Synchronization

Synchronization refers to the updating of Discovery with data harvested from an Active Directory domain. The following Discovery events trigger synchronization between Discovery and a domain.

• Previews
• Incremental Synchronization (Apply Changes or Activation)
• Full Synchronization
• Enabling/Disabling Domain Users Accounts or Resetting Domain User Password.

Previews

When the Discovery probe is installed, the first task the probe performs is a preview. A preview updates Discovery with:

• Summary domain data for all folders and items.

Since this is the first time data is "harvested" from a domain, only summary domain data is required.

• Folders are domain objects that contain other objects. This can refer to organizational units or containers, and groups, meaning groups of users.
• Items can refer to computers, users and contacts.

Incremental Synchronization (Apply Changes or Activation)

An incremental synchronization compares Domain Watch policies against any changes the probe agent has detected on monitored OUs, computers, security groups and users in Active Directory and synchronizes the two systems. Only monitored Active Directory records are compared.

After the probe is installed and the initial preview has completed, you should set as many as policies as you can without activating your network domain. Instead click Apply Changes to perform an "on demand" incremental synchronization. This is the same event performed by activation on a recurring fixed time period basis. Continue performing "on demand" incremental synchronization until you are satisfied with the results of your initial configuration. Then click Activation to perform incremental synchronization automatically. The default recurring time period is 60 minutes.

• User added, moved or deleted
• Computer added, moved or deleted
• User or contact changes such as name, address, phone number, email address
• Reorganization of the domain OU hierarchy

Full Synchronization

The Discovery probe accumulates domain changes in real time. If the connection between the Discovery probe and a domain is lost for a period of time, the probe has no way to recover those changes. To ensure domain changes are not lost forever, set probe alerts and schedule a recurring full synchronization, for example, once a week. If a probe alert is triggered, consider running a full synchronization immediately. You should also run a full synchronization if the probe was temporarily deactivated and reactivated.

A full synchronization provides Discovery with a complete update of domain data, including:

• Summary domain data for all folders and items, whether "included" or "excluded"
• Detailed domain data for all "included" folders and "included" items.

Enabling/Disabling Domain Users Accounts or Resetting Domain User Password.

A few important domain changes are uploaded by the probe immediately. These include:

• Password changes
• Enabling / disabling a user account