Essay About Active Directory Outline And Stored Collection Of Information

Active Directory Outline
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ACTIVE DIRECTORY OUTLINE
Active Directory is the flagship component of Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server
From logon to application installation
Definition of Directory
Directories have been around since the 60s
Current examples are:
Domain Name System (DNS)
Windows Internet Name Service (WINS)
Novell Directory Services (NDS)
A database used to store and organize data
What is a Directory Service?
A stored collection of information about defined objects that are related to each other in some way
Telephone directory – stores names of entities and telephone numbers
In a modern computing environment many objects need to be located and used:
* Servers
* Printers
* Fax Servers
* Databases
* Admins and users must be able to locate and use these objects
* A directory service stores all the information needed to use and mange these objects centrally
Provides the means of storing the information AND the services making this information available to users
It is the main switchboard and central authority of your network operating system that;
Manages the identities
Controls the relationships (access) between resources
Because of this it must be tightly coupled with the OSs management and security mechanisms to be effective.
Allows the definition and maintenance of the network infrastructure
Allowing system admin
Control the user experience
Why Have a Directory Service?
A simplified and centralized means of organizing and administering access to resources of a network
NT4 Domains, flat and very limited
Users only need to know attributes of an object to find something (provided they were added!)
Is an administrative and end user tool
Other Functions
Enforce security
Distributes a Directory across many computers in the Network
Replicate information to make it available and resist failure
Partitioning allows multiple stores across a network for larger amounts of data and allow for more space
Simplified Administration
Resources organized hierarchically in Domains
A Domain has one or more linked Domain Controllers
A change made to one DC is made to all DCs in the Domain
A single point of admin for all objects in the network
Scalability
Directory can be broken into sections to allow for a large number of objects
Can easily be expanded (or contracted)
Open Standards Support
Uses DNS for its name system
Integrate the internet concept of a name space
Allows you to unify and manage multiple name spaces that (if they) already exist
Can exchange information with any app or directory that uses LDAP or HTTP
W2K (Active Directory) are DNS names
Dynamic DNS allows auto update of DNS table
Support for LDAP and HTTP
Version of the X.500 directory access protocol
AD supports LDAP 2 and 3
HTTP support can display every object in a web browser
Support Standard Name Formats
RFC 822
Someone@Domain
HTTP Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
Universal Naming Convention (UNC)
domainfoldernamefile.doc
LDAP URL
LDAP://server.domain.com/CN=firstname, OU=admin, OU=Division, DC=services
Directories must address four business principles:
Business decisions are based on return on investment and expected result at a given cost
Perceived value must outweigh the actual costs
Security
“Money is Power” has changed to “Information is Power”
Information includes competitive and proprietary data
This information must be secure
Reliability
Uptime is the key word in business networks
If the information is not availableit is of no value
Performance
Good network design can produce results
Bad design impacts the ability to perform
Before Directories
Network operating systems