Streamlining Active Directory Identity Management

Streamlining Active Directory Identity Management

Every company that has Active Directory as a backbone of its network infrastructure faces an identity management task that requires proper planning and organization.
Native AD management tools do not provide capabilities for effective and secure Active Directory identity management.

With this fact in mind software manufacturers were deep in thoughts for years when creating opportunities for fast and secure Active Directory identity management. The idea was to create a solution that would enhance native Active Directory management tools, providing more security and automation to the identity management process. Thus, the ready solution should cover the following capabilities:

Provisioning and Deprovisioning
Delegation of Control
Approval-Based Workflow
Regulatory Compliance

Provisioning and Deprovisioning:
Provisioning is the process of managing the lifecycle of an employee from the day when he is hired through all the changes in his jobs in the company and to the day of his leaving for any reasons. This lifecycle starts with creation of AD account, home folder, Exchange mailbox, adding user account to security groups and distribution lists. In case the employee takes another position in the company, his user account should be reprovisioned and after his leaving the company, completely deprovisioned due to security reasons. Now let’s imagine this difficult, error-prone and time-consuming task, if executed manually. The solution that reduces these processes to minimum or simply automates them is a must for any enterprise.

Delegation of Control:
Native Active Directory management solutions do not provide fast and secure ways of permissions delegation. It is difficult to track what permissions have been assigned to a particular user and more difficult to revoke unnecessary ones that results in a huge Active Directory security threat. Fast and secure Active Directory identity management is impossible without solving problem of permissions delegation. The way out is a role-based permissions assignment. This model provides opportunity to assign permissions to users basing on their job roles.

Approval-Based Workflow:
Even though role-based delegation of permissions greatly increases security by providing non-administrative users the opportunity to fulfill only certain tasks, some of these tasks should still be double-checked both by a user and other responsible persons. Approval-based workflow is just perfect for that. It helps greatly increase control over Active Directory identity management process.

Regulatory Compliance:
Regulatory compliance should always be taken into account in the process of Active Directory identity management. When neglecting enterprise, country-wide and international standards it is possible to be set huge inconvenience if not penalties. The way out is maintaining data integrity that can be fulfilled only by means of third party solutions.

At first sight Active Directory identity management is easy and fast process, but enterprises are forced to invest huge sums of money for fulfilling it by means of native Active Directory management tools, and in the end it turns to be complex, error-prone and time-consuming task. Third party solutions provide more guarantees and opportunities. There are a lot of them on the market nowadays. Just make sure the selected software corresponds to all requirements of Active Directory identity management.

 

How to Backup Active Directory

How to Backup Active Directory

Most network environments rely on active directories up to a certain level. Some of the components of a network environment that rely on active directories include service accounts and applications, user accounts and their associated mailbox exchange properties, group policy objects that are responsible for controlling PC behavior and the infrastructure components. Active directories are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that all relevant materials and fields are replicated thoroughly. Despite the presence of active directories, it is extremely important to learn how to backup active directory so that you have an offline backup somewhere for all your vital materials.

Most people however prefer to bury their heads in the sand and assume that all is well and that they cannot require a system restoration of such magnitude. This however doesn’t work in most cases as viral infections are all over especially for those who frequent the net or those who have a tendency of using flash drives to transfer files. It is important to consult properly on active directory backup environment in case you suffer a disastrous viral attack. The overall process of backing up the active directory environment is pretty easy as all tools have been included in windows operating system.

Even the lowly NTBackup has a very important function as concerns the enterprise environment. One of these purposes is the snapshotting of the active directory environment. It is important to ensure that the backup system has a plug in to backup active directory so as to save time during the actual recovery process. Ideally, you need to start off by establishing a point from where to actually do the recovery. Have two domain controllers’ backups one of which should base its operations from a server that has the role of master operations. This server should not be the RID master as this should never be restored. You will need media that you can write on to. Ensure that the media that you are going to use as you go about backing up active directory doesn’t require other services or software’s in order to be read.

