Hacks #17-24
Most of the time you're administering
Active
Directory, you're probably using the Active
Directory Users and Computers console. Like most GUI tools, this
console is easy to use but ill-suited for complex or repetitive
tasks. That's where scripts come in, and this
chapter includes a handful of VB scripts that leverage the Active
Directory Services Interface (ADSI) and Windows Management
Instrumentation (WMI) to make your life simple. These scripts can be
used to perform tasks such as searching for old computer accounts,
creating organizational units (OUs), delegating
authority over OUs, and displaying information about objects stored
in Active Directory. See Chapter 3 for
additional scripts targeted mainly to administering users and groups
with Active Directory.
As with any custom scripts, be
sure to try them in a test environment
before using them on your production network. Also make sure that you
have the latest scripting engines on the workstation or server from
which you run these scripts. You can download the latest scripting
engines from the Microsoft Scripting Home Page (http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/).
Finally, note that when you work with ADSI you must have the same
applicable rights you use for running the built-in administrative
tools. Typically, what this means is that you need to be a member of
either the Administrators group on the machine being targeted or the
Domain Admins group in an Active Directory environment.