Active Administrator

Active Directory Management, Auditing and Recovery

Overview

Have you ever accidentally deleted an Organisational Unit?
Do you know who's permitted to add computers to your domain?
How do you roll back changes to your Group Policy?
How do you roll back changes to your Active Directory?
How do you track changes in Active Directory?

Active Directory, which provides central authentication and authorisation services in Windows is usually managed through tools provided with the server operating system. These management tools allow for basic administration but lack the enterprise class management capabilities that give administrators the ability to secure, delegate, audit, report and recover the evolving state of their Active Directory infrastructure.

Active Administrator provides these enterprise-class capabilities providing a management, auditing and recovery solution for Active Directory that go far beyond the capabilities of the native management tools supplied within Windows.

Active Administrator features advanced management functionality including centralised auditing of events, real-time alerts, searching and reporting of delegations, self-healing privilege management, and Group Policy offline editing and rollback. The enhancements in version 5.0 include an improved interface and user experience, deeper event reporting and alerting with improved performance and management of collection agents, and support for Windows Server 2008. Active Administrators integrated management console and cost-effective price make it a must-have for Active Directory administrators.

Active Administrator Features

Features	Benefits
Centralised Active Directory Auditing Active Administrator centrally collects events from the event logs on all Domain Controllers using fast, efficient agents which can be run on any member server or directly on the DC.	Active Administrator provides an audit trail of exactly what changes were made in Active Directory, when and by whom. It eliminates the need to manually filter through thousands of event log entries across multiple servers. In version 5.0, this feature has been improved with greater resilience, scalability and performance, and enhanced for AD experts who know exactly what they are looking for as well as novices who need more guidance
Administrator alerts on selected AD events The new alerting engine in version 5.0 lets you build granular rules that send alerts to select administrators whenever one or more events occurs that meets the specified criteria.	Always be the first to know! Administrators can receive direct email notifications of critical changes in their OU or department. Email text can be customised based on different event types. Version 5.0 provides clearer management and listing of all configured alerts.
Powerful, integrated User Interface Active Administrator 5.0s updated interface provides a powerful, yet easy-to-use workspace for effective Active Directory management. All 4 major management functions are integrated into one console, providing a single point of control for the administrator.	Work faster! Rapid access to advanced Active Directory management functions ensures that your network and your IT team run more efficiently. Clearer navigation and greater workspace flexibility allow the administrator to optimize their experience.
Instant Backup and Recovery of Objects and Containers Active Administrator can backup and instantly recover Active Directory objects, attributes, containers and permissions. Active Administrator will also recover Group Memberships and back-linked attributes such as Managed By.	Performing an Authoritative Restore on Domain Controllers in Directory Services Restore Mode is now a thing of the past! Active Administrator gives administrators instant relief from what was once a daunting or impossible task. With instant recovery and no loss of information such as group memberships, your users will be productive again in seconds, not hours, following an accidental deletion or change .
Simplified Security with Active Templates Active Administrator uses Active Templates, collections of permissions that can be repeatedly and consistently applied to give delegated privileges to groups and users. Each template defines the specific permissions required to accomplish Active Directory tasks, such as Create User Accounts or Reset Passwords.	Active Templates take the guesswork out of which permissions need to go where. By utilizing Active Templates, administrators make delegation an easy task and ensure consistent assignment of permissions across Active Directory. Administrators can also create their own custom Active Templates for specialized management roles unique to their organization.
Self-Healing Active Templates	Should permissions assigned with Active Templates be broken, missing permissions are automatically recreated, enforcing your security model. Emails optionally alert administrators of the change.
Comprehensive Group Policy Management	Active Administrator gives administrators the ability to plan, edit, backup and restore, and manage group policy settings, all within a single interface. Active Administrator's Resultant Set of Policies (RSoP) functionality allows administrators to plan "what-if" scenarios when moving a user or computer. Active Administrator automatically maintains a GPO history, allowing rollback to a particular version of a GPO. The ability to restore Group Policies means faster response to corruption or changes that have a negative impact on users.
Offline Group Policy Repository	Administrators can now edit Group Policies offline from Active Directory, ensuring no adverse affects from Group Policy changes. Active Administrator's RSoP functionality can be run against GPOs stored in the offline repository to validate settings, completing the GPO management cycle before the policies are ever published to the live Active Directory.