Question

computers in active directory

Asked by: kris16

Hi, Is there a way to find out the genuine inactive computer objects from an OU. I guess DSQUERY COMPUTER -INACTIVE X could help, but would to know if there a better way to find the GENUINE inactive computers so as to clean the AD.

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Asked On
2008-07-09 at 01:59:51ID23549463
Tags

Microsoft

,

Windows 2003

Topic

Active Directory

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: adamskiangelPosted on 2008-07-09 at 02:12:17ID: 21961660

# This Perl code finds inactive computer accounts

# ---------------------------------------------------------------
# From the book "Active Directory Cookbook" by Robbie Allen
# ISBN: 0-596-00466-4
# ---------------------------------------------------------------

#-----------------------
# Script Configuration
#-----------------------
# Domain and container/OU to check for inactive computer accounts
my $domain = 'amer.rallencorp.com';

# set to empty string to query entire domain
my $computer_cont = 'cn=Computers,';

# Number of weeks used to find inactive computers
my $weeks_ago = 30;
#-----------------------
# End Configuration
#-----------------------

use strict;
use Win32::OLE;
$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3;
$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3;
use Math::BigInt;

# Must convert the number of seconds since $weeks_ago
# to a large integer for comparison against lastLogonTimestamp
my $sixmonth_secs = time - 60*60*24*7*$weeks_ago;
my $intObj = Math::BigInt->new($sixmonth_secs);
$intObj = Math::BigInt->new($intObj->bmul('10 000 000'));
my $sixmonth_int = Math::BigInt->new(
$intObj->badd('116 444 736 000 000 000'));
$sixmonth_int =~ s/^[+-]//;

# Setup the ADO connections
my $connObj = Win32::OLE->new('ADODB.Connection');
$connObj->{Provider} = "ADsDSOObject";
$connObj->Open;
my $commObj = Win32::OLE->new('ADODB.Command');
$commObj->{ActiveConnection} = $connObj;
$commObj->Properties->{'Page Size'} = 1000;

# Grab the default root domain name
my $rootDSE = Win32::OLE->GetObject("LDAP://$domain/RootDSE");
my $rootNC = $rootDSE->Get("defaultNamingContext");

# Run ADO query and print results
my $query = "<LDAP://$domain/$computer_cont$rootNC>;";
$query .= "(&(objectclass=computer)";
$query .= "(objectcategory=computer)";
$query .= "(lastlogontimestamp<=$sixmonth_int));";
$query .= "cn,distinguishedName;";
$query .= "subtree";
$commObj->{CommandText} = $query;
my $resObj = $commObj->Execute($query);
die "Could not query $domain: ",$Win32::OLE::LastError,"\n"
unless ref $resObj;

print "\nComputers that have been inactive for $weeks_ago weeks or more:\n";
my $total = 0;
while (!($resObj->EOF)) {
my $cn = $resObj->Fields(0)->value;
print "\t",$resObj->Fields("distinguishedName")->value,"\n";
$total++;
$resObj->MoveNext;
}
print "Total: $total\n";

 

by: fishadrPosted on 2008-07-09 at 02:19:42ID: 21961694

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Therefore you would have to query the LastLogon on all DC's get the latest one for each computer and this is the information you need.

If you are running at Windows Server 2003 functional levelthere is a new attribute LastLogonTimestamp which is replicated to all servers.It only updates if the other DC's date for a computer object is older than 14 days so this method is quick and only accurate to around 14 days i.e. an indication if the computers have logged on recently

See the following:
http://www.rlmueller.net/Last%20Logon.htm
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms676824.aspx

and here for conversion code:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/topics/win2003/lastlogon.mspx

 

by: fishadrPosted on 2008-07-09 at 02:22:17ID: 21961704

Not sure what happened with the post  so here it is again:

Computers can authenticate against any DC in the infrastructure, when this happens the LastLogon timestamp is updated on that DC - this is not replicated. Therefore you would have to query the LastLogon timestamp on all DC's get the latest one for each computer and this is the information.

If you are running at Windows Server 2003 functional level there is a new attribute LastLogonTimestamp which is replicated to all servers. It only updates if the other DC's date for a computer object is older than 14 days so this method is quick and only accurate to around 14 days i.e. an indication

See the following:
http://www.rlmueller.net/Last%20Logon.htm
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms676824.aspx

and here for conversion code:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/topics/win2003/lastlogon.mspx


 

by: adamskiangelPosted on 2008-07-09 at 03:19:56ID: 21961959

i did wonder what all that non relevant code was!

 

by: LauraEHunterMVPPosted on 2008-07-09 at 05:33:15ID: 21962803

Or just download oldcmp.exe from www.joeware.net/freetools, much more functional than dsquery -inactive - can automatically disabled inactive computers, move them to another OU, and/or delete them outright.

 

by: adamskiangelPosted on 2008-07-09 at 06:20:28ID: 21963246

Just tried www.joeware.net/freetools, and that works a treat, nice link laura.. guess my pearl coding makes me look older than my age!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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