January 28

What is the version of installed AAD Connect?

There are 2 ways to check the version of the installed AAD Connect:

 

  1. Help => About

Start the AAD Connect synchronization console and look for the Menu Item Help, after click on about:

AAD Connect Synchronization Manager

 

and the About window appears:

About AAD Connect

 

2. Installed Software

Click on start and type: appwiz.cpl

after you hit enter the Programs and Features control panel will appear:

 

Programs and Features

 

as you can see there are 3 entries here:

      1. Microsoft Azure AD Connect => this is the AAD Connect Wizard
      2. Microsoft Azure AD Connect Health Agent for Sync => this is the health agent
      3. Microsoft Azure AD Connect synchronization services => this is the sync service itself

 

sometimes you will see different version for Microsoft Azure AD Connect  and Microsoft Azure AD Connect synchronization services; this means that AAD Connect is upgraded but the upgrade is not yet run to upgrade Microsoft Azure AD Connect synchronization service.

 

Happy Troubleshooting!

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January 27

History of AAD Connect

Is this true, that AAD Connect is older than 10 years?

The short answer is yes.

 

The longs answer is not that easy, look why:

Microsoft acquired tow companies based in Canada:

Linkage Software (LinkAge Directory Exchange LDE)

and

Zoomit Corporation (Via).

 

Based on these product the 1st release of the sync tool was born:

Microsoft Metadirectory Server

 

After this there are several rebrands:

  1. Microsoft Metadirectory Server (MMS) (1999–2003)
  2. Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (MIIS)
  3. Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003 Feature Pack (IIFP)
  4. Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager Server 2007 (ILM)
  5. Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager 2010 (FIM)
  6. Microsoft Identity Manager 2016 (MIM)

 

There is no more public available information about: MMS, MIIS, IIFP or ILM.

 

Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager 2010 (FIM). There is still a version history page: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2229.fim-2010-build-overview.aspx


There was small spin off of the product: SharePoint User Profile Synchronization

 

Based on FIM 2010 the 1st cloud sync tool: DirSync was published. This was quite similar to FIM 2010, where sync rules and provisioning extensions were present and the sync rules were configured in the management agent itself.


Some times later Azure AD Sync was released in 2014 with the version: 1.0.419.0911

see here:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/reference-connect-version-history-archive#104190911 

 

This tool was then rebranded to the current name: AAD Connect in June 2015

see here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/reference-connect-version-history-archive#1086410

 

And the big brother is still around: Microsoft Identity Manager 2016 (MIM) :

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-identity-manager/microsoft-identity-manager-2016

MIM 2016 about

As we can see here, the about page contains some referrals to the older version “Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2”

Happy Troubleshooting!

Category: AAD Connect | 1 Comment on History of AAD Connect