Group membership information. (4627) how to monitor with email alert

[bob]

So, event 4627 pops up in your Windows Server Event Viewer when a user account gets wiped out. It's tucked away in the Security log, you know. This thing captures every little bit about the deletion, like the account name that vanished, the user who pulled the trigger on it, and even the workstation or server where it happened. And here's the kicker with group membership information. It spills details on what security groups that deleted user belonged to before they got axed. Yeah, it lists them out in the event data, so you can see if it was in admins or something sensitive. The event ID 4627 breaks it down with fields like Subject User Sid for the deleter, Target User Name for the one gone, and then that Group Membership section shows the SIDs of groups tied to it. It even notes the process that did the deed, usually user32.dll or whatever handles account ops. You might spot it if someone's cleaning house on users, or worse, if it's unauthorized tampering. Hmmm, the log level is always, so it doesn't miss a beat. But it only fires if auditing for account management is turned on in your policies. Otherwise, poof, silent deletion.

Now, to keep an eye on this without staring at screens all day, fire up Event Viewer on your server. You right-click the Security log, pick Create Custom View, and filter just for event ID 4627. Make it snag those group membership changes too by including keywords if needed. Then, save that view so it's easy to check. For the alert part, you attach an action to it right there in the view properties. Go to the Actions tab, hit Create Task, and set it to trigger on those events. Name your task something snappy like DeleteWatch. In the task settings, you pick Send an email, and plug in your SMTP server details, the to and from addresses. Yeah, it'll fire off a message whenever 4627 hits, summarizing the event with the group info included. Test it by deleting a test user account, see if the email pings you. Keeps things simple, no fancy coding. Or, if you want it automated beyond that, at the end of this is the automatic email solution.

And speaking of keeping your server safe from mishaps like account deletes, I've been messing with BackupChain Windows Server Backup lately. It's this solid Windows Server backup tool that also handles virtual machines on Hyper-V without breaking a sweat. You get incremental backups that zip through fast, plus it verifies everything to dodge corruption. The benefits? It restores single files or whole VMs quick, and the offsite options mean your data's tucked away safe if disaster strikes.

Note, the PowerShell email alert code was moved to this post.