SharePoint AD Information Sync provides a short-cut to set Active Directory sync to a SharePoint List based on profile synchronization.
You can customize the Active Directory sync by setting Sync Profiles. The users/computers which you want to sync can be specified by Organizational Unit (OU), LDAP query string, and specific accounts can be excluded in the AD sync setting. Besides, AD sync can be performed manually or automatically if you set a schedule on it.
One AD-sync profile can set one-way sync from AD to one SharePoint list. With more sync profiles, you can gather information from multiple AD to one SharePoint List or from one AD to multiple SharePoint lists.
To create a SharePoint AD sync profile, first select the object SharePoint List and input AD login info. Second, specify Active Directory sync scope by modifying LDAP query string or selecting Organizational Unit from the OU structure. Third, Set column mapping for the synchronization. Save this profile and you can begin this AD-sync to SharePoint manually. Or you can set a schedule to operate this AD sync automatically. In this case you need to active the AD Information Sync Timer Job Feature in your web application in Manage Web Application Features.

Why did we build it?
- MOSS provides user profile from AD sync to user profile list while WSS doesn't.
- MOSS support Active Directory sync to user profile other than lists, and computer information in AD can not be synced.
- If you want to get MULTIPUL AD information in AD sync to one list, it is also impossible using MOSS provided user profile sync.
SharePoint AD Information Sync provides a convenient Active Directory sync function to SharePoint lists.
Following is a complete AD sync operating guide of SharePoint AD Information Sync.
Before configuring AD Information Sync settings, please create contact lists to store the data imported by the Active Directory sync.
1. AD Information Sync entrance
Open the site where you want to insert information from AD-sync. Click Site Settings on Site Actions menu.

Then, click AD Information Sync Settings link on the Site Administration section in the Site Settings page to get into the AD Information Sync Settings page.

2. Profile configuration
On the AD information sync settings page, click Add Profile.

On the Add Profile page, specify the Profile Name and select the list which you want to point the AD sync to.
Note: The drop-down list displays all lists in the current site. Here we choose AD Management list.

In the Active Directory section, fill in domain name by clicking Get current domain button and type the username and password. Then click Test Connection button to check whether the current user is connecting with Active Directory.
Note: You can also input server name or IP address of the AD controller into the Domain Server text box manually.

In the Active Directory Info to Sync section, choose Preset Type first. Second, you can filter information by inputting LDAP query string. Third, you can select Sync by organizational unit box and click the organizational units in the OU structure chart of Active Directory.
Note: AD Information Sync support LDAP sentence to set Active Directory sync. If you have no Organizational Units, you can sync AD information by default setting or LDAP.

In the Sync Options section, click both checkboxes "Create list items when AD items created” and "Deleted list items when AD items deleted”.

In the Column Mapping section, select AD fields which you want to sync to the SharePoint list.
Note: AD Field drop-down list provides about 30 fields of User types and 11 fields of Computer types. What we select now is as following.
The content in brackets of AD Field is the common name of Active directory object. It is used in LDAP sentence.

In Sync Schedule section, specify the AD sync schedule type. In this tutorial, we set sync happens between 15:00 and 15:15 daily.

Note: Sync manually means the Active Directory sync will be acting by clicking Sync Now button manually on the sync settings page..
Sync every n minutes means that the interval of AD sync automatic action is n minutes.
Sync hourly means sync the information from Active Directory to list automatically each hour.
After configuration, click OK.
The followed "AD Management” SharePoint list is the result of our above AD sync settings.

3. LDAP sentence
LDAP is the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. AD Information Sync access and get the Active Directory information through LADP protocol.
Suppose that you want to sync a user’s information who works for marketing department and his title is manager. You should write the LDAP sentence as following:

After the AD synchronization, the items displays in the Manager List as following.

4. Items Exclusion
Common name is the unique identifier of the object in Active Directory. AD Information Sync use common name (cn) to exclude items.
The items whose common name listed in the textbox will not be synced to the list.
Suppose that you want to sync the users’ information in the organizational unit Development to Development List, except the items whose common name is Anna Wong.
Configure the profile according to above steps. Then in the Exclusion Items section, type Anna Wong in the box.

Click OK to save the settings.
And click "Sync Now" on the main settings page. The result is as following and the information of Anna Wong is not added on the list.


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