Book Image

Active Directory Administration Cookbook - Second Edition

By : Sander Berkouwer
Book Image

Active Directory Administration Cookbook - Second Edition

By: Sander Berkouwer

Overview of this book

Updated to the Windows Server 2022, this second edition covers effective recipes for Active Directory administration that will help you leverage AD's capabilities for automating network, security, and access management tasks in the Windows infrastructure. Starting with a detailed focus on forests, domains, trusts, schemas, and partitions, this book will help you manage domain controllers, organizational units, and default containers. You'll then explore Active Directory sites management as well as identify and solve replication problems. As you progress, you'll work through recipes that show you how to manage your AD domains as well as user and group objects and computer accounts, expiring group memberships, and Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSAs) with PowerShell. Once you've covered DNS and certificates, you'll work with Group Policy and then focus on federation and security before advancing to Azure Active Directory and how to integrate on-premise Active Directory with Azure AD. Finally, you'll discover how Microsoft Azure AD Connect synchronization works and how to harden Azure AD. By the end of this AD book, you’ll be able to make the most of Active Directory and Azure AD Connect.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)

Leveraging the Protected Users group

This recipe shows how the Protected Users security group can be used to protect privileged and sensitive accounts.

Getting ready

To use the Protected Users security group, ensure the domain runs the Windows Server 2012 R2 DFL or a newer version of the level. Also, be aware that the protections offered by the Protected Users security group only apply when accounts that are members of the group are used on devices running Windows 8.1 or newer, and Windows Server 2012 R2 or newer.

To manage the Protected Users security group, sign in to a domain controller or a member server and/or device with the RSAT for Active Directory Domain Services installed.

Sign in with an account that is a member of the Domain Admins group, the Account Operators group, or with an account that is delegated to manage groups in the domain or in the scope of the OU.

How to do it...

This recipe shares three ways to manage group memberships in Active Directory...