Searching for Tombstones

Searching for Tombstones
Searching for tombstone objects in Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 is similar to searching for any other type of object but with a couple of important differences. First, you must enable the Return Deleted Objects Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) control as part of the search operation. Second, if you want to limit your results to tombstones, you need either to set the search base to the target partition's Deleted Objects container or use (isDeleted=TRUE) as part of your search filter.

Let's walk through a sample search operation by using the Ldp tool, which is available in either the Windows 2003 or Win2K Support Tools, to search for all tombstone objects in a domain. (The Windows 2003 version of Ldp offers some expanded capabilities.) Open Ldp and connect to the target domain controller (DC) by selecting Connection, Connect from the tool's menu bar. After you've established a connection, select Connection, Bind from the tool's menu bar. Only members of the Domain Admins group can search for tombstone objects, so you'll need to use a Domain Admins username and password to authenticate. . . .