XADM: Description of the Active Directory Connector Deletion Mechanism

For each connection agreement on an Active Directory Connector (ADC), you can choose to either replicate deletions, or to keep the items and record information about the deletion to a file. You can select this option on the Deletion page of the Connection Agreement properties.

This article discusses the details and implications of each option.

Choosing to Replicate Deletions

If you choose to delete when Exchange Server replicates to Windows 2000 Server, every time that an entry is deleted on the Exchange Server directory the item is deleted on the Active Directory, and every time that an entry is deleted on the Active Directory the item is deleted on the Exchange Server directory.

Choosing to Write Deletions to a File

• If you choose to write deletions from the Active Directory to a file, the ADC creates a file named Ex55.csv.
• If you choose to write deletions from the Exchange Server directory to a file, the ADC creates a file named Win2000.ldf.

These files are ready to be applied to a directory to process those deletions.

For additional information about importing the Win2000.ldf file to the Active Directory, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about importing the Ex55.csv file to the Exchange Server directory, please see the Exchange Server 5.5 Online Help files.

The Ex55.csv and Win2000.ldf files are created in the following path: where ADC_path is usually the path C:\Program Files\MSADC, and CA_name is the name of the connection agreement, less any characters that are not allowed in directory names, such as the following characters:

• backward slash (\)
• forward slash (/)
• plus sign (+)
• angle brackets (<>)
• ampersand (&)
• accent circumflex (^)
• pipe or vertical bar (|)
• brackets ([])

You can override the location in which the Ex55.csv and Win2000.ldf files are created from the ADC_path\MSADC path to another path by editing the registry.

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate the Transaction Directory value under the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSADC\Parameters
3. On the Edit menu, click String, type new_path, and then click OK, where new_path is the full path in which you want to create each connection agreement subdirectory, for example, C:\MyADCLogs.
4. Quit Registry Editor.

The ADC service account that you use needs to have write permissions for that directory, or the ADC is not able to log information.

Each connection agreement subdirectory contains a file named Msadc.inf, which contains information about the connection agreement that the directory belongs to. The Msadc.inf file contains the name and objectGUID of the connection agreement, to avoid a situation in which two connection agreements point to the same directory. For example, if you have a connection agreement named My&CA and another named My+CA, both connection agreements are reduced to "MyCA" when you create a directory. In this case, the first connection agreement is MyCA and the second connection agreement is MyCA-1.