Boston- Area I T Network Professionals Learn How Group Policy Works
GPO Basics
Group Policy Objects (GPOs) can be used to deploy a wide variety of policy control settings to large numbers of computer accounts and user accounts. GPOs consist of two halves; User configuration settings which applies to user objects in AD regardless of which compliant workstation they log on from, and Computer configuration settings which only apply to computer objects in AD. The basic use of group policy is to put the settings in a GPO, and then link the GPO to the domain or an OU containing the user and computer accounts the settings should be applied to.
GPOs can be created using the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) Snap?in. However, on some earlier editions of Windows Server, the snap?in is not available by default and is either added via service pack or a specified download. For systems without the GPMC GPOs can be created and edited in Active Directory Users and Computers.
GPO information is actually split and stored in two locations The Group Policy Container (GPC) and The Group Policy template (GPT). The Group Policy container is an Active Directory container that contains GPO properties, such as version information, GPO status, and other component settings.
The Group Policy template (GPT) is a file system folder containing policy data stored in .adm files. The data includes security settings, script files, and information about applications that are available for installation. The GPT is located in the system volume folder (SysVol) in the domain Policies sub?folder.
A GPO is replicated to other domain controllers in two ways. The GPC is replicated using Active Directory replication, and the GPT is replicated by the File Replication Service. Policy settings from a GPO are applied only when the GPC and GPT are synchronized. Because Active Directory Domain Services provide multi?master write capability, conflicts could occur if a GPO is modified by two administrators simultaneously. To avoid conflicts, the most recent change wins by default, GPO edits are made on the PDC Emulator to prevent conflicts.
Useful Tools to Troubleshoot GPO’s
Several useful tools to troubleshoot GPOs are available. Among them are Secedit/gpupdate, Resultant Set of Policies and even the GPMC itself offers several valuable trouble-shooting options.
Secedit /refreshpolicy {machine policy | user policy} can be used to refresh policies changes on Windows 2000 systems. Add the /Force parameter to force a complete refresh on client.
For refreshing policies on Windows XP and above, use gpupdate.exe. Some useful parameters for gpupdate include /force, which will force a reprocessing of all GPOs (without this switch gpupdate only looks for changes), /target, which will update selected systems, / V verbose and / Z ‘Zuper’ verbose mode.
GPMC, aside from simply providing an interface to create, edit, and link GPOs, provides some useful trouble-shooting functions including the ability to Backup/Restore GPOs and the ability to Export/Import GPOs!
Finally, if there is no other option, you can recover the default Domain and Domain Controller GPOs to their factory state by using DCGPOFIX.exe.
Group Policy Settings Reference
The policy settings included in this spreadsheet cover Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional, and Windows 2000. These files are used to expose policy settings when you edit Group Policy objects (GPOs).
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Cindy Lazzaro
Cindy Lazzaro has been a trainer since the early 90′s, starting with supporting and training on Novell Netware. She took a two year hiatus from training starting in 2005 to work as a professional service engineer for a local company specializing in installing and supporting ISA Server and the Internet Application Gateway. Aside from the technical certifications MCSE NT4 -2008 with specialties in SCCM, SharePoint, and exchange server, Security +, A plus and Net +, she has a BA in English with a minor in Physics and a Masters in Management.
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