Directory Objects & Identity Data Archives

AD Domain Services Directory Objects & Identity Data

Recovering deleted users and groups in Entra

November 21, 2025

Recovering Deleted Users and Groups in Microsoft Entra ID Accidental deletion in Entra can feel like an outage: users can’t sign in, group-based access breaks, app assignments disappear, and you’re suddenly racing the clock. The good news: most Entra objects are soft-deleted first (a “recycle bin”), which gives you a recovery window—if you know where to…

Mapping legacy AD groups to Entra roles

November 14, 2025

Mapping Legacy Active Directory Groups to Microsoft Entra Roles Legacy Active Directory (AD) group designs often carry years of historical decisions: “one group per admin team,” “one group per tool,” and the classic “Domain Admins-but-not-really” pattern. In Microsoft Entra ID, the control surface changes: privileged actions are driven by roles (directory…

Role-based access control (RBAC) using AD groups

October 17, 2025

Role-based access control (RBAC) using AD groups Role-based access control (RBAC) is the idea that people don’t get permissions because of who they are, but because of what they do. In Windows environments, Active Directory (AD) groups are the most common “glue” used to map job roles to permissions across file shares, apps, databases…

Global catalog placement for large enterprise sites

October 3, 2025

Global Catalog Placement for Large Enterprise Sites The Global Catalog (GC) in Active Directory (AD) is more than a simple directory service role. It is the index that lets users, applications, and domain controllers (DCs) quickly find what they need across an entire forest. If you need a refresher on what a GC is and how it behaves, see Global Catalog…

Understanding group nesting limits and token size

October 3, 2025

Understanding group nesting limits and token size Group nesting is one of Active Directory’s most powerful features: you can model roles and access using a few reusable groups, then compose them into higher-level “business” groups. The trap is that you’re not just building a tidy hierarchy—you’re also building a logon authorization…

Automate OU cleanup in AD with PowerShell (Expert Guide)

September 29, 2025

Automating OU cleanup in Active Directory with PowerShell: the expert’s comparison guide Active Directory · PowerShell automation Automating OU cleanup in Active Directory with PowerShell: the expert’s comparison guide A practical, production-oriented approach to discover, stage, delete, and prune—safely. Short definition for snippets: Automating OU cleanup means discovering…

Auditing Nested Group Memberships: An Expert Guide

September 29, 2025

Auditing nested group memberships for security risks: the expert’s comparison guide Reading time: ~14–18 min • Last updated: 2025-09-29 Nested groups are convenient, flexible, and dangerously opaque. This guide shows how to audit them properly in Active Directory and Microsoft Entra, with path-aware reporting, Windows event alerts, and Graph transitive queries. …

Reviewing user attributes for gaps

September 17, 2025

Reviewing User Attributes for Gaps (Active Directory) User attributes are the “identity data layer” your directory runs on. When attributes are missing, inconsistent, or stale, the problems show up everywhere: authentication quirks, broken email routing, licensing mistakes, access drift, failed audits, and messy offboarding. …

Comparing native vs third-party user management tools

September 17, 2025

Comparing Native vs Third-Party User Management Tools (Active Directory & Hybrid) User management in Windows environments rarely stays “just ADUC.” Once you add scale, audits, hybrid identity, and delegated administration, you’re really solving a lifecycle problem: create, modify, grant access, review, and retire identities—reliably…

Aging analysis of user accounts

September 17, 2025

Aging Analysis of User Accounts A first-principles approach to reducing access risk, cleaning identity sprawl, and improving audit readiness. What “aging analysis” means: Aging analysis is the practice of classifying user accounts by time-based signals (e.g., last sign-in, last password change, time since creation, and time since last entitlement…

Directory Objects & Identity Data

Recovering deleted users and groups in Entra

Mapping legacy AD groups to Entra roles

Role-based access control (RBAC) using AD groups

Global catalog placement for large enterprise sites

Understanding group nesting limits and token size

Automate OU cleanup in AD with PowerShell (Expert Guide)

Auditing Nested Group Memberships: An Expert Guide

Reviewing user attributes for gaps

Comparing native vs third-party user management tools

Aging analysis of user accounts

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