1. MCSE: Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Planning, Implementation, and Maintenance Study Guide, Second Edition (70-294) Chapter 1: Overview of the Active Directory © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved.

2. Before Active Directory 2 © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. No single, flexible data-storage mechanism was available Microsoft networks did not use a explicit unified directory service Windows NT 4 used a domain model that was limited by scalability

3. Benefits of Active Directory 3 © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. Hierarchical organization Extensible schema Centralized data Storage Replication Ease of administration Network security Client configuration management Scalability and performance Searching functionality

4. Components and Mechanisms 4 © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. Data store (Active Directory database) Schema Global Catalog Searching mechanisms Replication

5. Objects Shared Within a Domain 5 © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. Group Policy and security permissions Hierarchical object naming Hierarchical properties Trust relationships

6. Domain Trees 6 © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. Hierarchical collections of domains designed to meet organizational needs of a business Defined by the use of a contiguous namespaces

7. Creating a Domain Structure with OUs 7 © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. Organizational Units are the fundamental units of organization under AD. OUs are container objects that can be hierarchically arranged within a domain. OUs can be organized based on various criteria.

8. Active Directory Object Name Types 8 © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. Organization (O) Domain Component (DC) Common Name (CN)

9. User, Computer, and Group Objects 9 © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. Represent the real objects you will want to control and manage Allow for the most granular level of control over permissions Allow you to configure your network to meet business needs

10. Active Directory Server Roles 10 © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. Domain controllers Member servers Stand-alone servers

11. Operations Masters 11 © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. Schema Master Domain Naming Master Relative ID (RID) Master Primary Domain Controller (PDC) Emulator Infrastructure Master

12. Active Directory and DNS 12 © Wiley Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. Domain Name System needed by Windows Server 2003 Active Directory for finding DCs and naming and accessing AD objects. Windows Server 2003 includes DNS server service that can automatically update records.