Some of the best media for writing active directories have been identified as being the flash drives. This is principally because; you do not need to carry out a point in time restoration. Flash drives are very effective in this endeavor. If you are concerned about security risks where cyber criminals may attempt to access your corporation’s vital information, you can opt to use an encrypted flash drive. A good source of encrypted flash drives is those produced by Ironkey. In case you are still wondering how to create backup for your active directory, here is one command that you are required to run.

You might need to install windows server backup if you don’t have it especially those on windows 2008 systems. Once you have the backup in your system, you will have to learn how to backup your active directory from this source. Come up with a standalone server. Use the same operating system as the backup. Install the windows server backup; ensure that the backup file is placed safely in your servers file system. Next, reboot the server and key in F8. Select the directory restore mode option and proceeds with the restore.

This article touched the basics of the topic. I have 2 more resources related to the above. They are active directory and how to backup active directory. They are worth a read.

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How to Install Active Directory on Windows Server 2003

How to Install Active Directory on Windows Server 2003

System Hardware Requirements

For an x86-based computer:

Recommended minimum speed of 550 megahertz (MHz). The minimum supported speed is 133 MHz. Maximum of eight processors per computer is supported. Processors any one Intel Pentium/Celeron , AMD K6/Athlon/Duron . 256 MB of RAM recommended. And 128 MB is the minimum supported, and 32 gigabytes GB is the maximum supported.

For an Itanium-based computer:

Minimum speed of 733 MHz. and maximum of eight processors per computer is support. 1 GB of RAM minimum, and maximum.1024 GB.

For an x64-based computer:

Minimum speed of 1.4 GHz. and maximum of eight processors per computer is support. 1 GB of RAM minimum, and maximum.1024 GB Installation of Active Directory

Now I am describing how to install and configure Active Directory in a company environment on Windows Server 2003. Note that we will need two networked servers that are running on Windows Server 2003 for this purpose in company environment.

Just after installation Windows Server 2003, run the Active Directory installation command Wizard to create the new Active Directory by following these steps;

Insert the Server 2003 disk in CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Now Click on Start, and then click Run, and then type dcpromo. Click OK to start the Active Directory Installation Wizard, and then click Next. Click Domain controllers for a new domain, and then click Next. Click Domain in a new forest, and then click Next. Specify the full DNS name for the new domain. such as iyogi.local, for this setting. Click Next. Accept the default domain NetBIOS name Click Next. We can Set the database and log file location to the default setting of the c:winntntds folder, and then click Next. Set the Sysvol folder location to the default setting of the c:winntsysvol folder, and then click Next. Click Install and configure DNS server on this computer, and then click Next. Click Permissions compatible only with Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 servers or operating systems, and then click Next. Because this is a company environment, leave the password for the Directory Services Restore Mode Administrator blank. Note that in a full production environment, this password is set by using a secure password format. Click Next. Review and confirm the options that we selected, and then click Next. The installation of Active Directory proceeds. May be this process take several minutes. After the computer restarts, confirm that the DNS service location records for the new domain controller have been created.

Now we confirm the DNS service location records have been created, go these steps:

Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DNS to start the DNS Administrator Console. Expand the server name, expand Forward Lookup Zones, and then expand the domain.

If still you have not able to install Active Directory, then please login here, for further assistance; http://www.iyogibusiness.com/

Andrew Demm is a Small Business Expert. His specialization of field is Active Directory services, windows 2003 server configuration, setup, install and migration. He is providing tech assistance to various company, include iyogibusiness. It provides complete server solution, including server installation, setup,configuration and monitoring.

For more information, please login at www.iyogiBusiness.com

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Active Directory Delegation

Active Directory Delegation

Active Directory delegation is an important task in the process of Active Directory management that requires careful planning and accurate implementation. Native Active Directory management tools are not able to cope with AD delegation tasks due to significant disadvantages. Third party solutions implement role-based access control model that proved its simplicity and effectiveness.

