Cyber Operations: Building, Defending, and Attacking Modern Computer Networks

© Mike O'Leary 2019

Mike O'LearyCyber Operationshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4294-0_6

6. Active Directory

Mike O’Leary¹ 

(1)

Towson, MD, USA

 

Introduction

Active Directory is a database of users, groups, computers, printers, and other objects. Windows uses Active Directory to organize the objects together into domains and larger forests. These are managed by domain controllers. Common platforms for domain controllers include Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016.

This chapter introduces Active Directory, beginning with the process to install Active Directory components on Windows servers and promote them to domain controllers. Test domains are developed that not only include Windows systems ...