Installing Domain Controllers and Active Directory Domain Services

Directory Service

• A directory service is a repository of information about resources connected to a network, including hardware, software, and human resources.

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)

• AD DS is a directory service that enables administrators to create organizational divisions called domains.
• A domain is a logical container of network components, hosted by at least one server designated as a domain controller.
• Authentication is the process of verifying a user's identity.
• Authorization is the process of granting access to resources based on user permissions.

Objects in AD DS

• Container objects can have other objects subordinate to them, such as:
  • Domains
  • Organizational units (OUs)
• Leaf objects cannot have subordinate objects, such as:
  • Users
  • Computers
  • Groups
  • Applications
  • Network resources

Organizational Units (OUs)

• OUs are container objects within a domain, used to divide security and administrative responsibility among several divisions or departments.

Domain Trees and Forests

• A domain tree is created when the first domain is created on an Active Directory network.
• A forest consists of one or more separate domain trees.
• Each forest has a global catalog, which is a list of all objects in the forest, along with a subset of each object's attributes.

Functional Levels and LDAP

• Functional levels are designed to provide backwards compatibility in AD DS installations with domain controllers running various versions of the Windows Server operating system.
• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is the standard communications protocol for directory service products.

Replication

• Replication is when domain controllers within a domain synchronize their database information.
• Types of replication:
  • Single-master replication
  • Multiple-master replication
• Read-Only Domain Controllers (RODCs) support only incoming replication traffic.