Active Directory management includes many tasks. Some of them are simple, though still very important. The necessity of rights delegation to non-administrative staff occurred when Active Directory administrators spent about 40 per cent of their time fulfilling those simple operations like reset of passwords, modification of users’ personal data, etc. Eventually it was decided that Active Directory delegation is vital to let the administrators solve more important challenges.

Active Directory delegation has a pitfall – security threat. When we deal with sensitive data, security is above all, that is why Active Directory delegation should be carefully planned and implemented with the possibility of constant revision of delegated rights. Native AD management tools do not cope with granular delegation of rights in Active Directory due to the following reasons: absence of central place for permissions storage, need of manual maintenance of multiple ACLs across Active Directory. Moreover, it is a huge problem to track what privileges were granted to users. Help of third party solutions is vital here.

Third party solutions proved their effectiveness for Active Directory delegation with the help of role-based access control approach that refers to delegation of responsibilities in a centralized manner. It is possible to create an administrative role, allocate a set of job functions to it and subsequently assign this administrative role to a user. Such approach helps control delegated permissions, assign and revoke those assigned even to large amount of users with the same job function.

Even though role-based access control helps significantly increase security by means of delegating limited rights to non-administrative staff, some actions still should be verified by responsible persons. This task is easily accomplished by means of approvals that are provided by third party Active Directory management software.

Active Directory delegation is a pressing problem for IT administrators as it involves possibility of security breaches and improper Active Directory audit. Third party AD management tools provide a vast range of features that help cope with the problem of Active Directory delegation, thus greatly reduce administrative misfortunes and headaches.

Experienced IT enthusiast.

 

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Active Directory Help Desk Management

Active Directory Help Desk Management

In search of new markets and new custormers, companies intall offices in new locations. Managing all users in those locations is highly difficult for administrators. Active Directory help desk management allows to reduce administrators’ unproductive time by means of delegating some of their tasks to help desk operators.

Delegation of Permissions for Active Directory Help Desk Management

Delegation of administrative tasks to help desk staff reduces costs and administrative personnel workload, but Active Directory native tools have some limitations and involve repetitve and error-prone operations. These difficulties can be overcome with the help of role-based delegation model implemented in Softerra Adaxes. This model enables central permission management that drastically simplifies any modifications of permissions necessary for a job role and changes of users that need to perform such permissions. Also it enchances the assignment scope capabilities making it possible to delegate rights over several domains, OUs, containers, groups and specific users, virtual collections of objects.

To distribute permissions easier and faster, IT personnel can use built-in security roles. For Active Directory help desk management, the Help Desk security role can be used. This role contains permissions for password reset, account lockouts, and changes of other account options. To adjust the built-in role to the organization needs, IT personnel can remove the permissions it contains and add new ones.

Web-based Active Directory Help Desk Management

Active Directory Web Interface addresses a number of issues giving controlled access to Active Directory resources. With the help of Web Interface, administrators can easily provide an efficient workplace to help desk staff. Web Interface customization capabilities allow to configure the visibility of Web Interface components to display only the functionality necessary for help desk management cutting off the needless parts. For example, Web Interface can display only ‘unlock account’ and ‘reset password’ operations for AD users hiding other operations that help desk staff do not need.

Supervision of Active Directory Help Desk Management

Some operations assigned for help desk management can require additional control, for example, user deletion or creation. For this purpose, Softerra Adaxes offers approval requests that allow you to control critical operations i.e. perform certain operations in Active Directory only after an approval is given by an authorized person.

To control all operations performed with the help of Adaxes in Active Directory, administrators or authorized users can use the service log. It allows them to check operations a specific user performs or determine who performed undesired operations.

Automation of Active Directory Help Desk Management

Help desk technicians perform similar operations over and over. It cannot but influence their attention and concentration. To release help desk staff from daily tasks and save their time and organization costs, routine operations can be automated. Apart from time and cost savings, automation also makes your Active Directory resources consistent and complete with all necessary data, as correctness of all procedures does not depend on the error-prone humans any more.

