Azure AD Connect default synchronization interval and manual sync process have totally changed

Few weeks back I wrote a blog post describing how you can manually trigger an Azure AD Connect synchronization. Well, you can forget almost everything I wrote there, because Azure AD Connect default synchronization interval and manual sync process have totally changed starting with Azure AD Connect version 1.1.105.0. Let’s take a look at what’s new.

The first thing to note is that DirectorySyncClientCmd.exe does not exist anymore. No matter where you are looking for it, you won’t find this executable, so don’t lose your time. Secondly, the Azure AD Connect Task scheduler is not visible in Task Scheduler anymore. So, don’t lose your time looking for it either. What we have instead is more PowerShell. And since I am a PowerShell fan, I really like the new approach. 

So first thing to to if you have the newest version of Azure AD Connect is fire up PowerShell and run the following cmdlet:

Get-ADSyncScheduler

You will get following output:

Get-AdSyncScheduler

First thing we notice here is that the default synchronization interval is now 30 minutes, instead of 3 hours like it was in earlier versions. Of course, you can change this interval by using the Set-ADSyncScheduler cmdlet and defining the CurrentlyEffectiveSyncInterval parameter.

The nest thing to notice is that the next synchronization would be a delta synchronization. Now if you want to define the next sync as a full sync you can run again the Set–ADSyncScheduler cmdlet and change the NextSyncCyclePolityType to “Full”. This will ensure that when the next synchronization will occur, this will be a full sync and not delta.

However, if you want to manually trigger a synchronization, either full or delta, you need to do this via PowerShell. So, in order to run a delta synchronization, you would need to run following cmdlet:

Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta

And for a full sync, this would be:

Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Initial

When you run this cmdlets, nothing will be displayed in PowerShell! But if you open Synchronization Service you will notice that your Azure AD Connect is doing its job.

That’s all. At least until a new version is released 🙂

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Dan Patrascu-Baba

Dan Patrascu-Baba

Developer, consultant, trainer at Codewrinkles
,Net Developer.Focusing on both the .Net world and Microsoft Azure. Experienced speaker and trainer.
Dan Patrascu-Baba
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