{"id":373,"date":"2009-05-18T14:58:17","date_gmt":"2009-05-18T14:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/?p=373"},"modified":"2009-05-18T15:54:42","modified_gmt":"2009-05-18T15:54:42","slug":"best-practice-active-directory-schema-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/05\/18\/best-practice-active-directory-schema-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Practice Active Directory Schema Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been a while since I had much to do with the techie side of looking after an AD, but a few bits of work we have on at the moment have had me thinking about AD and Schema updates in particular.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It was quite a coincidence then that <a title=\"Jane Lewis on Technet Blogs\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.technet.com\/janelewis\" target=\"_blank\">Jane Lewis<\/a> over at MS posted up some good info on <a title=\"MSIT's best practive for Schema Extensions\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.technet.com\/janelewis\/archive\/2009\/05\/12\/schema-what-is-the-best-practise-for-updating.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">MSIT\u2019s process<\/a> for evaluating and implementing extensions to MS\u2019s own AD Schema.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst I\u2019ve pasted some of the process below, its well worth heading over to <a title=\"Janes Lewis on Technet Blogs\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.technet.com\/janelewis\" target=\"_blank\">Janes blog<\/a> as she has some really good info over there.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve added a few bit and pieces to the the high level process she describes below:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Validate the justification for the Update \u2013 it is after all a one time procedure affecting the entire Forest.<\/li>\n<li>Fully define the type of change (Update, Modification, Depreciation)<\/li>\n<li>If the proposed change is a customized update from a third party, make sure that they provide a valid set of .LDIF files to analyze and that they have complete documentation<\/li>\n<li>Check whether base schema already has attributes or objects in it.\u00a0 They may be affected by a change.<\/li>\n<li>Evaluate the risk of making the change<\/li>\n<li>Make sure that a Schema update is this the only way to effect your change<\/li>\n<li>Make sure you have a complete explanation of the update written and approved<\/li>\n<li>Define the list of roles and responsibilities for the Schema Update and make sure everyone knows what they are needed to do<\/li>\n<li>Stage the implementation of any Schema Change, test any change out in a non-production forest and thoroughly test it before implementing in a production environment.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Jane also provides a link to some <a title=\"Structured Active Directory Schema Management at Microsoft\" href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/bb687810.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">docs<\/a> and <a title=\"webcast\" href=\"http:\/\/msevents.microsoft.com\/cui\/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&amp;EventID=1032381512&amp;CountryCode=US\" target=\"_blank\">webcasts<\/a> at MS that might be useful if you\u2019re thinking about schema changes to your AD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jane Lewis over at Microsoft post some good info on MSIT process for evaluating and implementing extensions to MS\u2019s own Active Directory Schema<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[102,272,271],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-work","tag-active-directory","tag-best-practice","tag-schema","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refraction.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}