Swift and accurate Active Directory help desk management influence the whole organization eliminating delays and establishing reliable environment for its employees. Softerra Adaxes provides means to simplify and enchance Active Directory help desk activities and make them more secure, controlled and rapid.

http://adaxes.com/active-directory_help-desk-management.htm

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Regarding Active Directory Management: Enhancing Network Construction And Functionality

Regarding Active Directory Management: Enhancing Network Construction And Functionality

Active Directory management software necessitates an understanding of the individual directories and various programs that are most efficient and effective. Active Directory management is such a critical aspect of your company’s network organization because it provides logical organization in a world that could quite easily turn into a wild ride of unorganized information overload insanity.

*** Briefly looking at the history of Active Directory management ***

Here are a few things to know about the emergence of Active Directory management:

• Active Directory was developed by Microsoft in 1996 and has been useful functionality in the IT world the past 15 years.

• The operating systems running on Windows use it most often, primarily to gather information about and monitor different domains.

• Over time, Active Directory has evolved from being able to view the flow of online data to also facilitating it.

Providing access to important and relevant objects within a network is one of the main attributes of Active Directory. Since it is built on a hierachical structure it is easy to understand. Domains, subjects, tress and forests can all be part of the Active Directory structure.

*** Presenting Spiceworks’ Active Directory management software ***

Spiceworks offers compatibility with Active Directory software with their “PeopleView” Functionality. IT managers are able to easily view visitor profiles with PeopleView. Benefits from this technology are seen both at the webmaster and network manager levels. It contains many great features for IT pros such as resetting user passwords, linking devices to specific users, and view all help tickets from a user at a glance.

How can I make Active Directory work for me?

When it comes to managing user profiles I recommend Spriceworks free Active Directory software! Download there free Active Directory management software, and in minutes, you’ll be able to lock users’ accounts and reset their passwords, link devices to specific users, and so much more.

As if that is not already awesome, Spiceworks.com also provides free support by phone and eMail plus a network of over 1,000,000 IT pros who are actively using their software. Get Spiceworks’ free Active Directory management.com now!

As if that is not already awesome, Spiceworks.com also provides free support by phone and eMail plus a network of over 1,000,000 IT pros who are actively using their software. Now that you know what is Active Directory you can secure your copy of Spiceworks’ free Active Directory management software now!

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Active Directory Tools: Reviewing Active Directory Tools & Services?

Active Directory Tools: Reviewing Active Directory Tools & Services?

Active Directory tools are Network management resources that allow network administrators to manage individual accounts and improve network efficiency. The software is ideal for use in many IT organizations because of its ability to function within big and small network infrastructures alike.

What Will Active Directory Tools Do?

Hierarchical structures of users, devices, resources and services are created using Active Directory tools. Through a sophisticated program, this hierarchical format allows network managers access to query and management applications on a network-wide basis. Active Directory software brings many useful IT related features into play for IT professionals.

Active Directory Let’s You:

• Link devices for specific users

• Reset passwords

• View help tickets for specific users

• Lock user accounts as needed

• Assign policies,

• Apply updates

• Access user information

The software essentially allows network managers to get far more use out of their existing network by providing them a full range of features that can be adjusted to fit company needs. Bottom line, boosting your networks efficiency is more than possible with Active Directory software which allows you to make instant changes on the network and troubleshoot employee account trouble.

Active Directory software is easy to locate, and different software packages offer their own unique features. While certain software products in this market can be extremely expensive there are also free software downloads to consider. Securing the “right” free Active Directory software can result in an enhancement of business efficiency without having to cost you an arm and a leg to afford.

Where Do I Turn For Good Quality Active Directoy Tools That Are Also Free?

Spiceworks.com provides a free Active Directory tool that’ll allow you access to user profiles – without having to spend a cent – ever! Link devices, view help tickets, reset passwords, unlock accounts and so much more with the free Active Directory download from Spiceworks.com.

Even better, Spiceworks software comes with free support via phone and eMail as well as an online community of over 1,000,000 IT professionals for you to access. Get Spiceworks’ free Active Directory tools now!

