Windows Server® 2012 Unleashed

Understanding AD DS X.500 Roots

AD DS loosely follows, but does not exactly conform to, the X.500 directory services information model. In a nutshell, X.500 defines a directory service through a distributed approach defined by a directory information tree (DIT). This logically divides a directory service structure into the now familiar servername.subdomainname.domainname.com layout. In X.500, directory information is stored across the hierarchical layout in what are called directory system agents (DSAs). Microsoft designed AD DS around many of the basic principles of the X.500 definition, but AD DS itself is not compatible with X.500 implementations, as X.500 follows an OSI model that is inefficient under the TCP/IP implementation that AD DS ...