Displaying the members of a dynamic group
For a dynamic group, the Membership Rules tab is added to the Properties dialog box. This tab displays a list of membership rules defined for the group, and allows you to add, remove, and edit the rules.
The Members tab for a dynamic group displays a list of objects that match the criteria specified in the membership rules. On that tab, you cannot add or remove members as you can for a basic group. To add or remove particular members from a dynamic group, you might add an appropriate Include Explicitly or Exclude Explicitly membership rule.
Adding a membership rule to a dynamic group
To add a membership rule to a dynamic group, right-click the dynamic group, and then click Add Membership Rule. This starts the New Membership Rule wizard. Complete the wizard as described in Converting a basic group to a dynamic group earlier in this chapter. To add a membership rule to a dynamic group, you can also use the Membership Rules tab in the Properties dialog box.
To add a membership rule to a group
- In the console tree, select the folder that contains the group to which you want to add a membership rule.
- In the details pane, right-click the group, and do one of the following to start the New Membership Rule wizard:
- If the group is a basic group, click Convert to Dynamic Group, and then click Yes.
- If the group is a dynamic group, click Add Membership Rule.
- On the first page of the wizard, select the type of the membership rule you want to create. Do one of the following, and then click Next:
- To create a rule that statically adds members to the group, click Include Explicitly.
- To create a rule that statically excludes members from the group, click Exclude Explicitly.
- To create a rule that adds all members of a certain group to the selected group, click Include Group Members.
- To create a rule that excludes all members of a certain group from the selected group, click Exclude Group Members.
- To create a rule that populates the group with the objects that match certain search criteria, click Include by Query.
- To create a rule that prevents the group from including the objects that match certain search criteria, click Exclude by Query.
- On the next page of the wizard, click Add.
If you selected the Include by Query rule type or the Exclude by Query rule type in Step 3, the Create Membership Rule dialog box appears. Otherwise, the Select Objects dialog box appears.
- Complete the Create Membership Rule or Select Objects dialog box using the procedures outlined below in this section.
- Click Finish to close the wizard.
To complete the Create Membership Rule dialog box
- From the Find list, select the class of objects you want the membership rule to include or exclude from the group. For example, when you select Users, the membership rule includes or excludes the users that match the conditions you specify.
- From the In list, select the domain or folder that holds the objects you want the membership rule to include or exclude from the group. For example, when you select an Organizational Unit, the membership rule includes or excludes only the objects that reside in that Organizational Unit.
To add folders to the In list, click Browse and select folders in the Browse for Container dialog box.
- Define the criteria of the membership rule. For example, to include or exclude the objects that have the letter T at the beginning of the name, type T in Name. You can use an asterisk (*) to represent any string of characters.
- Optionally, click Preview Rule to view a list of objects that match the criteria you have defined.
- Click Add Rule.
To complete the Select Objects dialog box
- In the Look in list, click the domain or folder that holds the objects you want to select. To add a folder to the list, click Browse.
- Do one of the following, and then click OK.
- In the list of objects, double-click the object you want to add.
- In the lower box, type the entire name, or a part of the name, of the object you want to add. Then, click Check Names.
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NOTE:
- The only way to populate dynamic groups is by adding membership rules. The members of a dynamic group are the objects that match the criteria defined by the membership rules.
- To convert a dynamic group back to a basic group, right-click the group, and click Convert to Basic Group. When converting a dynamic group to a basic group, Active Roles removes all membership rules from the group. No changes are made to the list of the current members for that group.
- The Create Membership Rule dialog box is similar to the Find dialog box you use to search for objects in the directory. Once you have specified your search criteria, the Add Rule function saves them as a membership rule. For more information on how to specify search criteria, see Finding objects.
- The Find list includes the Custom Search entry. Selecting that entry displays the Custom Search tab, enabling you to build custom membership rules using advanced options, as well as to build advanced membership rules using the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), which is the primary access protocol for Active Directory. For more information about using advanced search options, see Steps for using advanced search options and Steps for building a custom search.
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Removing a membership rule from a dynamic group
To remove a membership rule from a dynamic group, open the Properties dialog box for the group. On the Membership Rules tab, select the membership rules you want to remove, and click Remove. When finished, click OK to close the Properties dialog box.
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NOTE: Active Roles does not allow members to be removed from a dynamic group by directly managing the membership list of the group. To remove particular members, use Exclude Explicitly rules. |
To remove a membership rule from a group
- In the console tree, locate and select the folder that contains the group from which you want to remove a membership rule.
- In the details pane, right-click the group and click Properties.
- On the Membership Rules tab, select the membership rule, and click Remove.
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NOTE: The Properties dialog box includes the Membership Rules tab if the selected group is a dynamic group. If you do not see the Membership Rules tab, then the selected group is a basic group. |
Converting a dynamic group to a basic group
When converting a dynamic group to a basic group, the membership rules only are removed from the group. The group membership list remains unchanged. To convert a dynamic group to a basic group, right-click the group, and then click Convert to Basic Group. In the confirmation message box, click Yes.
When a group is no longer dynamic, it becomes a basic group with the following characteristics:
- The Membership Rules tab disappears from the Properties dialog box.
- The Members tab allows you to add and remove members (the Add and Remove buttons appear on the Members tab).