Question

Loopback processing mode 2003

Asked by: Sid_F

I have looked into loopback policy mode and found the below posting, am I correct in saying enabling loopback policy mode is really nothing more than telling a user policy that if it encounters a computer policy in place on any machine that the computers settings should replace the user settings if "replace mode" mode is seltected and merge the settings when "merge mode" is selected allowing the machine to win over user settings if a conflict occurs. All corrections are welcome !!

An example of loopback processing will be
you are in a school environment and you have a Math classroom with 20 computers in its own ou,
but you do not want any users who login to these machines to be able to run the calculator program.

That policy is found under the USER section here  User Config > Administrative templates > system > 'don't run specified applications'

If we were to set this policy just as a normal user policy and apply it to an OU with the students in it then no matter what computer the students log into they will receive this policy and cannot run the calculator program.

Instead you set the user policy section as described above and then in the computer section you set the loopback policy and apply the
GPO to the OU that the computers are in.
Then the users who login to this classroom will receive this User Policy setting and
when a user logs into another computer in a different OU they can still run the calc program

you apply the GPO to an ou with computers in it
and it tells all users who login to these computers to apply the user settings that are defined in the same policy

you use loopback processing mode when you want to apply a user setting
to all users who login only to a specific set of computers

sorry...that took longer to say than expected, hope it didn't add to the confusion

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Asked On
2009-06-04 at 14:54:03ID24465380
Tags

windows 2003 policy loopback processing

Topics

Windows 2003 Server

,

Windows XP Operating System

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Answers

 

by: fm250Posted on 2009-06-04 at 15:44:52ID: 24552089

Look this link, it  might help. note that I have noticed when applying gp it sometimes takes a while to apply even if you update. hope this helps:

http://grouppolicy.editme.com/Loopback  

 

by: Sid_FPosted on 2009-06-04 at 15:56:50ID: 24552157

I have read the article already its really more of a confirmation that the above is either right or wrong that i was looking for

 

by: fm250Posted on 2009-06-04 at 16:37:50ID: 24552412


the first part is correct.  for second part which is ( merge mode)  would be used to get  a combination of both the user and computer.

hope this helps

 

by: fm250Posted on 2009-06-04 at 16:52:21ID: 24552488

Also computer setting generally takes precedence, but it is not always the case since computer starts and user login afer that and users settings get applied.

 

by: oBdAPosted on 2009-06-05 at 02:04:28ID: 24554499

Your understanding of Loopback processing is not correct.
User Configuration policies and Computer Configuration have nothing to do with each other, and this behavior isn't changed with the Loopback policy.
A user configuration policy is normally only applied to *user* objects in or below the OU to which the GPO is linked. Since this user object is always the same, it would be impossible to have different *user* policies depending on the *computer* the user is logging on to. Applying the Loopback policy to a computer makes this possible.
As soon as the Loopback policy is applied to a computer, *user* policies applied to this *computer* object will be applied to users logging on to this machine. The mode in which the Loopback policy is configured determines what happens with the "normal" user policies coming from the *user* *object* in AD. In Replace mode, the user object policies are discarded. In Merge mode, the user object policies are applied first, then the loopback user policies are applied (so the "looped back" user policies applied to the computer object have priority if they conflict).
Loopback processing of Group Policy
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/231287

fm250,
there is no "general precedence" when it comes to user and computer policies. User settings are written to HKCU, computer settings are written to HKLM, and it is *ONLY* the application evaluating the registry keys that decides whether it will look only in HKLM, only in HKCU, or in both, and which setting has priority in case of a conflict.

 

by: Sid_FPosted on 2009-06-05 at 02:16:31ID: 24554552

Ok, I'm finding this a little hard to follow, could you possibly give me a basic example of an everyday scenario with as much detail as possible. Thanks!

 

by: oBdAPosted on 2009-06-05 at 02:55:50ID: 24554789

A typical scenario where loopback is required is a terminal server environment. For example, when the user logs on to his normal desktop, he should have relatively few restrictions, but when logging on to a terminal server, more restrictions need to be imposed. Most of these restrictions are user based, so with regular GPO processing in place, no matter where the user will log on, he will always receive the exact same set of user policies, because it's always the same user object at the same AD location with the same GPOs applied. Applying user policies to the terminal server OU at this point will have no effect, because the user object is not in or below this OU.
By enabling the loopback processing mode on a terminal server, *user* configuration policies applied to the computer object will now be processed when a user is logging on to a terminal server, even if the user object is NOT in the terminal server OU.
See the simplified AD structure below.
SomeUser will will always receive the GPO USER-StandardDesktop, because it is linked to the OU with his object in it.
WITHOUT the GPO COMPUTER-Loopback applied to the terminal server OU, the GPO USER-Terminalserver-Restrictions (with settings in User Configuration) will have no effect at all because there's no user object in the terminal server OU.
WITH the GPO COMPUTER-Loopback applied, the GPO USER-Terminalserver-Restrictions will now be applied to SomeUser (and every other user) whenever he logs on to SomeTerminalserver (depending on the loopback mode either replacing or merging with the settings from GPO USER-StandardDesktop).

Users [GPO USER-StandardDesktop]
  +--SomeUser
Terminalserver [GPO COMPUTER-Loopback][GPO USER-Terminalserver-Restrictions]
  +--SomeTerminalserver
                                              
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by: fm250Posted on 2009-06-05 at 09:44:01ID: 24558115

thanks oBdA for the corrections.  yes it is the application and that is way you would see different behavior!

 

by: fellowesexadminPosted on 2011-07-13 at 05:37:53ID: 36179978

On the GPO, what goes in for the security filter? The terminal server host name or the users?

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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