Managing Group Policy With Rsop

By Author: iris
Total Articles: 286
Comment this article

RSoP is the sum of the group policies applied to a A+ certificate user or computer. Determining RSoP for a computer or user can be a complex task. In Microsoft Windows Server 2003, you can generate an RSoP query to determine the policies applied to a specified user or computer. This lesson introduces you to the tools used to generate RSoP queries, the ways to save RSoP queries, and the results provided by each of the RSoP generation tools
Understanding RSoP
As you learned in Chapter 10, GPOs are cumulative as they are applied to a local computer, site, domain, and OU hierarchy. RSoP is the sum of the policies applied to a user or computer, including the application of filters, such as through security groups and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), and exceptions, such as No Override and Block Policy Inheritance. Because of the cumulative effects of GPOs, filters, and exceptions, determining a user or computer's RSoP can be difficult. However, the ability to generate RSoP queries in Windows Server 2003 makes determining RSoP easier. In Windows Server 2003, an RSoP query ...
... engine is available to poll existing plus benefits and report the affects of GPOs on users and computers. The query engine also checks for security groups and WMI queries used to filter GPO scope, and checks Software Installation for any applications that are associated with a particular user or computer and reports the affects of these settings as well. This information is gathered from the Com?mon Information Management Object Model (CIMOM) database.
Windows Server 2003 provides the foliowing three tools for generating RSoP queries:
Resultant Set Of Policy Wizard
Gpresult command-line tool
Advanced System Information—Policy tool
Each tool uses a different interface and provides different levels of RSoP query information, as discussed in the sections that follow.
To create an RSoP query from the Active Directory Users And Computers or Active Directory Sites And Services consoles, open the console, right-click the site, domain, OU, user account, or computer account for which you want to create a query, click All Tasks, and select Resultant Set Of Policy (Planning) or Resultant Set Of Policy (Logging). Note that Logging mode is available only for computer accounts and user accounts. Then run the Resultant Set Of Policy Wizard as described in the "To create an RSoP query with the Resultant Set Of Policy Wizard Logging mode" procedure, on page 11-7, and the "To create an RSoP query with the Resultant Set Of CompTIA Policy Wizard Planning mode" procedure, on page 11-9.