Solutions Snapshot
PROBLEM:
Gathering GPO application status for users and computers
SOLUTION:
Microsoft GPInventory tool
WHAT YOU NEED:
GP Inventory tool; computer running Windows 2003 or XP and .NET Framework; administrator rights on each machine being queried to get WMI information and at least Generate Resultant Set of Policy (logging) rights on each machine from which you want to gather RSOP data
DIFFICULTY:
3 out of 5
SOLUTION STEPS:
1. Download and install GPInventory.
2. Using the GPInventory GUI, select the compuers you want to query.
3. Select the queries you want to run, run them, and save the query definition and the query results for possible reuse
4. Optionally, rerun saved queries from the command line.
5. Optionally, customize pre-defined queries for added flexiblity.
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Sometimes a software rollout or other IT project will depend on certain Group Policy Objects (GPOs) being in place. For example, given the wide-ranging impact of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) on end users, you might want to use one or more GPOs to control the new features and you'll obviously want to have the GPOs in place before installing SP2.
Gathering GPO deployment status one user or computer at a time through GPResultor the Group Policy Management Console's (GPMC's) GP Results Wizard would be mind-numbing and next to impossible in an environment with a large number of clients. Fortunately, Microsoft recognized the need for a centrally manageable tool to monitor application of GPOs, and it has developed a resource kit tool called GPInventory to make this task easier for administrators. GPInventory is a simple yet powerful tool to run both Resultant Set of Policies (RSoP) and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) queries on one or more remote systems and collect the results of those queries.
In addition to using GPInventory's GUI to perform straightforward inventories of a few systems,you can use the command-line version of the tool to automate inventories for many systems and you can create and run custom queries with either the GUI or command-line interface.
Minimum Requirements
Before you dive in, it's worth noting that because GPInventory executes WMI and RSOP queries on remote machines, you can use it to pull information only from machines that support those types of queries. WMI is supported on all recent Windows OSs, but only Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (and most likely future OSs) will return GPO data to GPInventory. It might also save you some frustration to note that you will need administrator rights on each machine being queried to get WMI information and at least Generate Resultant Set of Policy (logging) rights on each machine from which you want to gather RSOP data. Also note that the .NET Framework is required for GPInventory to run from an XP system.
Obtaining and Installing the Tool
You can download the GPInventory tool from the Micosoft Web site. go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads, type
gpinventory
into the search field, and follow the instructions to download the gpinventory.msi file.
Run the installation either directly from the Web site or by double-clicking the .msi file you downloaded. The installation routine lets you choose the path to which GPInventory is installed. For the purposes of testing the tool and to be able to identify all GPInventory's associated files more easily, I specified an alternative installation folder (the default resource kit folder is already chock full of files). After installation, you'll see seven files, including the GPInventory executable, several sample and configuration files, and documentation.
You can run GPInventory strictly by using its GUI, or you can run it from the command line and pass it input and output parameters to automate some reporting tasks. It's a good idea to check out the GUI first because it will familiarize you with the tool and let you create some XML files that you can use later for automated operations.
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