Export, Compare, and Synchronize Active Directory Schemas

I’ve had this link in my notes for a long time. I’ve only used it twice, but thought it was worth sharing. If you ever need to make a test Active Directory for some really crazy testing, and you’ve ever extended the schema, you may want those extended attributes. There is a really good article over at Microsoft Technet that walks through this process: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.04.schema.aspx?pr=blog

I’ll generalize the steps…but this is basically what is going on:

• Exporting the existing schema using LDIFDE
• Comparision to another schema using AD DS/LDS Schema Analyzer
• Exporting the schema differences (using AD DS/LDS Analyzer)
• Importing the schema differences into the target forest

The instructions are pretty straight forward, so just take a look here if you are interested: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.04.schema.aspx?pr=blog