Azure AD Connect (formerly known as DirSync) keeps on premise Active Directory environments in sync with Azure Active Directory.
Sometimes it will be necessary to force Azure AD connect to sync uronise before its next scheduled time. This can easily be achieved in Powershell.
To force a syncronisation, there are two types of sync that can be performed. These are a full sync and a delta sync.
Full Sync:
Full Sync or “Initial Sync” should be used when;
- New attributes or objects have been added to active directory
- AD Connect filtering rules have been updated
- Synchronisation rules have changed
Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType InitialDelta Sync:
Forcing a delta sync will synchronise changes to attributes. Hoewever, If adding new attributes, make sure you run a Full Sync instead because these will not be picked up by a delta sync.
Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta