Active Directory® for Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 Technical Reference

Chapter 2. Active Directory Components

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory directory service exists on two levels: the physical and the logical. In terms of its physical structure, Active Directory is a single file on the server’s hard disk and the hard disk of each of the domain controllers that host the service. The logical structure of Active Directory consists of the containers that are used to store the directory service objects (such as directory partitions, domains, and forests) in the enterprise. These directory partitions, domains, and forests ultimately are reduced to bytes that are stored in the physical components of the directory service. In this chapter, you will learn about the physical manifestation of the Active Directory ...