Active Directory Sync Tool: New Capabilities, Including Security & Dynamic Group Syncing

by Aliese Alter on Oct 27, 2021 12:00:00 AM

On-premise Active Directory (AD) and Azure AD are frequently used by organizations to authenticate and sanction users by facilitating and assigning actions such as policies and user permissions, as well as to support the installation of software and ongoing maintenance, such as updates.

In an effort to increase the productivity and efficiency of our customers through integration with current tools, DNSFilter launched its first iteration of Active Directory integration in June 2020. To support the integration, DNSFilter developed the Sync Tool, available to customers who have Pro+ subscriptions. This permits customers who employ either on-premise Active Directory or Azure AD to synchronize DNSFilter user account creation and provisioning with their existing deployments. More specifically, administrators can group users into collections and apply specific policies, schedules, and block pages to those collections, as well as on a per-user basis.

At DNSFilter, we are dedicated to iterating and enhancing existing features through leveraging new technologies as well as feedback from customers actively using the features. As a result, DNSFilter is excited to announce a new release of the Sync Tool which includes both enhancements and improvements to strengthen the user experience.

New capabilities:

Syncing of both security and dynamic groups
Increased communication and functionality
Automatic Full Sync
Ability to support up to 500,000 users

Sync Security and Dynamic Groups

What does this mean? More synergy between DNSFilter and existing platforms through user creation and provisioning!

New features:

Sync Dynamic Groups from both on-premise AD and Azure AD
Sync Built-in groups from on-premise AD

Increased Communication & Functionality

What does this mean? Improved in-app communication on activities and status, and additional functions to enhance the user experience!

New features:

Progress bar detailing how far along the sync is, and how many objects out of the total number have been synced
Visibility into errors and warnings encountered during sync
Sync Logs which include filtering by status
Various viewing modes
Free text search

Automatic Full Sync

What does this mean? The DNSFilter app will now reflect changes made in your Active Directory instance without you having to think about pushing those changes!

Support 500,000 users

What does this mean? Ability to support large organizations through capacity expansion from 75,000 users to 500,000 users!

Continue reading about the DNSFilter Sync Tool.

Topics: Product & Features

Smarter DNS Policies: What You Should Be Blocking (But Probably Aren’t)

DNS filtering is a foundational layer of defense and helps to fortify the strongest security stacks. Most organizations use DNSFilter to block the obvious: malware, phishing, and adult content. That’s a great start, but many are missing out on the broader potential of DNS policies.

Educating Your Clients on the Sophistication of Phishing Attacks

Imagine losing $31,583 every minute. That’s how much cybercrime cost American businesses in 2024, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Phishing was one of the top threats behind that number. If you're still thinking phishing is just about misspelled emails from a Nigerian prince, you're dangerously underestimating today’s threat.

IAM Userless: Streamline AWS Access & Reduce the Attack Surface

Security and scalability are paramount in modern cloud architectures. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Identity and Access Management is a critical tool that helps you manage users, permissions, and access control across AWS services. While Identity and Access Management (IAM) users have traditionally been the go-to approach for granting access to resources, there are significant advantages to moving to IAM roles.