installation backup folder.

During an upgrade, the installer creates an InstallationBackup folder in the install directory and copies the contents of the Connections folder, MigrationTables folder, and customworkflowactions.xml file into it. Once the existing version is removed and the new version installed, the installer then copies the contents of the InstallationBackup folder back to the correct locations.

Failed Upgrades

If the upgrade fails, and you want to go back to a previous version, you will need to manually install it and restore the files in the InstallationBackup folder to their correct locations:

•
Copy the contents of Connections folder into the Connections folder in the install directory.
•
Copy the contents of the MigrationTables folder into the MigrationTables folder in the install directory. (If this directory does not exist, you will need to create it.)
•
Copy the customworkflowactions.xml file to the install directory.

If you want to restore previously set registry settings, browse to the GPOADminRegistrySettings.reg file located in the InstallationBackup folder in the install directory after re-installing the previous version, right-click and select Merge.

•
Service account considerations:
•
Due to an upgraded encryption algorithm, the service account cannot decrypt previously encrypted passwords. If you are upgrading and using SQL as your configuration store, accessed with SQL authentication, you must re-enter the password for the connection account the first time you connect to the service. The following pre-configured passwords will also need to be re-entered: the SQL Server Backup Store account, the SMTP notifications account, and the Exchange notifications account.
•
In previous versions of GPOADmin ownership and delegation information was not collected as part of the backup process. Since this data is now included in the GPO backup, after upgrading the service account will be added as the owner during the deployment process. Until the GPO is deployed with the newly upgraded version of GPOADmin, GPO delegation may report incorrectly as compliant.
•
After upgrading, ensure that the “Ensure service account has access prior to deployment” service option is checked in the Options dialog.
•
GPOADmin runs under the security context of a privileged service account that must have full access to GPOs in the managed forest. If you plan to change this account, you must unlock all GPOs before making the change.
•
Configuration store considerations:
•
If multiple GPOADmin services share the same configuration store or backup store, they must all be upgraded to the same version.
•
If multiple GPOADmin services share the same configuration store or backup store, it is recommended that all of the services, including the watcher, be stopped before upgrading.
•
Rolling back to a previous configuration store is not supported.
•
Other considerations:
•
Due to security improvements implemented in the latest version of GPOADmin, the existing custom search folder format is no longer supported. To retain your existing custom search folders, they must be converted to the new format before you upgrade.
To update the format, run the Export script found in the Utilities folder of the downloaded installation package, then upgrade to the latest version of GPOADmin.
* 
NOTE: You must specify a new or empty directory when exporting custom search folders.
Once the upgrade is complete, run the Import script located in the same directory to convert your custom search folder to the currently supported format.
•
GPOADmin.CustomSearchFolderExport.ps1
Description: Exports each custom search folders to an xml file in the specified directory.
Parameters: -SearchFilterPath : The location where custom search folder will be exported to.
•
GPOADmin.CustomSearchFolderImport.ps1
Description: Imports each custom search folder found in the specified directory.
Parameters:-SearchFilterPath : The location where the exported custom search folder files are located.
•
If you are running GPMC during an upgrade, you must close and re-open it before the GPO Management tab will display. 
•
If you set a custom report folder path in a previous version, you must change the reports folder path in the User Preferences to point to the existing folder.
•
In a minimum permissions environment, Group Policy Objects with a version of 0.x may fail to deploy correctly. To solve this, make a copy of the GPO and deploy the copy. Once this has been verified as successful, delete the original.
•
When you upgrade a GPOADmin service, you need to upgrade any GPOADmin client, watcher service, or GPMC extension that reference that service.
•
If you have multiple servers to upgrade, the process must be done manually on each of the host computers.
•
The live environment will only be visible for GPOADmin Administrators and users who have been explicitly granted access.
As a GPOADmin administrator, however, you may want to allow users to see the live environment from within the GPOAdmin console. This will, for example, enable you to delegate GPO, OU, or SOM object registration (and recursive registration) to specific users in your organization. To permit a user to see the live environment:

1 Login to GPOADmin as a GPOADmin administrator.
2 Right-click the Live Environment node and select Properties.
3 On the Security tab, add one or more users who require access to the live environment.
4 Click OK.
To upgrade GPOADmin from an existing x64 version:
1
Run the autorun.exe and select Install.
2
Select Quest GPOADmin and click Install.
3
Complete the Installation Wizard.
* 
NOTE: During the upgrade a Files in Use dialog may open and reference the GPOADmin Dashboard Service Host. You can safely ignore this and click OK to proceed with the default Close the applications and attempt to restart them.
To upgrade GPOADmin from an x86 to an x64 version:
1
Open Regedit.exe and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Quest\GPOADmin.
2
Right-click GPOADmin and select Export.
3
Select a location and name for the export file.
4
Run the autorun.exe and select Install.
5
Select Quest GPOADmin and click Install.
6
Complete the Installation Wizard.
* 
NOTE: During the upgrade a Files in Use dialog may open and reference the GPOADmin Dashboard Service Host. You can safely ignore this and click OK to proceed with the default Close the applications and attempt to restart them.
7
Once the upgrade is completed, edit the exported file from step 3 in Notepad.exe.
8
Remove all references to WOW6432Node and ensure there is only one \ between SOFTWARE and Quest.
9
If your export file contains data for "ChangeAuditorService" remove any carriage returns for the XML data. Failure to do so will result in the import failing to set the value.
10
Save the file.
11
Double-click the file or right-click and select Merge to import the file back into the registry.
12
Once the import finishes, restart all GPOADmin services.

Using the database upgrade script

GPOADmin upgrade scripts are located in the Database Scripts sub-directory in the install directory. The database upgrade script for each GPOADmin version is in a sub-directory for that version.

The upgrade scripts are run based on the following:

•
GPOADmin determines if an upgrade is required by checking the internal database version to that of the current database in use.
•
If an upgrade is required, GPOADmin searches for all upgrade scripts with a version greater than the current database version using the pattern "GPOADmin_*_Upgrade.sql".
•
For every upgrade script found, the upgrade process executes the script and then requests the value of the property "GPOADmin Version" from the current database.
•
This process is repeated until the database version currently in use, matches the internal data version of the product. The scripts are processed sequentially from oldest to newest.

If required, you can manually upgrade the GPOADmin database.

To manually upgrade the GPOADmin database
1
Determine the version of the database currently in use by looking at the extended properties of the database in SQL Management Studio.
2
Expand the Database Scripts sub directory in the install directory.
3
Open the directory of the next higher version.
4
Change all instances of [GPOADmin] to the name of the existing database.
5
Execute the upgrade script in the directory.
6
Repeat steps 1 to 4 until the database is fully upgraded.
For example:
To upgrade from GPOADmin 5.15 RTM to 5.16
1
After installing GPOADmin 5.16, expand the “Database Scripts” sub directory in the install directory.
2
Open the 5.15.2.0 directory and run the script.
3
Open the 5.16.0.0 directory and run the script.
To upgrade from GPOADmin 5.15.0 Update 2 to 5.16
1
After installing GPOADmin 5.16, expand the “Database Scripts” sub directory in the install directory.
2
Open the 5.16.0.0 directory and run the script.
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