Ldifde
Ldifde creates, modifies, and deletes directory objects on computers running Windows Server 2003 operating systems or Windows XP Professional. You can also use Ldifde to extend the schema, export Active Directory user and group information to other applications or services, and populate Active Directory with data from other directory services.
The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) is a draft Internet standard for a file format that may be used for performing batch operations against directories that conform to the LDAP standards. LDIF can be used to export and import data, allowing batch operations such as add, create, and modify to be performed against the Active Directory. A utility program called LDIFDE is included in Windows 2000 to support batch operations based on the LDIF file format standard. This article is designed to help you better understand how the LDIFDE utility can be used to migrate directories.
Csvde
Imports and exports data from Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) using files that store data in the comma-separated value (CSV) format. You can also support batch operations based on the CSV file format standard.
Csvde is a command-line tool that is built into Windows Server 2008 in the/system32 folder. It is available if you have the AD DS or Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) server role installed. To use csvde, you must run the csvde command from an elevated command prompt. To open an elevated command prompt, click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
DIFFERENCE USAGE WISE
Csvde.exe is a Microsoft Windows 2000 command-line utility that is located in the SystemRoot\System32 folder after you install Windows 2000. Csvde.exe is similar to Ldifde.exe, but it extracts information in a comma-separated value (CSV) format. You can use Csvde to import and
export Active Directory data that uses the comma-separated value format. Use a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel to open this .csv file and view
the header and value information. See Microsoft Excel Help for information about functions such as Concatenate that can simplify the
process of building a .csv file.
Note
Although Csvde is similar to Ldifde, Csvde has a significant limitation: it can only import and export Active Directory data by using a comma-separated
format (.csv). Microsoft recommends that you use the Ldifde utility for Modify or Delete operations. Additionally, the distinguished name
(also known as DN) of the item that you are trying to import must be in the first column of the .csv file or the import will not work.
The source .csv file can come from an Exchange Server directory export. However, because of the difference in attribute mappings between the Exchange
Server directory and Active Directory, you must make some modifications to the .csv file. For example, a directory export from Exchange Server has a column
that is named "obj-class" that you must rename to "objectClass." You must also rename "Display Name" to "displayName."
