An Introduction to the Active Directory Features With the release of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 quite a few enhancements and features were introduced that were not previously available in Windows 2000. These enhancements were aimed at improving the scalability, efficiency, speed and performance of Active Directory, and addressed a few deficiencies or shortcomings of the earlier version of Active Directory utilized in Windows 2000 Server. When a domain controller running Windows Server 2003 is created, a number of Active Directory basic features are immediately installed and available to the Windows Read More

Domains and Forests A domain in Active Directory consists of a set of computers and resources that all share a common directory database. Domains contain all the objects that exist in the network and can store a multitude of objects. Each domain contains information on the objects that they contain. A domain is also a security boundary. Domain trees are created by adding child domains to a parent domain. Domains that are grouped into a domain tree have a hierarchical naming structure and also share a contiguous namespace. A forest Read More

The Domain is the core unit of logical structure in Active Directory. All objects that share a common directory database and trust relationship with other domain and security policies are known as Domains. Each domain stores information only about the objects that belong to that domain. All security polices and settings, such as administrative rights, security policies, and Access Control Lists (ACLs), do not cross from one domain to another. Thus, a domain administrator has full rights to set policies only within domain they belong to. Domains provide administrative boundaries Read More

Maintaining an Active Directory is a very important administrative task that one must schedule regularly to ensure that, in case of disaster, you can recover your lost or corrupted data and can repair the active directory database. Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) is the active directory database, which manage all the active directory objects in active directory database. Any of the data modification affects database performance, database fragmentation and data integrity. Active Directory Database and Log Files The ESE uses transaction and log files to ensure the integrity of the active Read More

A group can be defined as a collection of accounts that are grouped together so that Administrators can assign permissions and rights to the group as a single entity. This removes the need for an Administrator to individually assign permissions and rights to each account. Therefore, while a user account is associated with an individual or entity, a group account or a group is created to simplify the administration of multiple user accounts (users). When permissions are granted to a group, all accounts that are part of that particular group Read More