fireburn11
asked on
Replicate AD OU structure in pre-production lab
Hi All,
I need to set up a DC in our Pre-prodcution lab that replicate the same OU structures in our production AD. and export all group policies from production DC to the PP DC.
I dont need user accounts or computer accounts replicated over. So just OUs and group policy.
We are running on 2008R2.
What would be the best way of doing this.
please advise.
Thanks
I need to set up a DC in our Pre-prodcution lab that replicate the same OU structures in our production AD. and export all group policies from production DC to the PP DC.
I dont need user accounts or computer accounts replicated over. So just OUs and group policy.
We are running on 2008R2.
What would be the best way of doing this.
please advise.
Thanks
Ok so im pretty sure this will work for you as far as creating the OU structure. This will use the DS series of tools. It will be a two step process first you will need to dump your production OUs to a text file and then if necessary change distinguished names if the domain name is different. This can be done pretty easily in excel.
So to dump all the ous for your domain you can use the following command on a computer that has the adminpak installed.
dsquery ou -limit 0 > c:\file.txt
This will dump the distinguished name of your ous like below.
"OU=Blah,DC=company,DC=com
If necessary you can import this file into excel and then use find/replace to modify the DC=company,DC=com if it is different in your test environment.
Once you have that done you will use DSadd in your test environment to create the OUs again.
dsadd ou "OU=Blah,DC=testenvironmen
You have two ways of doing this. You can either create a script to loop the text file or the way I do it is just use excel to autofill the dsadd ou part then copy all of the entries to a batch file and run it.
I hope this makes sense below are links to the DSquery and DSadd commands
http://tmdnet.nothave.com/book/OS/MANUALS/COMMANDS/D/DSQUERY.HTM
http://tmdnet.nothave.com/book/OS/MANUALS/COMMANDS/D/DSADD.HTM
If you have any questions let me know and i will do my best to assist.
So to dump all the ous for your domain you can use the following command on a computer that has the adminpak installed.
dsquery ou -limit 0 > c:\file.txt
This will dump the distinguished name of your ous like below.
"OU=Blah,DC=company,DC=com
If necessary you can import this file into excel and then use find/replace to modify the DC=company,DC=com if it is different in your test environment.
Once you have that done you will use DSadd in your test environment to create the OUs again.
dsadd ou "OU=Blah,DC=testenvironmen
You have two ways of doing this. You can either create a script to loop the text file or the way I do it is just use excel to autofill the dsadd ou part then copy all of the entries to a batch file and run it.
I hope this makes sense below are links to the DSquery and DSadd commands
http://tmdnet.nothave.com/book/OS/MANUALS/COMMANDS/D/DSQUERY.HTM
http://tmdnet.nothave.com/book/OS/MANUALS/COMMANDS/D/DSADD.HTM
If you have any questions let me know and i will do my best to assist.
ASKER
Hi Tasment,
I was able to import the OU stroucturs and groups, now I really need to import the GPOs into the test envirnment.
can you be more specific about "For Group Policy, you can use GPMC to backup all your GPOs objects.
You can then import them in the new domain. Maybe you will need a migration table (it's a file to translate security accounts by example). I hope GUID will be preserved, else all GPOs linked will be break. "
Thanks alot!
I was able to import the OU stroucturs and groups, now I really need to import the GPOs into the test envirnment.
can you be more specific about "For Group Policy, you can use GPMC to backup all your GPOs objects.
You can then import them in the new domain. Maybe you will need a migration table (it's a file to translate security accounts by example). I hope GUID will be preserved, else all GPOs linked will be break. "
Thanks alot!
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ASKER
migration table is the key, Thanks
You can find reals examples here (in the zip attached) : http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/Logon/Logon_LDIFDE_example.htm
If your target domain has the same name as your production domain, you don't need to use the -c swith in the script.
Maybe you will need to add some attributes for the export, because i think you want to preserve group policy links on your OUs, therefore you will need to add attributes like gpLink and gpOptions.
But i don't know if the GUID associated in this attribute will be the same when you'ill import all GPOs objects.
For Group Policy, you can use GPMC to backup all your GPOs objects.
You can then import them in the new domain. Maybe you will need a migration table (it's a file to translate security accounts by example). I hope GUID will be preserved, else all GPOs linked will be break.