Maintaining Synchronization of Staging and Production

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

The scripts CreateXMLFromEnvironment.wsf and CreateEnvironmentFromXML.wsf are used to create an initial staging environment from your production environment. But maintenance of Group Policy, including testing new and changed GPOs, is ongoing; how do you keep your staging environment synchronized with the production environment on a continuing basis? These two scripts provide an all or nothing method for populating GPOs — they are not specific enough to capture and import only specific GPOs.

The backup and import functions in GPMC give you the ability to selectively synchronize specific GPOs between your production and staging environments. You can use the backup capability to create a backup of the settings and security of a production GPO. You can then import the backup over an existing GPO in your staging domain, thereby synchronizing it with the production GPO. For more information about backing up and importing GPOs, see "Deployment Examples" later in this chapter.