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Manage Active Directory to implement AD management rules within an organization

Manage Active Directory to implement AD management rules within an organization

Automated working of Active Directory becomes vital if administrator has to manage a large network. This kind of functioning in a large network becomes imperative as it becomes difficult for the administrator to manually create hundreds and thousands of user accounts with appropriate attributes, configure groups, manage password reset situations etc. Also, manual management of Active Directory will waste a lot of time in correcting errors and managing active directory; that doesn’t proves to be productive for the organization.

There are number of third party solutions available online that help an organization to automate Active Directory management so that the administrator is able to keep a close tab on varied AD tasks. User can easily manage Active Directory by managing user accounts, user groups, configuring policies, job scheduling, event filtering and reports.

Talking of large network, being an administrator you will surely have to store data as complex hierarchical structure with various domains that might belong to different geographic locations. This act as a challenge for an administrator as he has Active Directory Manager space where many objects are distributed across varied domains that belonged to different geographic locations.

But with the help of an efficient Active Directory Management and Reporting tool like Lepide Active Directory Management and Reporting all these different tasks can be managed with a single administration platform. This challenge can be easily met and you can easily manage Active Directory with third party Active Directory Management and Reporting console that totally supports cross-domain management functionality.

Access to sensitive data or to the intellectual property can pose threat to the security of your organizational image. Somebody trying to access this data can cause security breach; but in such a situation, you cannot blame anyone as everyone on the network owns the access to the particular folder. But with Active Directory management and reporting tool, you can always keep a tab on varied Active Directory tasks such as Policy Configuration, Printers Management, User Account and Password Management, Group Management, Jobs scheduling and Management, Event Filtering and Management, Computers Management, WMI Control, Shares Management, Managing Distributed File System and Automatic Reports Generation and Management.

Areas where this tool benefits the admin:

User requests of password change, profile information change, new user account creation, and password reset, disabling and enabling users takes a toll on the time of the admin. All these issues can be managed easily with AD management tool.
No need to access or train helpdesk personnel for system management as they can easily manage Active Directory and resolve issues from a centralized platform.
Officers and managers can manage their own accounts, profiles etc
Helps the admin to stay away from performing repetitive tasks

All these benefits help the administrator to manage Active Directory tasks easily and with utmost accuracy. In addition to this, the software helps the admin to generate reports about the functioning of AD objects, user’s accounts and password details which is a gruesome and time-consuming process for AD administrators. This software will help the AD managers to manage Active Directory easily and generate detailed reports related to all AD objects, thereby making AD Management and Reporting effective yet simple.

The author of this article is an Active Directory manager and therefore has gone through several AD Management and Reporting software to manage Active Directory easily. Through this article, the author wants to enlighten his readers about the varied benefits of managing active directory with a third party tool.

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Active Directory Tools by Dovestones Software

Active Directory Tools by Dovestones Software

This guide gives a brief overview of the Active Directory tools and software products available for managing Active Directory. Dovestones Software provides some of the most popular Active Directory (AD) tools used by a wide range of orgranizations. These tools include AD Bulk Users, AD Bulk Contacts, AD Bulk Export, AD Find and Replace, True Last Logon, AD Photos, Home Folder Creator, AD Phonebook, AD Self Update and more. How to export Data from Active Directory

Let’s start with the basics, exporting from Active Directory. AD Bulk Export is an astonishingly simple tool to use, yet it’s powerful and can be fully automated. It allows you to export as much information as you require from Active Directory, this can be for Users, Contacts, Groups and Computer objects. With this tool, all attributes can be exported and you don’t need to make any changes to Active Directory to use it. How to import Data into Active Directory

AD Bulk Users makes importing and modifying large numbers of Active Directory Users easy. It can import simple or very detailed account information such as Passwords, Group Membership, Expiry Date, Profile locations. It can also create your Exchange Mailboxes and is compatible with Exchange 2003, 2007 and 2010. You can import from a CSV file or SQL table.

