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Enable Microsoft Entra Connect group writeback

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Important

The public preview of Group Writeback v2 in Microsoft Entra Connect Sync will no longer be available after June 30, 2024. This feature will be discontinued on this date, and you will no longer be supported in Connect Sync to provision cloud security groups to Active Directory. The feature will continue to operate beyond the discontinuation date; however, it will no longer receive support after this date and may cease functioning at any time without notice.

We offer similar functionality in Microsoft Entra Cloud Sync called Group Provision to Active Directory that you can use instead of Group Writeback v2 for provisioning cloud security groups to Active Directory. We're working on enhancing this functionality in Cloud Sync along with other new features that we're developing in Cloud Sync.

Customers who use this preview feature in Connect Sync should switch their configuration from Connect Sync to Cloud Sync. You can choose to move all your hybrid sync to Cloud Sync (if it supports your needs). You can also run Cloud Sync side by side and move only cloud security group provisioning to Active Directory onto Cloud Sync.

For customers who provision Microsoft 365 groups to Active Directory, you can keep using Group Writeback v1 for this capability.

You can evaluate moving exclusively to Cloud Sync by using the user synchronization wizard.

Group writeback is a feature that allows you to write cloud groups back to your on-premises Active Directory instance by using Microsoft Entra Connect Sync.

This article walks you through enabling group writeback.

Deployment steps

Group writeback requires enabling both the original and new versions of the feature. If the original version was previously enabled in your environment, you need to use only the first set of the following steps, because the second set of steps has already been completed.

Note

We recommend that you follow the swing migration method for rolling out the new group writeback feature in your environment. This method will provide a clear contingency plan if a major rollback is necessary.

The enhanced group writeback feature is enabled on the tenant and not per Microsoft Entra Connect client instance. Please be sure that all Microsoft Entra Connect client instances are updated to a minimal build version of 1.6.4.0 or later.

Note

If you don't want to writeback all existing Microsoft 365 groups to Active Directory, you need to make changes to group writeback default behaviour before performing the steps in this article to enable the feature. See Modify Microsoft Entra Connect group writeback default behavior. Also the new and original versions of the feature need to be enabled in the order documented. If the original feature is enabled first, all existing Microsoft 365 groups will be written back to Active Directory.

Enable group writeback by using PowerShell

  1. On your Microsoft Entra Connect server, open a PowerShell prompt as an administrator.

  2. Disable the sync scheduler after you verify that no synchronization operations are running:

    Set-ADSyncScheduler -SyncCycleEnabled $false

  3. Import the ADSync module:

    Import-Module  'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Azure AD Sync\Bin\ADSync\ADSync.psd1'

  4. Enable the group writeback feature for the tenant:

    Set-ADSyncAADCompanyFeature -GroupWritebackV2 $true

  5. Re-enable the sync scheduler:

    Set-ADSyncScheduler -SyncCycleEnabled $true

  6. Run a full sync cycle if group writeback was previously configured and will not be configured in the ⁠Microsoft Entra Connect wizard:

    Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Initial

Enable group writeback by using the Microsoft Entra Connect wizard

If the original version of group writeback was not previously enabled, continue with the following steps:

  1. On your Microsoft Entra Connect server, open the Microsoft Entra Connect wizard.
  2. Select Configure, and then select Next.
  3. Select Customize synchronization options, and then select Next.
  4. On the Connect to Microsoft Entra ID page, enter your credentials. Select Next.
  5. On the Optional features page, verify that the options you previously configured are still selected.
  6. Select Group Writeback, and then select Next.
  7. On the Writeback page, select an Active Directory organizational unit (OU) to store objects that are synchronized from Microsoft 365 to your on-premises organization. Select Next.
  8. On the Ready to configure page, select Configure.
  9. On the Configuration complete page, select Exit.

After you finish this procedure, group writeback is configured automatically. If you experience permission issues while exporting the object to Active Directory, open Windows PowerShell as an administrator on the Microsoft Entra Connect server. Then run the following commands. This step is optional.

$AzureADConnectSWritebackAccountDN =  <MSOL_ account DN> 
Import-Module "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Azure Active Directory Connect\AdSyncConfig\AdSyncConfig.psm1" 
 
# To grant the <MSOL_account> permission to all domains in the forest: 
Set-ADSyncUnifiedGroupWritebackPermissions -ADConnectorAccountDN $AzureADConnectSWritebackAccountDN 
 
# To grant the <MSOL_account> permission to a specific OU (for example, the OU chosen to write back Office 365 groups to): 
$GroupWritebackOU = <DN of OU where groups are to be written back to> 
Set-ADSyncUnifiedGroupWritebackPermissions –ADConnectorAccountDN $AzureADConnectSWritebackAccountDN -ADObjectDN $GroupWritebackOU

Optional configuration

To make it easier to find groups being written back from Microsoft Entra ID to Active Directory, there's an option to write back the group distinguished name by using the cloud display name:

  • Default format: CN=Group_3a5c3221-c465-48c0-95b8-e9305786a271, OU=WritebackContainer, DC=domain, DC=com 

  • New format: CN=Administrators_e9305786a271, OU=WritebackContainer, DC=domain, DC=com 

When you're configuring group writeback, a checkbox appears at the bottom of the configuration window. Select it to enable this feature.

Note

Groups being written back from Microsoft Entra ID to Active Directory will have a source of authority in the cloud. Any changes made on-premises to groups that are written back from Microsoft Entra ID will be overwritten in the next sync cycle.

Next steps