Requirements for DirSync

/ 11 March 2014

Updated on 28 August 2015

IMPORTANT: AAD Connect has replaced AADSync and DirSync. Reference: Azure Active Directory Sync

AADSync Replaced

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IMPORTANT! Azure Active Directory Sync Services (AADSync) has replaced DirSync. And eventually, when Azure Active Directory Connect (AAD Connect) is generally available (this year {fingers crossed}), it will replace AADSync.

NOTE: As of 11 December 2014, Active Directory Synchronization Services (AADSync) can now replace DirSync for synchronizing on premise Active Directory users, groups and passwords to Office 365. Though DirSync is deprecated it is still available to download via the Office 365 Admin Center; however, please do not use it.

NOTE: DirSync will eventually be replaced by Azure Active Directory Synchronization Services (AADSync). Review AADSync requirements here.

Review the DirSync server requirements here on the TechNet site and/or here in the Windows Azure documentation.

Periodically, the DirSync tool is updated (version history here).  Microsoft now calls it the Microsoft Azure Active Directory Sync tool and is available to Office 365 customers from within their portal or here.

NOTE: The most recent version of DirSync is 1.0.7020.000 is now available from the Office 365 Admin Center (checked on 15 December 2014).

Server Requirements

  • Windows 2008 R2 or newer OS (can be a DC, must be 64-bit OS) … required for password synchronization; The server must be joined to the domain.
  • Minimum 4GB RAM
  • For SQL Express (default), recommend minimum 70 GB free disk space … for environments with up to 50,000 AD objects
  • Full SQL required for environments with more than 50,000 AD objects … 100+ GB free disk space required
  • Windows Management Framework 3.0 or PowerShell 3.0
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1

Software Prerequisites

Additionally, to connect and synchronize to Office 365, the following prerequisites need to be installed before installing DirSync…

Install “Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell (64-bit version)”.  It is highly recommended that this machine be restarted before installing DirSync.

NOTE: Effective October 20, 2014, the 32-bit version of Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell is discontinued. Support for the 32-bit version will no longer occur, and future updates to the Azure Active Directory Module will be released only for the 64-bit version. We strongly recommend you install the 64-bit version to ensure future support and compatibility. Refer to “Install the Azure AD Module” in Manage Azure AD using Windows PowerShell.

If DirSync is to be installed on a server with Windows 2008 R2, beginning with version 1.0.6765.0006, PowerShell 3.0 is required and can be installed from Windows Management Framework 3.0; AND beginning with version 1.0.6985.000, .NET Framework 4.5.1 is a prerequisite.

NOTE: As of 31 July 2014, DirSync 1.0.7020.000 is the most current version (178 MB; 182,513 KB).

The latest version of DirSync (1.0.7020.000) can be downloaded from HERE or HERE.

DirSync Version 1.0.7020.0000

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3 thoughts on “Requirements for DirSync”

  1. The requirements mentions 70GB disk space required for 50,000 users… Is this server disk space for the SQL database.
    For example, if I am using a remote SQL DB the server would not need this 70GB but the SQL database server would?

    Reply

    • Don’t forget to review the DirSync requirements in the “references” section of this article. When installing the DirSync tool, SQL Express is installed by default and both require a combined total of 70 GB of disk space.

      Using the full version of SQL provides a bit more flexibility to be able to use a back-end DB server as opposed to local disks. I suppose that the DirSync tool requires a certain amount of disk space but I am not certain what the disk space requirement is.

      Please review the “Hard disk capacity” and “Hard disk configuration” subsections under the “Hardware recommendations” section found in the “Prepare for directory synchronization” article, here … http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj151831.aspx#BKMK_HardwareReqs.

      Reply

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