Mastering Active Directory - Second Edition

Domain controllers

The domain controller is a computer that runs a Windows server operating system, and holds the Active Directory Domain Services role. It can be either a physical server or a virtual server.

The domain controller holds the directory partition that will be replicated to the other domain controllers in the same domain. The domain can have any number of domain controllers. The number of domain controllers is dependent on the enterprise's size, geographical placement, and network segmentation. In Windows NT, it uses multiple domain controllers, but it maintains a single-master schema. This means that directory changes can only be made from a specific domain controller. Since Windows 2000, there has been support for the multi-master ...