ACTIVE DIRECTORY PRIMER
Now that we??™ve gone over a brief history of Active Directory, I want to spend a moment
going over some key Active Directory concepts so that we are all on the same page before
focusing on Windows Server 2008??“specific Active Directory enhancements. This section
answers the following questions:
?–? What is Active Directory?
?– How is Active Directory organized?
?– What role does DNS play in all this?
?–? What are domain functional levels?
98 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Administration
If you already know the answers to these questions, you can skip this particular section
and jump straight to the Windows Server 2008??“specific sections; however, you may want
to read this part anyway as a refresher.
What Is Active Directory?
Active Directory is a directory service and hierarchical data store that holds information
about objects on your network and makes it easy for administrators to manage and
search for these objects. That??™s a high-level, generic answer to what Active Directory is.
In practice, Active Directory serves two purposes: It is the central repository for your
account information such as users, groups, and computers. It is also a self-replicating
application data store that is implemented through the use of application partitions.
The Active Directory itself is defined by a schema that indicates how each object is
represented within the data store.
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