Active Directory Basics

Active Directory Directory Service (AD DS)
Houses information about all network resources:

• Servers, printers, user accounts, groups of user accounts, security policies, and other information
• Central listing of network resources

• Quick access to network resources

Domain controllers (DCs)

• Servers that have the AD DS server role installed
• A Domain can have multiple DCs for Fault Tolerance and Load Balancing

Member servers
Do not have AD installed (therefore they are not DCs)

Domain

• Fundamental component or container
• Holds information about all network resources that are grouped within the domain (ie, all user accounts in the domain and all LAN Printers)
• Each DC is equal to every other DC
• Each DC has a full list of all networks resources in the domain

Multimaster Replication

• Object defined in the DC are replicated between DCs
• The volume of information to be replicated can be limited if required. This is a good option for slow links
• Advantage : If one DC goes down, no network interruption