Resolution
Does NetIQ Group Policy Administrator have a report showing the complete history with comments of each operation performed in the Repository?
fact
NetIQ Group Policy Administrator 3.0
fact
NetIQ Group Policy Administrator 4.0
fact
NetIQ Group Policy Administrator 4.5
fix
In NetIQ Group Policy Administrator (GPA) 4.0 and previous versions, in order to see the comments and history of a Group Policy Object (GPO), you have to go into the Repository, right click a GPO, and select View History. You then have to go to each version of the GPO and select Details to show the comment information. NetIQ GPA 4.5 now includes the Point in Time Analysis and Activity Reporting functionality which allows you to create html outputs of GPO changes done in the Repository.
Generating Point in Time Analysis and Activity Report
GPA provides anActivityReport.exe utility to generate Point in Time Analysis and Activity Reports as an HTML file. Using or scheduling this utility to run periodically lets you quickly create audit-tracking records of GPO changes.
Point in Time Analysis and Activity Report Utility
GPA installs the utility in the following folder when you use the default installation path: C:\Program Files NetIQ\Group Policy Administrator 4.5\Bin
Required Powers and Permissions
To run the Point in Time Analysis and Activity Report, your logon account must be assigned to the GPA_Security_Manager role. To display help for the command, type: ActivityReport ?
Syntax
ActivityReport [/file:OutputFileName] [/type:[Export|Approve]] [/start:StartDate] [/end:EndDate] [/span:Number[d|h]] [/domain:DomainName] [/user:UserName] [/details:[Comparison|Difference]] [/overwrite:[Yes|No]]
Options
The following table defines the input parameter options available for the Activity Report utility.
/file:OutputFileName: Specifies the path and name of the HTML file in which to store the report results. The default stores the file in the current folder in the file named ActivityReport.html.
/type:[Export|Approve]: Specifies to include information about all exported GPOs or to include information only about GPOs approved for export. The default value reports on all exported GPOs. /start:StartDate: Specifies the start date for the report in dd/mm/yyyy format. See note following the table. /end:EndDate: Specifies the end date for the report in dd/mm/yyyy format. See note following the table. /span:Number[d|h]: Specifies the number of days or hours the report data spans. For example, to run a report for a 24 hour period, enter /span:24h or /span:1d. If you omit this parameter, the script uses the value 1d (one day). See note following the table. /DOMAIN:DomainName: Specifies the name of one domain to audit for GPA activity. The default collects activity about all domains. /User:UserName: Specifies the name of one user to audit for GPA activity. The default collects activity about all users. /Details:[Comparison | Difference]: Specifies to create comparison reports (includes all data) or difference report (reports only differences). The default generates a comparison report. /Overwrite:[Yes | No]: Specifies whether to overwrite the output file if a file of the same name already exists. The default value is Yes.
If you want to supply a parameter value that contains spaces, such as the file name September Activity Report.html, place quotation marks around the value. For example, to specify the sample file name, type ?September Activity Report.html?.
You can combine the start date, end date, and span paramet.
ers in various ways to identify the time range for the report. For example, you can specify a start date and span, an end date and span, or a start date and an end date.
Example 1
To create a Point in Time Analysis and Activity Report file named 20040920_30.html that lists information about all GPOs exported between 9/20/2004 and 9/30/2004, overwriting any existing *.html file with the same name, if necessary, enter:
ActivityReport /file:c:\GPA_Reports\20040920_30.html /start:9/20/04 /span:10dExample 2
To create a Point in Time Analysis and Activity Report for all GPOs Approved for the TestDom1 domain by user Admin1GPA in the last month but do not overwrite an existing report:
ActivityReport /file:c:\GPA_Reports\Admin1GPA_Approved092004.html /type:Approve /start:9/01/04 /span:30d /domain:TestDom1 /user:Admin1GPA /details:Difference /overwrite:No .