What are the benefits and features of GPA 6.8?

Document ID:7017945
Creation Date:11-Aug-2016
Modified Date:11-Aug-2016
- Micro Focus Products:
  Group Policy Administrator

Environment

NetIQ Group Policy Administrator 6.8

Situation

Resolution

What’s New?

The following outline the key features and functions provided by this version, as well as issues resolved in this release:

Support for Merging GPOs

NetIQ Group Policy Administrator includes support for merging the settings of two GPOs. Merging GPOs that have the same settings, or a few settings each, can lead to reduced complexity, making maintenance and troubleshooting simpler and less time-consuming. You can merge all kinds of Group Policy settings including:

Software settings
Security settings
Preferences
Administrative templates settings
Scripts settings
Folder redirection
Name resolution policy
Policy-based QoS

GPOs from any supported operating system can be merged.

Support for PowerShell Scripts

NetIQ Group Policy Administrator now supports using PowerShell scripts to automate group policy administration. The biggest benefit of this feature for administrators is the simplicity and ease of programming.

Group Policy Infrastructure Status Report

NetIQ Group Policy Administrator includes a new report that allows you to identify GPOs that are out of sync across domain controllers in the same domain. This check can be made at the domain or GPO level from the GPA Console on all supported operating systems including Windows 2008 or later.

Support for SQL 2014

NetIQ Group Policy Administrator includes support for installing and using the GPA repository database on SQL 2014 servers.

Installing This Version

To install this version, run Setup.exe on each GPA Server, GP Repository, and GPA Console computer.

For more information about how to install or upgrade GPA, see the User Guide on the Group Policy Administrator documentation Web site.

GPA now requires the following more recent prerequisite versions:

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86) (or x64 for GPA Console)
.NET Framework 4.0

The prerequisite checker installs these updated versions if you select that option.

PowerShell 2.0 is not required by GPA but we recommend that you install it.

Addressed Issues

This release also includes the following stabilizing fixes:

Resolved an issue where the GPO Difference Report displayed even the identical registry, system services and file system settings. (ENG277960)
Resolved an issue where there is a delay in establishing a connection to the Repository on Windows 2012 computers. (ENG336041)
Resolved an issue where incorrect OUs were listed in GPO links. (ENG336347)
Resolved an issue where the GPO Difference Report showed incorrect differences for google chrome ADMX settings. (ENG337751)
Resolved an issue with the Offline Mirror wizard where the import operation failed when OUs with a large number of users were included for GPO import. (ENG337095)
Resolved an issue where the settings report showed an error for a GPA console with multiple domains that had multiple ADMX cultures. (ENG334818)
Resolved an issue where the installer needed an account with the SQL sysadmin role to upgrade the server. (ENG335003)
Resolved an issue where the trusted domain in the GPA Repository was shown as an untrusted domain when the registry value “EnumCurDomainOnly” was set. (ENG337718)
Resolved an issue where the deny “View Category” permission was set for the category during Offline Mirror wizard if the corresponding organizational unit in AD had deny “Send As” or deny “Receive As” permissions. (ENG338640)
Resolved an issue where the schedule GPO Export wizard took a long time to complete the Add GPOs operation when there were a large number of GPOs in a category. (ENG337769)
Resolved an issue where enumerating a category with a large number of GPOs in the Add Notifications wizard took a long time. (ENG337729)
Resolved an issue with the Offline Mirror wizard where the operation failed when importing OUs that contained a comma character. (ENG338137)
Resolved an issue where a runtime error occurred when a target GPO was selected from the Synchronization tab of a master GPO. (ENG339346)
Resolved an issue with the Offline Mirror wizard where the import operation failed and the wizard stopped unexpectedly when OUs with a large number of users were excluded from the GPO import. (ENG337093)
Resolved an issue where RunOfflineMirror stopped unexpectedly when the OU had a large number of AD objects. (ENG340190)
Resolved an issue where the GPA-CONSOLE-NODES-VISIBILITY-MANAGEMENT group name was hardcoded. (ENG339767)

Known Issues

NetIQ Corporation strives to ensure our products provide quality solutions for your enterprise software needs. The following issues are currently being researched. If you need further assistance with any issue, please contact Technical Support.

Security Descriptors of the Individual Policies under Some of the Security Settings Will Be Retained from Primary GPO

When two GPOs are merged, the security settings from the secondary GPO are not added to the merged GPO. (ENG339576, ENG339575, ENG339573, ENG338622)

During the Merge of Internet Explorer Settings, Content Ratings and Content Advisor Settings Are Retained from Primary GPO

The ratings.ini file of the merged GPO has settings from only the primary GPO and the ratrsop.ini file of the merged GPO has the settings from both of the participating GPOs. (ENG339925)

Comments from Source GPOs Are Not Merged

After merging two GPOs that have Administrative Template policy settings configured with comments, the merged GPO will not have the comments from the secondary source GPO. (ENG338088)

Comparison Report and Difference Report Show Incompatible Data

If you run a Comparison report and a Difference report on two GPOs with different Policy Removal Behavior settings, the Comparison Report displays a “D” for that setting, but the Policy Removal Behavior setting does not appear in the Difference report. (ENG339543)

Cannot Search in GP Explorer for Links in Trusted Domains from a Different Forest

In GP Explorer, if the Properties dialog of a GPO in a trusted domain from a different forest is opened, the domains from the forest in which the console is installed is shown on the Links tab. Because of this, the you cannot use the Links tab in any domain from an external forest. (ENG339350)