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Finding Stale Address and Telephone information in the GAL with a script

I came across this while actually looking for something else but it does go some way to answering another question that gets asked occasionally. If you want to use the information in the GAL (eg Active Directory) for phone numbers and address’s ect how up to date is this information eg can I find out the last time it was updated. While maybe not 100% accurate one method that you maybe able to use is to use the Metadata from Active Directory which stores information about when the last time each property was updated and replicated in Active directory.

To access the metadata from a script you need to use the iadstools.dll which comes as part of the Windows 2000/3 Support Tools package which can be found on the server CD in Support\Tools folder. Robbie Allen has put together a number of samples on using the objects in this DLL in his Active Directory cookbook which is worth checking out here. For this script I’ve expanded greatly on one of his samples by including a query of ever mailbox in the GAL and then feeding in the DN of each user to grab the metadata about each property and then using a few case statements to filter that data a little further to just the telephone numbers and a few address property such as Street Address and Office. I then feed the data into a CSV file so you can then open this up in Excel and do extra filtering etc.

This is really just scratching the surface of what you can do with this library is terms of diagnosing replication problems etc.

To run the script you need to have the Windows 2000/3 Support Tools installed so you will have the iadstools.dll registered. The script takes one commandline parameter which is the name of the Domain Controller you want to run it against. Eg

Cscript adrlastupdated.vbs domaincontrollernetbiosName

I’ve put a downloadable copy of the script here there script itself look like

dcDomainController = wscript.arguments(0)
set objIadsTools = CreateObject("IADsTools.DCFunctions")
set conn = createobject("ADODB.Connection")
set com = createobject("ADODB.Command")
Set iAdRootDSE = GetObject("LDAP://RootDSE")
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set wfile = fso.opentextfile("c:\temp\AdrinfoLastupdated.csv",2,true)
strNameingContext = iAdRootDSE.Get("defaultNamingContext")
Conn.Provider = "ADsDSOObject"
Conn.Open "ADs Provider"
Query = "<LDAP://" & strNameingContext &amp; ">;(&(&(& (mailnickname=*)(mailnickname=*)(!msExchHideFromAddressLists=TRUE)(|
(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(|(homeMDB=*)(msExchHomeServerName=*)))
))));distinguishedName,displayname;subtree"
Com.ActiveConnection = Conn
Com.CommandText = Query
Com.Properties("Page Size") = 1000
Set Rs = Com.Execute
wfile.writeline("Mailbox,TelephoneNumber,Mobile Number,Home Phone,Street
Address,Office")
While Not Rs.EOF
wfile.writeline(rs.fields("displayname").value & "," &
getUserData(dcDomainController,rs.fields("distinguishedName")))
rs.movenext
Wend
wfile.close
set wfile = nothing
set fso = Nothing



function getUserData(dcDomainController,dnUserDN)
dlDataline = ""
tnTelephoneNumber = "Not Set"
mnMobileNumber = "Not Set"
hnHomePhone = "Not Set"
saStreetAddress = "Not Set"
ofOffice = "Not Set"

intRes = objIadsTools.GetMetaData(Cstr(dcDomainController),Cstr(dnUserDN),0)

if intRes = -1 then
Wscript.Echo objIadsTools.LastErrorText
WScript.Quit
end if
wscript.echo "User" & dnUserDN
for count = 1 to intRes
select case objIadsTools.MetaDataName(count)
case "telephoneNumber" wscript.echo "Telephone Number last write: " &
objIadsTools.MetaDataLastWriteTime(count)
tnTelephoneNumber = objIadsTools.MetaDataLastWriteTime(count)
case "mobile" wscript.echo "Mobile Number last write: " &
objIadsTools.MetaDataLastWriteTime(count)
mnMobileNumber = objIadsTools.MetaDataLastWriteTime(count)
case "homePhone" wscript.echo "Home Phone Number last write: " &
objIadsTools.MetaDataLastWriteTime(count)
hnHomePhone = objIadsTools.MetaDataLastWriteTime(count)
case "streetAddress" wscript.echo "Street Address last write: " &
objIadsTools.MetaDataLastWriteTime(count)
saStreetAddress = objIadsTools.MetaDataLastWriteTime(count)
case "physicalDeliveryOfficeName" wscript.echo "Office last write: " &
objIadsTools.MetaDataLastWriteTime(count)
ofOffice = objIadsTools.MetaDataLastWriteTime(count)
end select
next
wscript.echo
dlDataline = tnTelephoneNumber &amp; "," & mnMobileNumber & "," & hnHomePhone & ","
& saStreetAddress &amp; "," & ofOffice
getUserData = dlDataline
end function


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All sample scripts and source code is provided by for illustrative purposes only. All examples are untested in different environments and therefore, I cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.

All code contained herein is provided to you "AS IS" without any warranties of any kind. The implied warranties of non-infringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are expressly disclaimed.