When we looked at the Group Policy capabilities, we saw that they can be used to publish applications, run startup/shutdown scripts, and more. From the AD object's point of view, all of these settings are attributes and all of these files and scripts need to be saved in a centralized location. Instead of saving them in an AD database, the system saves all of these policy-related files and settings in the SYSVOL folder. The default path for the Group Policy template (GPT) data is \\rebeladmin.com\SYSVOL\rebeladmin.com\Policies. Here, rebeladmin.com can be replaced with your domain's fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
Inside the policy folder, there are two subfolders called Machine and User. These folders contain files and settings related to the GPO's computer configuration and user configuration. There is another file called GPT.INI, which contains the version number of the Group Policy. In every Group Policy edition, the version number will increase automatically and it will be used as a reference to sync the Group Policy changes from one domain controller to another:
Inside the Machine and User folders, there are a number of folders that will include the data according to whichever configuration the GPO is set to perform. As an example, the Applications folder will contain the software installation files if the GPO is set to publish applications. The Scripts folder will contain any startup/shutdown scripts that are published via the GPO:
In order to process a Group Policy successfully, GPT data synchronization between domain controllers is crucial. SYSVOL replication issues will impact GPO policy processing. Before Windows Server 2008 domain services, SYSVOL replication used File Replication Service (FRS). After AD DS 2008, this was replaced by Distributed File System (DFS), which provides more efficiency and redundancy in replication.