You can track GPO links changes by analyzing the security eventlog, GPO links will give you information on which objects your GPO is applied to. We will monitor GPLink attribute changes.

In order to analyze in real time the security log of all your DCs you need to pay for a Syslog solution, like Snare or Kiwi. Or you can try to setup an eventlog forwarding solution if you are under Windows 2008, you can also try to run a script that catches security log events, but you might encounter some performance issues.
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We will explain in this post how to monitor GPO changes by tracking modifications on the GPT. Only deletion, computer/user configuration modification and creation can be overlooked. About GPO monitoring you can read this article,which shows you how to activate auditing on your Sysvol share \\domainname\sysvol\domainfqdn\Policies and retrieve GPO changes via the eventlog. We will use another method, taking advantage of the replication of this folder.
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We will describe in this post how to indentify an application that causes a CPU time overconsumption on your Domain Controllers. We will use two tools for this: Server Performance Advisor and Wireshark. The first is used if you have a Windows 2003 DC, if OS is Windows 2008 the tool is already included, you access it with MMC snap-in perfmon.msc, its new name is Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor. Both versions have performance counters dedicated to Active Directory, in this post we will use SPA, because the DC having trouble is running Windows 2003. If you want more details on using Windows RPM for AD you can read this article.
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Here is an application for your helpdesk that collects data about the user environment which can be useful for troubleshooting, It was developed using WMI code creator was really useful for coding this application.

Just click on the icon bellow to download the tool, if you notice any bugs and have any ideas for tool evolution, please do not hesitate to contact me.

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