The Active Directory Snapshot Tool (ADST) is basically a front end Microsoft have written that calls all of the Support Tools and Resource Kit tools like Repadmin.exe. Inside the ADST itself is a log viewer where you can see the results of any of the tests you have just run. I’d recommend you use the built in log viewer in the ADST console as the XML format is something very specific to Microsoft and not published. Do you just need to read the information or are you trying to create a report on it? The ADST is very good from a functional sense but the last version I used couldn’t be scheduled and the reports were just text from the logs.

If you want to do up a fancy report and want the ability to export to XML, CSV or HTML then I would recommend downloading a trial of Quest Spotlight on Active Directory. It has a web based reporting interface, is very easy to use and can output in a report friendly format. Send me an email if you want and I’ll arrange a trial for you. My favourite bit of Spotlight is it is also a real time monitoring tool so you see the problems as they occur, not a long time after when you remember to run the ADST : )

Cheers,
Tim

I have run ADST in my AD environment and got reports as XML files which I am not able to understand the contents and don’t know whether these files are actually reports or not?

Please help if ADST generates reports in XML file format if yes then can we get/export the report to excel file format?

I need to do the health check of my AD environment and need to rectify the issues which this tool reports but unable to understand the XML files

Please advice.

Thanks!
Ashish

Microsoft use an in house tool to perform the ADRAP. When they come in they will install a set of tools that are based on the Support Tools I’ve mentioned in the blog and then they license it just to your Domain. So it’s not something you can take to a different environment.

The report you get from Microsoft for an ADRAP is very comprehensive and will run to about 60 pages on average. The standard ADRAP is just around your AD however. The ones I perform for clients are a bit further reaching into business processes and I use the Microsft Infrastructure Optimization model to help explain to clients the benefits of automation in an AD once you’ve got it running to best practice.

The commands mentioned above for DNSLINT and REPADMIN are a good starting point for self testing and running DCDIAG on every DC is a slow but effective way to ensure each DC has no problems. These are free from Microsoft and something you can start running right now. But you can’t get a hold of the ADRAP toolset through any supported channel.

Any other questions just ask : )
Tim

please help me

Thanks