Simplify GPO Delegation | ADManager Plus

Free Edition
Quick links
Active Directory management
Active Directory reporting
Active Directory delegation
Active Directory permissions management and reporting
Active Directory automation
Governance, risk, and compliance
Microsoft 365 management and reporting
Exchange management and reporting
Active Directory integrations

What is Group Policy delegation?

Group Policy delegation is the process of selectively granting specific users the rights to manage Group Policy Objects (GPOs). In large organizations, IT teams cannot afford to have all GPO management tasks centralized to a few domain administrators. Delegation empowers local, departmental, or help desk teams to perform necessary GPO tasks like editing security settings, managing policy links, or troubleshooting user configurations within their defined scope.

Essential GPO delegation use cases

Effective GPO delegation helps you securely offload key management responsibilities:

GPO linking management

Delegate the ability to link existing GPOs to specific OUs or domains, without giving the user permission to edit the GPO itself. This helps distribute administrative workload while protecting the integrity of centrally managed policies.

Help desk GPO troubleshooting

Grant specific help desk staff Read or Report Generation permissions on GPOs to diagnose policy conflicts, without granting modification rights. This ensures they can review settings without altering any GPO configurations.

Department-specific policy management

Allow specific IT staff or department administrators to create or edit GPOs tailored to their own units, enabling faster policy customization while keeping organization-wide policies governed centrally.

Security policy reviewers

Provide auditors or security teams with read-only access to GPO settings so they can review settings, validate compliance requirements, and ensure alignment with organizational security standards.

Limitations of native GPO delegation

Effective GPO delegation enforces least privilege, improves operational efficiency, and enhances security. However, native tools like the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and PowerShell fail to clearly separate administrative control from policy application.

Over delegation: Granting permission for one task often grants permissions for unrelated, sensitive GPO management tasks, leading to over-delegation.
Confusing interface: The distinction between using the Delegation tab (which uses ACLs to grant administrative rights) and the Security Filtering section (which determines who the policy applies to) is frequently misunderstood, leading to operational errors.
No bulk delegation support: Modifying permissions on many GPOs requires writing a script that explicitly loops through each GPO, which is inefficient and prone to scripting errors.
Lack of visibility and auditing: There is no consolidated view or easy mechanism to track GPO delegation changes over time. Auditing requires looking at security event logs, which can be challenging to correlate.

How to delegate GPO permissions

ADManager Plus enables powerful, template-based delegation that eliminates the complexity of native tools, allowing you to securely delegate GPO management and reporting tasks.

Create GPO roles

Create custom roles for the help desk, IT auditors, and specialized GPO managers from a wide range of GPO reports and GPO management tasks. Assign only specific tasks required for that role, minimizing security exposure and simplifying Group Policy delegation.

Creating a custom GPO role for a user in ADManager Plus

Delegate GPO roles to users

Select technicians to whom you'd like to delegate GPO tasks and assign the role that you created. Define the operational scope of technicians by specifying the OU, ensuring policies are only applied and modified where intended.

Delegating GPO roles to technicians in ADManager Plus

Audit user actions

Track each technician's actions with detailed audit reports. This ensures you have an audit trail of every GPO operation performed by your delegated users.

Auditing GPO operations performed by delegated users using ADManager Plus

Key benefits of using ADManager Plus for GPO delegation

Enhanced security: Ensure the principle of least privilege by delegating only necessary GPO tasks, preventing accidental GPO changes.
Multi-level approval workflows: Ensure critical GPO tasks are executed after an admin's approval with customizable workflows.
Productivity boost: Offload routine policy tasks from administrators to help desk staff, freeing up senior IT time for critical work.
Full audit trail: Track every delegated action performed on GPOs, ensuring full accountability and aiding in compliance reporting.

FAQs

GPO security filtering limits which users and computers a policy applies to, while delegation controls who can manage the GPO itself. Security filtering uses permissions like Apply Group Policy to determine application, whereas delegation uses permissions like Read, Write, and Modify to control administration rights.

Scope determines who a GPO applies to, such as users, groups, or computers, while delegation grants permissions to manage GPOs to specific users or groups.