Using Find And Replace with Active Directory

AD Find and Replace is designed to perform the familiar find and replace operation that you see in Word and Excel etc against Active Directory.

Find and Replace text within Active Directory
Quick and easy to use
A great time saver for busy administrators
Large list of supported attributes
Use Wildcards
Preview before making any changes

Spring clean Active Directory, removing unused and obsolete user computer accounts

Locating old and redundant Active Directory accounts can be a chore. As you may know Active Directory records the last time a user or computer logs on, this time is stored in the lastLogon attribute but this attributes isn’t replicated so each domain controller in the domain will more than likely have a different logon time for each user/computer. By using True Last Logon you can quickly and easily query each DC and find the True Last Logon time making it easy to identify those unused accounts. True Last Logon displays the true last logon time along with detailed account information, enabling you to apply filters and perform bulk actions on the results.

Why AD photos?

AD photos allows you to import a single photo or multiple photos into Active directory into the thumbnailPhoto attribute or the jpegPhoto attribute for use with outlook, exchange, SharePoint and AD Phonebook.

 

Andrew Moss is a writer for www.dovestones.com. Dovestones Software has been creating tools for managing Microsoft based networks since 2005. They specialize in Active Directory Software and Active Directory Tools.

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Active Directory Security Reports

Active Directory Security Reports

Active Directory Security Reports are required as security is the prime concern when it comes to storage and access of data in medium to large organizations. When through Active Directory the access is granted to employees of the organization, two issues are kept close to the heart. One, to whom the authority to access such resources is granted and two, in what ways can these authorities access these resources. The comprehensive system of access delegation put into place through Microsoft’s Active directory technology is a stellar way of making sure that the valuable data of your organization gets accessed by only those who are handpicked by the organization for the job.

Microsoft’s Active Directory Security Reports technology is the most formidable name in the field of identity and access management in Microsoft Windows Server based IT infrastructures. What gives Active Directory the edge is its supreme functionality. It stores and protects all vital components of security including user accounts, security groups, group policies and even computer accounts. This aspect of Active Directory makes it one of the best security technologies for any IT infrastructure.

For an organization to successfully integrate Microsoft’s Active Directory technology, it needs a good reporting system to be put into place. In this regard, the said technology plays a stellar role in security and compliance auditing. To perform this function, organizations need to understand the various ways of Active Directory Security Auditing Tool. Such reports are a very important resource that gives valuable information about the security setup of an IT infrastructure. The security audit and regulatory compliance reporting thus becomes an issue of tremendous concern for the organizations, which need to quickly develop a know-how of these reports. These reports often cover user account management, security group management, and even delegated administrative access management.

Given that the IT administrators have the right tools at their disposal, creating the audit reports would not be that hard a task. In fact the availability of such tools would rather speed-up the whole process of collection and auditing. The Active Directory tools used in IT setups all round the globe are a great way to make reports quickly as well as in the most reliable manner possible. One of the biggest advantages of the Active Directory Security Reports is their ability to facilitate the IT administrators to write PowerShell scripts for Active Directory or LDAP scripts to generate these reports. Despite all this, writing such scripts becomes time-consuming, given the sheer volume at hand and therefore IT admins choose to use a 3rd party reporting solution to fulfill such needs.

Custom inbuilt scripts remain a great way to for IT administrators to understand the ways in which they can perform the audit and also report in Active Directory. 3rd party automated management tools are also used. This due to the fact that Microsoft does not seem to provide appropriate tools to perform this function. Still there are many 3rd party Active Directory reporting tools available that can assist IT administrators in making this job easy and efficient for them to carry out.

Active Directory is the most definitive answer yet to all your IT security related problems. Various tools involved in Active Directory are Active Directory Security Auditing Tool, Active Directory Security Reports, Active Directory Administrative Access Reports, Active Directory Last Logon Reports.

Paramount Defenses Inc., Microsoft valued partner offering global IT security services for Active Directory. Gold Finger, a trustworthy security solution generates active directory security reports and Active Directory Last Logon Reports.

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