AD advanced settings
AD advanced settings
Most Active Directory configuration lives on the main Active Directory settings page. This advanced page holds three things that need their own editors: exclusions, year-group / intake-year mappings, and AD attribute mappings. They feed the same connector, so a change here affects its next run.
Before you start
- You must be a school admin with sync settings permission, with the school selected in the switcher.
- The year-group rows are built from the year groups actually present on your school's members, so make sure your MIS import is up to date before mapping them.
Steps
Step 1 — Open AD advanced settings {#step-1}
From Active Directory settings, open Advanced settings (or go to the AD advanced page directly).
Step 2 — Set exclusions {#step-2}
In the Exclusions card:
- User exclusions — usernames the AD sync should skip entirely.
- Group exclusions — groups the AD sync should skip.
Use these to keep specific accounts or groups (for example service accounts, or a group managed by hand in AD) out of the sync so it never touches them.
Step 3 — Map year groups {#step-3}
The Year group mapping table has one row per year group found in your school's data, with two values you can set for each:
- AD year value — what that year group should become in AD (this is the value the
%YGwildcard uses in OU and path templates). - Intake year — the intake/cohort year for that year group (used by the
%IYwildcard).
Fill in the rows for the year groups you use. Unmapped year groups fall back to their raw value.
Step 4 — Map AD attributes to source fields {#step-4}
The Field mapping section lets you fill selected AD attributes from a Realsmart source field. For each AD attribute — Office (physicalDeliveryOfficeName), Pager, and Description — pick which Realsmart field supplies it, choosing from: Forename, Surname, Username, MIS ID, UPN/Staff Code, or Job Title (or leave it as "-" to fill nothing).
For example, mapping Description to Job Title writes each staff member's job title into the Description attribute of their AD account.
Step 5 — Save {#step-5}
Select Save advanced settings. The connector applies the exclusions and mappings on its next run. Check the effect with Preview the Active Directory export before relying on it.