Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 Inside Out

Active Directory Logical Architecture

Active Directory's logical layer determines how you see the information contained in the data store and also controls access to that information. The logical layer does this by defining the namespaces and naming schemes used to access resources stored in the directory. This provides a consistent way to access directory-stored information regardless of type. For example, you can obtain information about a printer resource stored in the directory in much the same way that you can obtain information about a user resource.

To better understand Active Directory's logical architecture, you need to understand the following topics:

• Active Directory objects

• Active Directory domains, trees, and forests

• Active Directory ...