Windows 2000 Active Directory

Who Should Read This Book ?
This book is designed for the technical user who is now or will soon be exploring the world of Active Directory networks. If you're a Windows NT administrator and you want to quickly become an expert on managing and deploying Active Directory, this book is for you. If you're a developer or a power user who wants a deeper knowledge of what Active Directory is doing than you're getting from off-the-shelf Windows 2000 books, you?ll find answers to many of your questions in these pages. If you're new to Windows networks-either because you've spent more time with other systems or because you're starting out in the administrator profession-this book will help bring you in line with the latest Microsoft networking technology with minimal diversions and historical asides. Lastly, if you are a manager who has a role in purchasing and deploying information technology within your organization, this book will give you the background you need to determine whether Active Directory is the best solution for your network.

What This Book Covers

• Chapter 1, "The Active Directory Environment," introduces the Active Directory environment by discussing some of the problems with Windows NT and describing the solutions that Microsoft envisioned for those problems. Along the way, you?ll learn about some important Active Directory concepts, like trees, forests, sites, and organizational units (OUs).
• Chapter 2, "Active Directory Concepts," discusses some important concepts you?ll need to understand to get around in the Active Directory environment. You?ll learn about mixed mode and native mode. This chapter also describes the structure of the Active Directory network and discusses the roles of Active Directory operations masters-single-master roles for special domain controllers in the multi-master world of Active Directory. You?ll also learn about Active Directory naming conventions.
• Chapter 3, "Active Directory with TCP/IP and DNS," examines some important networking issues. Specifically, the chapter takes a close look at how Active Directory works with DNS to resolve names and find resources in the Active Directory environment. You?ll learn about Active Directory-integrated zones and dynamic integration with DHCP. This chapter also shows you how to set up Active Directory sites and how to associate sites with TCP/IP subnets.
• Chapter 4, "Understanding Replication," takes on the important subject of Active Directory replication. Active Directory domain controllers use the replication process to communicate directory changes to one another, thus allowing the flexible and versatile multi-master architecture that is one of the central features of the Active Directory environment. You?ll learn about the Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC) and about the concept of replication topology. You?ll also read about interstice versus intrusive replication, and you?ll learn how to configure site links, site link bridges, and bridgehead servers. This chapter also shows you the tools you?ll need to manage, configure, and monitor directory replication.
• Chapter 5, "Users and Groups," describes Active Directory user and group objects. You?ll learn the different types of Active Directory groups. You?ll learn how to create and configure user and group accounts and how to manage user and group accounts through the Active Directory interface. You?ll also learn to configure permissions, ownership, inheritance, and delegation of authority.
• Chapter 6, "Group Policy," discusses Active Directory's powerful group policy feature, which lets you apply layers of configuration settings to computers, sites, domains, and organizational units. You can use group policy to, standardize administration, improve security, and reduce the total cost of ownership.
• Chapter 7, "Setting Up Active Directory," describes Microsofts recommended process for deploying Active Directory. You?ll learn about how to install Active Directory; how to upgrade an existing Windows NT network, and how to build a new Active Directory network from scratch. This chapter discusses some important deployment tools and options and provides a summary of recommended practices for locating domain controllers, DNS servers, and other network services. The chapter also discusses Active Directory trusts and shows how to create explicit trusts for Active Directory networks.
• Chapter 8, "Managing Active Directory," describes some important directory-related management issues. You?ll learn how to back up and restore the Active Directory. You?ll also learn how to search and edit the directory using directory-editing tools such as ADSI Editor and LDP. This chapter also shows how to manage resources such as files, printers, and software through Active Directory policies and how to seize operations master roles.
• Chapter 9, "Active Directory Clients,"' discusses issues related to managing clients on Active Directory networks. You?ll learn what directory services you can and cant use with Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Windows 95/98 clients. You?ll learn how to install Active Directory Client for Windows 95/98. You?ll learn how to check client compatibility, how to search the directory from a client computer, and how to join a Windows NT or Windows 2000 client to an Active Directory domain. You?ll also learn some important client management tools and how to install Active Directory management tools onto a client computer.
• Chapter 10, "Active Directory Schema," describes the schema-the object-oriented structure of classes and attributes at the heart of the Active Directory. You?ll learn about the different types of classes and attributes. You'll learn how to add and modify classes and attributes. And you?ll learn how to manage the schema using the built-in Active Directory Schema utility and the ADSI Editor. You?ll also learn about the schema cache and the X.500 Object ID Generator.
• Chapter 11, "Active Directory Security," discusses some important security features of the Active Directory environment. You?ll learn how Cerberus authentication works and how Active Directory domain controllers act as Key Distribution Centres (Kids) to provide authentication for network services. This chapter also provides a detailed description of some Active Directory security-related policies, including the important new IP Security (Insect) feature.
• Chapter 12, "Scripting Active Directory," describes Windows scripting host and shows how you can use the scripting host to execute custom scripts in the Active Directory environment. You?ll also learn how to deploy layered logon scripts through Active Directory group policy, and you?ll learn about some of the important management scripts included with Windows 2000.
• Chapter 13, "Interoperating Windows 2000," shows how to interoperate Active Directory networks with NetWare, Macintosh, and UNIX systems. You?ll also learn about the Active Directory Connector service, which provides integration of Active Directory with the Microsoft Exchange directory service.