The list of GUIDs represents all of the GPOs that you have for your domain.įigure 1: GUIDs are represented as folders under the Policies folder on domain controllers Figure 1 shows you a common Policies folder, where you can see many GUIDs listed. This alpha-numeric value is the GUID (Global Unique Identifier) for the GPO. Under the Policies folder is a list of folders represented by a long alpha-numeric value. By default this would be located at c:\Windows\Sysvol\sysvol\\Policies. To access this Policies folder you would find the Sysvol folder on the domain controller. The “shell” for the GPO is a folder, which is stored under the Policies folder. What is updated on this domain controller is a “shell” for the contents of what you configured within the GPO during editing. This is a built in, default behavior that can be altered, but initially the PDC Emulator is in charge. First off, when you create a new GPO the domain controller that controls the PDC Emulator role is the one in charge.
When a GPO is created many events occur in the background.
There are times that you will need to do manual work on a GPO and the settings stored in the files when the GPO becomes corrupt, settings are not viewable in the editor. This information is essential for domain admins and Group Policy admins during times of troubleshooting and overall knowledge of how Group Policy functions.
Have you ever created a new GPO and then made some configurations for a policy or two and wondered where and how those settings are stored? This article will describe how the settings in the GPO are stored, as well as where they are stored. This article will cover how these settings are stored, where they are stored, and how they are tracked by the domain controllers in an Active Directory domain. When a GPO setting is created, it must be stored in order to be delivered to the target computer. If you would like to read the other parts in this article series please go to: