Hmmm, I would guess he's probably adding a new switch to deal with this particular thread.
Anyway, since he's not responded, I'll take a stab at what ADfind can or cannot do here (not really ADfind's problem if my lazy research is accurate). The attribute in question's syntax is a single-valued "octet string" which can typically be filtered against assuming the correct notation is supplied. This particular attribute, however, will often contain multiple GUIDs within the flat value (a pack of them) making it difficult to successfully construct a reliable and/or optimal filter (remember, medial queries are painful without the necessary index). To further complicate the issue, the byte ordering is maintained differently internally to the way it's displayed. Since ADfind AFAIK cannot yet decode "retiredReplDSASignatures", in order to query against it we have to reorder it ourselves. Here's an example of how to convert repadmin's display format to the internally maintained byte ordering (this is a little painful) - repadmin's output = 6cc4a8e0-2019-4e4f-81cd-f35926de38a3 internal structure = E0 A8 C4 6C 19 20 4F 4E 81 CD F3 59 26 DE 38 A3 ... now trim the hyphens and pad repadmin's output to pair up the bytes - repadmin's output = 6c c4 a8 e0 20 19 4e 4f-81 cd f3 59 26 de 38 a3 (padded & trimmed) internal structure = E0 A8 C4 6C 19 20 4F 4E 81 CD F3 59 26 DE 38 A3 ... now, re-order the 1st 4 octets, then the next 2 octets and again the next 2 octets. I've added extra spaces for legibility (essentially, you're re-ordering the first double-word, the next word, the next word and the rest remains as is ... this is known as "network" or "pretty" byte ordering) - repadmin's output = e0 a8 c4 6c 19 20 4f 4e 81 cd f3 59 26 de 38 a3 (re-ordered) internal structure = E0 A8 C4 6C 19 20 4F 4E 81 CD F3 59 26 DE 38 A3 OK, having done all of that, you now have two possible options: option 1) use a fairly concise query and parse the output as follows ... ... create a string of 8 words (or 8 octet pairs if you prefer) to match ADfind's output format - resulting structure = E0A8 C46C 1920 4F4E 81CD F359 26DE 38A3 ... then use the following syntax - C:\>adfind -config -f "&(objectcategory=ntdsdsa)(retiredReplDSASignatures=*)" -csv -nocsvheader retiredReplDSASignatures | findstr "E0A8 C46C 1920 4F4E 81CD F359 26DE 38A3" ... this returns the DN of the "NTDS Settings" object of the DC that owns the retired invocation ID. If no results are returned, one of two things occurred; 1) you fat-fingered it or 2) the DC no longer exists. option 2) submit the following v. expensive query (note, it's a medial query) - C:\>adfind -config -f "retiredReplDSASignatures=*\E0\A8\C4\6C\19\20\4F\4E\81\CD\F3\59\26\DE\38\A3* " retiredReplDSASignatures Fingers crossed that Joe will have a hidden switch to do the decoding for you, until then, this is it I'm afraid. -- Dean Wells MSEtechnology * Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://msetechnology.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Scott Klassen Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 5:11 PM To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] repadmin info oddity Too bad Joe picked today to be MIA. Scott Klassen -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dean Wells Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 7:59 AM To: Send - AD mailing list Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] repadmin info oddity The GUIDs returned in this scenario are not used by the directory in the traditional manner and, as such, using a GUID-based binding string won't locate the owning object. The invocation IDs (which are indeed GUIDs but not objectGUIDs) are maintained on the DC's NTDSDSA instance (its NTDS Settings object) by the "invocationId" property ... retired invocation IDs are maintained by retiredReplDSASignatures. ADfind can likely hit these ... but the GUIDS needs to be expressed as part of the query filter, not the base. I'll leave joe (why does he insist on using a little "j"?) to provide the ADfind syntax (it seems that no matter how hard I try, joe will always have a better switch ... and if he doesn't have one, I'm fairly certain he quickly adds it, quietly releases the new binary with the same version number, posts the reply, ridicules my uneducated attempt at using a "real tool" (joe's words, not mine) and professes his innocence :0). -- Dean Wells MSEtechnology * Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://msetechnology.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Thommes, Michael M. Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 7:44 AM To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] repadmin info oddity Adfind (http://www.joeware.net/win/free/tools/adfind.htm) to the rescue! I recently had to do this and got it accomplished with the following syntax (with a little help from joe :) ): adfind -default -binenc -f objectGUID={{GUID:0B3F5BC4-5713-4611-8F6A-752A3B0DE664}} dn ("adfind /???" For lots of good info!) Mike Thommes -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of SCOTT KLASSEN Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 8:56 PM To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org Subject: [ActiveDir] repadmin info oddity I try to keep up on new or updated MS KB articles and often check to see how they correlate with my environment. I noticed that 875495, dealing with USN rollbacks, was updated earlier this month. As I've experienced two AD issues, both of which needed PSS involvement (one dealing with sysvol inconsistency and the other which wound up being the RID master going on temporary strike) I figured that I'd do a quick check as described in the article. On the good side, the USN's are consistent between controllers. On the disconcerting side, I got a little more information than I was expecting. Besides my DC's, I also got USN listings for several GUIDs. I assume these are leftovers from DC demotions and only remain in the form of historical data. Do I need to worry about these (especially the DC1 (retired) listing) and is there a way I can resolve the GUIDs to names, find where this info is hiding, and clear them out? Thanks, Scott Klassen >repadmin /showutdvec dc1 dc=domain,dc=com Caching GUIDs. .. Default-First-Site-Name\DC2 @ USN 455091 @ Time 2006-02-20 20:08:20 2c92760e-e8fc-4418-947e-3b1016ab8514 @ USN 1012381 @ Time 2005-08-04 00:02:34 6e129965-56c3-469e-b70a-f1fdfb8bb2cc @ USN 969931 @ Time 2004-07-24 11:53:16 Default-First-Site-Name\DC1 @ USN 1717571 @ Time 2006-02-20 20:10:50 Default-First-Site-Name\DC1 (retired) @ USN 1298674 @ Time 2005-08-05 06:36:16 e2199f22-f1dd-4d1c-90a6-0e8bb874f355 @ USN 744173 @ Time 2004-12-28 20:52:04 ff0d7d50-214f-4bc1-96b6-55ac6ef317f0 @ USN 852323 @ Time 2005-06-08 14:29:20 List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
