What is the Ad Report Builder?

The Active Directory Report Builder is a fast and robust real-time reporting engine, designed to build and create precise Active Directory reports of attributes from: (Users, Computers, OU's, CN's, Exchange, Contacts, Printers, Group Policy's, Groups)

What are the system requirements for installing Active Directory R-Builder?

  • Active Directory R-Builder requires .NET Framework 4.5 or greater.
  • Supported Architecture: 32 bit or 64 Bit.
  • Supported Clients: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10.
  • Supported Servers: Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016.
  • Msi install Package Size: ~ 5 MB's.

My anti-virus detects the MSI and/or the EXE as unsafe, why is this?

We send in all source files to all major anti-virus companies for review and clearance of false positives. Our built executables have been digitally signed (SHA2) by a Digicert certificate to gain valid reputation and trust. However, some times when AV products are updated, the reputation of the product is reset and every time we build a new release, the clearance process have to be repeated.

How do I install and configure the Active Directory Report Builder? Do I install it on a workstation or server?

Installation is a quick "next to next" setup using an msi package. No configuration is required. The application automatically detects your installed machine's Active Directory Forests/Domains, its Trust partners and available Directory Servers. Install the application on your workstation or a server, preferably a directory server such as a Global catalog server.

Do I need to have administrative rights to use this product?

Once installed, you can run and use the application as a standard Active Directory user. Local administrative rights will be prompted for when scheduling Active Directory reports to register triggers in the scheduler task service.

Does the install machine need to be joined to a domain?

No. Domain and credentials will be prompted for at startup if machine is not joined to a domain, can also be set in settings. If you are scheduling reports on a machine that is not joined to the domain, specify a privileged service account to run the tasks. The local system account can only be used for running scheduled tasks if the machine is joined to the domain.

Who should be using this tool?

The Active Directory Report Builder is designed for IT Managers, IT Consultants, IT support engineers or Service desk agents who in some shape or form manage Active Directories.

Can I change or edit objects in Active Directory with this tool?

No, The Active Directory Report builder is designed to read from Active Directory and cannot write or edit objects back to Active Directory.

What formats can I export reports to?

xlsx, csv, html and txt format files. For heavy data reporting export, it is recommended to export to xlsx which use the best file compression. To export a report with all data structured in just one row, use the txt export.

How do I start building a report?

The Active Directory Report builder has a flexible yet simple to use report creation flow. Select a category, such as users, then select report, you can see the pre-configured columns for that report before it’s been created. In the dropdown menu for the report, select if you want any filter and leave the "EDIT COLUMNS" tick box checked if you want to add more columns, then click "Create Report".

How do I automate a report to my e-mail? Every Monday morning I want a report in my inbox of all users that were created in previous week, in all domains of the forest.

Select (in top): "Search in Entire Forest" Next, Select report: "User accounts created: In the last: type: "7" days (without quotes) and select the columns you need. Next click on "Create Report". Eventhough you may not have gotten any results for the report, click on "SCHEDULE" and determine which account the task should run with. If you select local system, the AD computer name of the installed machine will be used to autheticate to AD and create the report. If you select Service Account, make sure the account has "Log on as a batch job" user right on that machine by checking the policy. Click next, The Sysmalogic Report Scheduler will open (Note that UAC will promt as local admin rights are required for task registration). Next configure the following below:

Click on FILE FORMAT, Select HTML

Click on CONFIGURE TRIGGER, 1. Select start time: 07:00. 2. Click on the "Weekly" tab and check "Monday"

Click on CONFIGURE EMAIL AND SMTP, 1. Configure SMTP (one time thing) 2. Check: "Embed report in message body" and select which html template you want. 3. Specify From: and To: recipient(s).

Next, click on "Schedule Task". The task view opens, select the report in the task list and perform a test run. If you want to go back and make changes, click "Edit Task".

How can I create a report to get all computers with Windows 7 and Windows 10?

Select report, "Computers where operating system name" Select "Contains". Then click "Multiple Criteria" Add "7" in one row and "10" in another row (without quotes). Then click "Create Report" Note, It may be easier to just select "Computers where operating system name is present or not" then filter in grid or export and filter in Excel.

How can I create a report to get all servers?

Select report, "Computers where operating system name" Select "Contains". Then type "server" in the fly-out text box. Next, click on "Proceed to columns" and create report.

I have an external list of just email-addresses and another list of just user names. Is it possible to build a report to find the group memberships of those users combined?

Yes, it is possible to combine multiple external "input sets" of attribute criteria to find the exact information that you need. First search for or select report "Users where email address-> Is Exactly :"-> "Multiple Criteria"-> paste/import the email addresses and click "add filter" Once report has been created, click "LDAP FILTERS" and add "Sam Account Name->Is Exactly:-> "Multiple Criteria"-> paste in the user names and click "add filter" Finalize by adding the Group membership column."

How do I get all users for a specific Active Directory group?

First, set the search to "Entire Domain". Next select one of these three reports: "Users member of specific group (All)", "Users member of specific group(Direct)" or "Users member of specific group(Indirect)" Type: part of the groupname and click on "Check name". Select the found match for the group and click OK. Next select the columns.

How can I get a report of all users in a specific OU and their direct and nested Active Directory groups?

First select (in top) "Search in one OU" and select the OU you need. (Note the "Search in Child OU's tickbox) Next, select category users, then report: "Users where Group Membership (Direct)" and click "Proceed to columns". Add column "Group Membership (Including Nested)"

Can I modify the LDAP syntax?

Yes, when you have created a report, click LDAP FILTERS and then View LDAP syntax. You can edit and further test if the LDAP syntax is valid and if it will return any results for your selected search target(s). Note: If the report is to be scheduled, make sure you add any attributes related to time and date after you have finished editing the LDAP syntax. This is required in order for relative time to be accurate of the filters when the report is being run on a time planned schedule.

How can I get a report of all the OU's my users are in?

First set the search to target "Entire Domain". Select report (OU's and Containers where users are present). It will give you all the OU's that contains user objects and the count of users found in each OU.

I want to perform a search in the Entire forest (PAS), but I get a message that some columns will not display any results, why is this?

Only attributes that are part of the "Partial Attribute Set" (PAS) can be used a in a forest wide search. The search checks the attributes that are replicated in the forest by only querying your connected Global Catalog server, The decision which attributes are in the PAS is performed by an automatic reference check to your Active Directory schema when you add/remove columns. If you want to check which attributes you can use for your "Entire Forest Search", simply start a new builder for the category to use such as Printers. In "Add/Remove columns”, check the box to select all columns, then press Ok. Columns, which linked attribute references are not in the PAS will be displayed. The columns that are left showing after you select to proceed without those columns in the grid are the ones you will be able to get results for. If you need the column to show data, select the search to target "Entire Domain" instead. It is also possible to add attributes into the PAS, although this action is not supported in this application. See online instructions on MS site how and when you would want to add attributes into PAS.

We have fine grained password policies setup in our environment, how can I get a password expiry report of those users?

Attributes related to fine grained policies can easily be added from your schema by a search for the attribute(s) and a one click "add" action. Open the attribute manager from settings to add an unlisted attribute from your Active Directory schema. Add the related attribute, in this case (MSds-userpasswordExpiryDateComputed) and then then click Close. Select the attribute to be displayed as "Date and Time" in grid. Next, select a "New" builder for users and click “add columns” from within the report editor. To quickly find the column display name for "MSds-userpasswordExpiryDateComputed", sort the "Add/Remove column" list by "category". The first column category will be "My added attributes". Note: Some attributes suc as the "MdDS-userpasswordExpiryDateComputed" attribute is a "contructed" attribute. As its already constructed when called for, trying to construct or build a filtered LDAP syntax condition for it, is not possible. Instead, just add the column and if needed use the columns grid filters to apply filtering in report view.

How do I create and apply exclusion filters?

Select the builder and in the dropdown select any of the following exclude conditions: "Not present:, Not Starts with:, Not Ends with:, Not Contains:" Next select-->Multiple criteria-->add or paste the list of exclusion criteria that the property of your selected builder should exclude from the search.