Re: How to Get Schema Information...

From: Eric Fleischman [MSFT] (efleis_at_online.microsoft.com)
Date: 06/06/04 

Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2004 22:12:53 -0500

> In short, I could figure out the data-structure, without needing access to
> application source code.

And you can do the same in ad:
ldifde -f schema.ldf -d "cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=domain,dc=com"

That will dump the schema to an ldif file and you can then read through it
much the same way you would for AD.
Beyond that it is up to the sysadmin who extends the schema (much like the
DBA who sets up the data layout) to document what they do. I can point you
to docs on AD defaults, Exchange extensions, etc. but I can't tell you what
your particular admin did I'm afraid. Dumping it to an ldif file (such as
what the command above does) will let you pick through that as you so
choose.

Does that not do what you are looking for?

~Eric 

-- 
Eric Fleischman [MSFT]
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"David" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:AB7E260C-FA7A-401E-8233-00D7DA1687EA@microsoft.com...
>
>     ----- Eric Fleischman [MSFT] wrote: -----
>
>     Hum. Well I'm not totally sure what you're looking for.
>     The schema itself is documented up on MSDN so you can find a lot of 
> details
>     there.
>     Short of that, you can use tools like ldp to view specific classes, or
>     perhaps ldifde to dump the schema entirely to a text file. For 
> example:
>     ldifde -f schema.ldf -d "cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=domain,dc=com"
>
>     Of course you would put your own domain in there. ;)
>
>     Is that along the lines of what you're looking for?
>
> I am a DBA. If I were to inherit a database, I know exactly how I would go 
> about to figure out what the various objects (tables, views, etc.) in the 
> database are, how they are related, what values are allowed for a column, 
> and so on... In short, I could figure out the data-structure, without 
> needing access to application source code.
>
> I guess what I was asking for is how would I do something like that for 
> the AD.
>
> In our AD, we have lots of classes added by IP telephony, Exchange, and 
> other systems.  I have no idea what they are.  I can see various 
> attributes, but do not know what values are allowed for each attribute and 
> what the values mean... I can export the entire AD to say Access and try 
> to figure things out. But I was wondering whether there is a different 
> method that Network Engineers would use to figure out / maintain an AD 
> they inherited?
>