Searching the Deleted Objects container
The Active Roles console offers the Deleted Objects search category in the Find dialog box, which is intended to perform a search in the Deleted Objects container of any managed domain where Active Directory Recycle Bin is enabled.
To search the Deleted Objects container
- In the console tree, right-click the Active Directory and click Find.
- In the Find list, click Deleted Objects.
- Do any of the following:
- In Name or Description, type the name or description, or part of the name or description, of the object to find.
When searching by name, Active Roles uses ambiguous name resolution (ANR) to find objects with not only name but also some other properties matching the string you type in the Name box. The properties used for ANR include name, first name, last name, display name, and logon name.
- Click Find Now to start the search.
When the search completes, the Find dialog box displays a list of deleted objects that match the search criteria.
If you double-click an object in the list of search results, the property pages for that object are displayed. If you right-click an object, the shortcut menu displays all the actions you can perform on that object.
Searching for objects deleted from a certain OU or MU
To view and search a list of objects that were deleted from a particular Organizational Unit (OU) or Managed Unit (MU), you can use the View or Restore Deleted Objects command. The command opens a dialog box that lists the deleted objects that were direct children of the corresponding OU or MU at the time of deletion. The View or Restore Deleted Objects dialog box can be used to search for deleted objects whose name matches a specific search string. It provides flexible matching by using support for ambiguous name resolution (ANR).
To search for objects deleted from a particular OU or MU
- Right-click the OU or MU and click View or Restore Deleted Objects.
- In Look for, type the search string that you want to use.
- Click Find Now to start the search.
When the search completes, the list in the dialog box is limited to the deleted objects whose name, first name, last name, display name, logon name, or any other property used for ANR begins with the specified search string. To clear the search results and display all the deleted objects, click the Clear Search button.
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NOTE: The View or Restore Deleted Objects command is also available on domain and container objects, which allows you to find deleted objects that were direct children of a particular domain or container at the time of deletion. |
Restoring a deleted object
For restoring deleted objects you can use the Restore command that is available from:
- The View or Restore Deleted Objects dialog box
- A list of search results prepared using the Deleted Objects search category in the Find dialog box
- A list of objects held in the Deleted Objects container, which is displayed in the details pane when you select the Deleted Objects container in the console tree
In the Active Roles console the command can be found on the shortcut menu, which appears when you right-click a deleted object.
To restore a deleted object
- In the View or Restore Deleted Objects dialog box, click the deleted object and then click the Restore button.
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In a list of search results prepared using the Deleted Objects search category, or in a list of objects held in the Deleted Objects container, right-click the deleted object and click Restore.
- Review and, if necessary, change the settings in the Restore Object dialog box, and then click OK to start the restore process.
The Restore Object dialog box prompts you to choose whether deleted child objects (descendants) of the deleted object should also be restored. The Restore child objects check box is selected by default, which ensures that the Restore command applied on a deleted container object restores the entire contents of the container.
To clarify, consider an example in which an administrator accidentally deletes an Organizational Unit (OU) called Sales_Department that contains a number of user accounts for sales persons along with another OU called Admins that, in turn, contains a user account for an administrative assistant. When applying the Restore command on the Sales_Department OU, with the option to restore child objects, Active Roles performs the following sequence of steps:
- Restore the Sales_Department OU
- Restore all the deleted user accounts that were direct children of the Sales_Department OU
- Restore the Admins OU in the Sales_Department OU
- Restore all the deleted user accounts that were direct children of the Admins OU
If you clear the Restore child objects check box, Active Roles performs only the first step, so the restored Sales_Department OU is empty.
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IMPORTANT: When restoring a deleted object, ensure that its parent object is not deleted. You can identify the parent object by viewing properties of the deleted object: the canonical name of the parent object, preceded with the "deleted from:" label, is displayed beneath the name of the deleted object on the General tab in the Properties dialog box. If the parent object is deleted, you need to restore it prior to restoring its children because deleted objects must be restored to a live parent. |
Delegating operations on deleted objects
The delegation model based on the Active Roles Access Templates is fully applicable to the administrative tasks specific to deleted objects. A new Access Template called All Objects - View or Restore Deleted Objects makes it easy to delegate the following operations to selected users:
- Viewing deleted Active Directory objects
- Restoring a deleted Active Directory object
When applied to the Deleted Objects container, the Access Template gives the delegated users the right to view and restore any deleted object. With the Access Template applied to an Organizational Unit (OU) or a Managed Unit (MU), the delegated users are given the right to view and restore only those deleted objects that were located in that OU or MU at the time of deletion.
To delegate the operation of restoring deleted objects
- In the console tree, select Configuration | Access Templates | Active Directory.
- In the details pane, right-click All Objects - View or Restore Deleted Objects and click Links.
- In the Links dialog box, click Add.
- Click Next on the Welcome page in the Delegation of Control Wizard.
- On the Objects page in the wizard, click Add; then, select the container in which you want to delegate the operation of restoring deleted objects:
- To delegate restoring only those deleted objects that were in a particular Organizational Unit (OU) or Managed Unit (MU) at the time of deletion, select that OU or MU.
- To delegate restoring any deleted objects in a particular managed domain, select either the object representing that domain or the Deleted Objects container for that domain.
- To delegate restoring any deleted objects in any managed domain, select the Active Directory container.
- Follow the instructions on the wizard pages to complete the Delegation of Control Wizard.
- Click OK to close the Links dialog box.
Although it is possible to delegate the operation of restoring deleted objects in any managed domain, Organizational Unit or Managed Unit, a deleted object cannot be restored by using Active Roles unless the object belongs to a managed domain that has Active Directory Recycle Bin enabled. For instructions on how to enable Recycle Bin, see “Active Directory Recycle Bin Step-by-Step Guide” in Microsoft’s documentation for Windows Server 2008 R2.