Sync Local AD Object Properties to Azure Manually

 

Azure AD Sync Service

Sync Local AD Object Properties to Azure Manually

Most small and large businesses have a local domain with domain controllers. When using Microsoft 365 online services, these business will commonly also have an AD Sync server. This server often just a small virtual machine running Azure AD Connect service. 

Azure AD Connect Services Sync

Azure AD connect services sync local change from the local domain to Azure on schedule. The schedule is restricted by Microsoft and the shortest time is 30 minutes. Password changes occur nearly instantly but all other AD object additions or changes to exiting objects take 30 minutes or more. 

Other factors such as local AD replication between domain controllers affects syncing as well. So with sloe local replication the time to sync changes or AD additions to Azure will take even longer depending on the speed of local replication. 

To trigger a local AD replication, logon a domain controller and open an elevated command prompt. this is the fastest way to replicate all domain controllers throughout all sites. This is faster than using the UI. 

At the command prompt enter the following command: 

  C:\>repadmin /syncall /APeD

The command will trigger AD replication though-out the entire domain on all domain controllers.  This an other command can be run remotely. Remote support and software for online Desktop support gives us the capability to access computers and servers remotely for remote control. Some are agent based and others are on-demand. In either case once connected remotely with online computer support software of your choice, you  help the user or administer the server. 

Manual adsyncsynccycle 

Manual AD Sync from local AD to Azure.

The following command I have run very often to trigger replication or syncing from the local domain to Azure. This quick option for manual replication enables faster updates to Azure. it is particularly useful when a new user has been added and you need to continue setting up the user with their desktop and applications. 

Use RDP or another method to access your Azure Sync server and run the following command as shown in the screen capture in this post. that was taken from a real server that was setup and configured to perform Azure AD sync with Microsoft Azure AD connect software.

Run the command in an elevated PoweShell Session. Include the capitalization. 

         C:\>Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta 

Be sure to include Delta at the end of the command. There is another option (actually many more) to this command but another that would sync is Initial instead of delta. Please avoid using that option unless you have good reason to because it could cause other issues. Changes are updates lowly sometimes in Azure so expect several to 20 or 30 seconds before you see the changes in Azure. 

Troubleshooting ADSyncSyncCycle AD syncing to Microsoft Entra 

Most common issue with Azure Entra Syncing is the service has stalled for whatever reason. Restart the services associated with Azure / Entra Sync . A reboot of the server is often not required. Be careful to NEVER alter the login ID used for the services. 

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OWA-problem-loging-in-reason=0

OWA users received the following message in their address bar and a blank browser page. OWA worked fine before this started occurring. OWA was using forms based login and the work around to allow users to login again was to change from forms based login to standard windows authentication logon. Although hey achieve the same purpose, the users had become used to the forms based login and it was admittedly a nicer interface to use. The users got in the browser address bar:
https://mail.[exserver].gr/owa/auth/logon.aspx?url=https://mail.[exserver].gr/owa/&reason=0

This message would come up for OWA users connecting to an Exchange 2007 server. The solution to this problem was to uninstall microsoft exchange 2007 SP1 update rollup pack 6. uninstalling update rollup 6 solved the problem for the OWA forms based logon but but by uninstalling the rollup, the transport server was removed.

That's right, the transport server role was on this same exchange server and it was completely removed, not disabled or set to automatic startup but removed. This was a tough situation but something had to be done as there was no email going in or out of the email server. One choice was to re-install the update rollup 6 but that may have brought me back to the same problem. I decided to remove update rollup 5.

See, the problem here originated when a in-house guy who does a lot of the desktop work and some server work had some trouble with a blackberry server and decided to install all kinds of updates to the exchange server. The updates were windows updates and they were exchange updates. After updating the heck out of the server the OWA forms based login had been broken. The suggestion was to remove windows updates that were applied and that could resolve the problem.

The problem sure enough was caused by updates being installed while the IIS service was not running. The windows updates were removed and re-installed as prescribed but that did not solve the problem. It was a while before I was able to address this OWA logon problem again and now the time had come. remembering manipulating the windows updates I decided with a little confirmation from forums that the next approach would be to remove exchange updates.

I saw that update rollup 3,4,5,6 were installed and of course started with removing update rollup 6 in effort to make the browser stop hanging with blank page when logging into OWA using HTTPS. At the end of the URL in the address bar was a clue for searching, /owa/&reason=0.

http://remotesupportdesktop.blogspot.com/2009/04/owa-problem-loging-in-reason0.html

Removing 6 solved the OWA logon problem but removed the hub transport service from the exchange server. I then decided instead of re-installing rollup 6, to remove 5. After removing rollup 5, the hub transport service was back and several other exchange services that were removed with update rollup 6.

Registry location and keys for Outlook 2003/2007 Profile