Active Directory, 5th Edition

Preface

Active Directory is a common repository for information about objects that reside on the network, such as users, groups, computers, printers, applications, and files. The default Active Directory schema supports numerous attributes for each object class that can be used to store a variety of information. Access control lists (ACLs) are also stored with each object, which allows you to maintain permissions for who can access and manage the object. Having a single source for this information makes it more accessible and easier to manage; however, accomplishing this requires a significant amount of knowledge on such topics as the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Kerberos, the Domain Name System (DNS), multimaster replication, group policies, and data partitioning, to name a few. This book will be your guide through this maze of technologies, showing you how to deploy a scalable and reliable Active Directory infrastructure.

This book is a major update to the very successful fourth edition. All of the existing chapters have been brought up to date through Windows Server 2012, in addition to updates in concepts and approaches to managing Active Directory and script updates. There are five new chapters (Chapter 3, Chapter 7, Chapter 10, Chapter 19, and Chapter 21) to explain features or concepts not covered in previous editions. These chapters include in-depth coverage of management tools, LDAP query syntax, Kerberos, Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), and ...