Chapter 3: Dealing with Active Directory
In This Chapter
Discovering directories
Examining how Active Directory is structured
Setting up a domain controller
Creating organizational units
Active Directory is among the most important features of Windows Server, and much of your time as a network administrator will be spent keeping Active Directory neat and tidy. In Book VII, Chapter 4, I discuss the details of working with the most common and troublesome types of Active Directory objects, users, and groups. First, this chapter lays some foundation by explaining what Active Directory is and how it works.
What Directories Do
Everyone uses directory services of one type or another every day. When you look up someone’s name in a phone book, you’re using a directory service. But you’re also using a directory service when you make a call: When you enter someone’s phone number into your touch-tone phone, the phone system looks up that number in its directory to locate that person’s phone.
Almost from the very beginning, computers have had directory services. When I got started in the computer ...
