Description of Group Policy Preference Migration Tool (GPPMIG)

The Group Policy Preference Migration Tool (GPPMIG) is a command line application developed with version 3.0 of the .NET Framework. A user who has Domain Administrative Credentials can use GPPMIG to migrate PolicyMaker items to Group Policy Preference items into the same Group Policy object (GPO) or into a different GPO.

What it does

With GPPMIG, you can target a single GPO to migrate, or you can select all GPOs to migrate. The steps GPPMIG follows are listed in this section:

1. GPPMIG performs a paged Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) query to the primary domain controller (PDC) to retrieve a list of all the GPOs in the user's domain.
2. GPPMIG filters out any GPO in the list that is not configured for PolicyMaker items.
3. GPPMIG iterates through each GPO in the final list, looking for PolicyMaker specific client-side extensions in each GPO.
4. The whole GPO is evaluated before you move to the next GPO.
5. If a PolicyMaker setting is found, GPPMIG makes sure that there is no equivalent Group Policy Preference configuration.
6. The equivalent Group Policy Preference configuration will not migrate PolicyMaker items into existing Group Policy Preference items.
7. When GPPMIG finishes its search for PolicyMaker items in the GPO, it updates the Group Policy object to include Group Policy Preference client-side extensions.
8. GPPMIG increases the version number for the user, for the computer, or for both, depending on what PolicyMaker items it migrated. A migration does not alter any PolicyMaker items for the GPO. All PolicyMaker items remain configured and available in the GPO.
9. GPPMIG creates a migration log in the directory from which it ran.

Note GPPMIG does not migrate PolicyMaker applications or Mail Profile data because Group Policy Preferences do not include client-side extensions for these items.

Important Note: GPPMIG is not supported by Microsoft Technical Support. It is "as-is" utility. If you need any assistance, please send an email to gppmsup@microsoft.comFor more information, please refer readme.doc file that you get after installing GPPMIG.

Usage

You can use GPPMIG to migrate PolicyMaker items to Group Policy Preferences in staged approach or, you can create new GPOs to hold your new Group Policy Preference items and migrate PolicyMaker items to the new GPOs. The staged approach is a planned migration strategy. The staged approach is documented in the following section. This documentation enables you to change the planned migration strategy to best suit the needs of your environment. The PolicyMaker items migrate to Group Policy Preferences in three stages.

1. Stage 1: Identify GPOs that contain PolicyMaker items and use GPMC 1.x to back up those GPOs.
2. Stage 2: Migrate PolicyMaker items to Group Policy Preference items in the same or a new GPO.
   • Deploy the Group Policy Preference client-side extensions (CSEs) to the client computer.
3. Stage 3: Confirm that you have applied Group Policy Preference items to the user and the computer.
   • Use GPMC 6.0.0.1 to back up the GPOs (to a different back up location, then perform Stage 1.
   • If applicable, remove PolicyMaker items from the GPOs,

Commands

GPPMIG contains the following four basic commands:

• Whatif: Display all the Group Policy objects that contain PolicyMaker items
• Migrate: Migrates PolicyMaker items to Group Policy Preference items in the same GPO.
• MigrateTo: Migrates PolicyMaker items to Group Policy Preference items to a different GPO.
• Remove: Removes PolicyMaker items from a GPO.

Requirements

The installer must be running on a computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 with .Net 3.0.

To download GPPMIG for your operating system, visit the following Microsoft Web site: