Active Directory Snapshot Creation and Comparison Using AD Explorer

You can use Active Directory Explorer tool for advanced Active Directory (AD) management.  This tool also includes the ability to save a snapshot of an Active Directory database for off-line viewing and comparisons. 

First you need to open/connect your Active Directory database using AD Explorer and then create a snapshot.  Later, you can use this snapshot to compare it with the current Active Directory database. 

If you need to compare the AD snapshot, open previously created and current snapshots.  From Compare menu, select the Compare Snapshot option.

As you can see in the following screenshot, it generates a report with “differences”.

You can create scheduled snapshots by launching the tool with the -snapshot command line option.

 

You can download this tool from the following location:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963907.aspx

Posted in: Active Directory,AD Snapshot,Backup and Recovery Analysis,Backup Now Option