Purpose:
You perform an AD Sync on an Active Directory Organizational Unit (OU) containing computer objects; and the OU is not listed in the domain.com PDQ Inventory Tree item.
NOTE: By default, PDQ Inventory does not list AD OUs that do not contain computer objects.
Resolution:
PDQ Inventory only considers and enumerates objects as existing within an OU if they have the dNSHostName attribute set. For example, if a computer or set of computers have been pre-staged in the OU, those objects will not have the dNSHostName attribute.
You can manually check whether a computer has this attribute set by opening Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) and performing the following:
- Selecting the OU in question that contains computer objects.
- Right-click one on the computer objects and select Properties.
- Click on the Attribute Editor tab.
- Scroll down to the dNSHostName attribute. If the dNSHostName value is <not set> then the attribute does not exist.
You can also check this using PowerShell; here is an example:
Get-ADComputer -searchbase "OU=Accounting,OU=Finance,OU=HQ,DC=domain,DC=tld" -SearchScope 2 -filter 'ObjectClass -eq "Computer"' | Select -Expand DNSHostName
Notes:
- Change the number and name of the OUs in the example to mirror your AD path. In the example above, "Accounting" is a sub-OU of "Finance", which is a sub-OU of "HQ".
- Change the DC to mirror your domain structure. For example, ad.bloop.example.com would be DC=ad,DC=bloop,DC=example,DC=com.
If no computers are listed when the PowerShell command is run, then no machine in that OU has the dNSHostName attribute set.
Add the pre-staged machines to the domain and the issue should be resolved upon the next AD Sync.
See Also:
How To Synchronize Active Directory With PDQ Inventory
PDQ Inventory Active Directory Synchronization
dNSHostname Attribute
Set-ADComputer Cmdlet
