Active Directory synchronization using TNI

Synchronizing with Active Directory allows you to automatically transfer the OU structure to your network tree. A group will be created for each OU in the current domain, and each computer in the domain will be moved to its proper place in the structure. You can synchronize both the entire storage and the individual storage group.

To be able to synchronize the storage with AD, you must set the AD object’s LDAP address in the properties of the Storage root or a group. Then right-click the root node or a group and choose one of the two synchronization options:

Synchronize storage with AD will prompt you to synchronize groups, devices and AD users. Synchronize with AD is limited to groups and devices.

Next, a confirmation window will appear.

In the confirmation window, you can select specific groups, assets or users, and confirm operations with them as well.

In the lower part of the window, the following buttons are available for selecting display modes for the task tree synchronization:

Group view mode – displays operations in the form of a complex tree structure with nesting by groups, assets and users.
Simple view mode – displays with minimal nesting, all synchronization tasks are shown in one list in the corresponding task categories.

To be able to synchronize a separate group in the storage, set the AD object’s LDAP address in the group properties. Then right-click the group node and choose Synchronize with AD.

During the synchronization, assets will receive Location and Description retrieved from AD (if they are filled), and also the OS Version (for assets that have logged into the domain at least once).

Users are also synchronized with AD during every Storage synchronization and can be synced separately by going to the Users tab and clicking Synchronize with AD. This function retrieves AD users with their names, positions, contact info, etc. and places them into your Storage for convenient search and report building.

Placeholders are stubs and they are created for each device that has been discovered in the domain but has not yet been scanned. These placeholders are empty nodes that can be rescanned to retrieve inventory information. They will be displayed as  in the Network tree, and the following hint will be displayed in the Viewer & reports General information tab for such assets:

Placeholders contain some basic information from AD: Description, Location, OS name, its version and installed Service Pack. Right-clicking on a stub and using the context menu you can Rescan the device selected to receive the full data or Convert it to a custom asset .

You also get to choose which action to take if a previously scanned PC has not been discovered in the domain during synchronization: move it to a separate group or delete it.

The main settings of Active Directory synchronization are located in Options General (the Advanced settings mode)

You can also configure TNI to perform synchronization on startup, select the subjects for synchronization and etc. by going to Scheduler and adding the appropriate task.

Active Directory synchronization is one-way only: it’s only possible to import data from AD to TNI at this time.

Sometimes, it may be required if the computer from which the synchronization takes place is not in a domain and/or not in the local network of a domain controller. In this case, select a group in the network tree and go to its Properties.

By here specify the network address of the domain controller, its own IP / hostname / FQDN.

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