Book Image

Mastering Active Directory

By : Dishan Francis
Book Image

Mastering Active Directory

By: Dishan Francis

Overview of this book

Active Directory is a centralized and standardized system that automates networked management of user data, security, and distributed resources and enables interoperation with other directories. If you are aware of Active Directory basics and want to gain expertise in it, this book is perfect for you. We will quickly go through the architecture and fundamentals of Active Directory and then dive deep into the core components, such as forests, domains, sites, trust relationships, OU, objects, attributes, DNS, and replication. We will then move on to AD schemas, global catalogs, LDAP, RODC, RMS, certificate authorities, group policies, and security best practices, which will help you gain a better understanding of objects and components and how they can be used effectively. We will also cover AD Domain Services and Federation Services for Windows Server 2016 and all their new features. Last but not least, you will learn how to manage your identity infrastructure for a hybrid-cloud setup. All this will help you design, plan, deploy, manage operations on, and troubleshoot your enterprise identity infrastructure in a secure, effective manner. Furthermore, I will guide you through automating administrative tasks using PowerShell cmdlets. Toward the end of the book, we will cover best practices and troubleshooting techniques that can be used to improve security and performance in an identity infrastructure.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)

The AD LDS overview

When we talk about Active Directory, we refer to it as a single service, but AD DS is attached to many other components as well. DNS, group policies, and the SYSVOL folder replication are a few example. Each of these components need to operate well in order to run a healthy Active Directory environment. It doesn't come easy; it involves investment on resources, time, and skills. In the Active Directory service, the core values are centralized identity management, authentication, and authorization capabilities. All these extra components make it easy to archive its core values, but at same time, it also opens up risks such as dependencies and security. The failure or compromise of these components/services will make impact on the entire Active Directory infrastructure.

Microsoft Windows Core and Nano Servers also count as operating systems. These don&apos...