Windows 2000 Active Directory Second Edition P2

In November 1996, Microsoft delivered the first preview of Active Directory for developers at the Professional Developers Conference held in Long Beach, California. At the time, it was just the directory service that was shipped with Windows NT 5.0, and the preview included many of other Windows NT 5.0 features. A lot of changes have taken place since then. For one,Windows NT 5.0 was renamed Windows 2000, and then it was released to the public officially in February 2000, four years after its original preview to developers. The change of the name from Windows NT 5.0 to Windows 2000 was...
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Windows 2000 Active Directory Second Edition P2 Chapter 1Introduction toActive Directory Solutions in this chapter: s Introduction to Directory Services s Introduction to Active Directory s Active Directory Architecture Summary Solutions Fast Track Frequently Asked Questions 34 Chapter 1 • Introduction to Active Directory Introduction In November 1996, Microsoft delivered the first preview of Active Directory for developers at the Professional Developers Conference held in Long Beach, California. At the time, it was just the directory service that was shipped with Windows NT 5.0, and the preview included many of other Windows NT 5.0 features. A lot of changes have taken place since then. For one,Windows NT 5.0 was renamed Windows 2000, and then it was released to the public officially in February 2000, four years after its original preview to developers. The change of the name from Windows NT 5.0 to Windows 2000 was a sur- face change only.Windows 2000 inherits the NT technology legacy from pre- vious versions. It has been established as the basic network operating system for Microsoft’s .NET platform. All .NET services run on Windows 2000 Server. Applications developed with the .NET framework also require servers to be running Windows 2000.The directory service used by .NET applications is Active Directory. The question remains, then, how can you take advantage of Active Directory and use its capabilities to reach your business objectives, not only for the present, but also in the future? That is the question that this book will answer. Introduction to Directory Services It would be tough to claim that Active Directory is the first directory service ever created. In fact, directory services have been available in a variety of network operating systems (NOS). Directory services are used primarily for organizing, locating, and managing network information. People use directory services without even knowing they are doing so. Because it is used to translate server names to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, the Domain Name System (DNS) is the most widely used directory service in the world. DNS is rather “usage-specific,” meaning that it organizes only a lim- ited amount of information about network hosts. DNS stores data about servers, their IP addresses, and services that they offer to the network. Although this is pretty much the extent of DNS, other directory services do not have the same limitations. A directory service can organize all sorts of information about a net- work. Usually, this information falls into the following categories: s Network resources Servers, printers, and other devices on a network. s Network services Capabilities on the network such as file storage, printing, and e-mail. www.syngress.com Introduction to Active Directory • Chapter 1 5 s Network users and groups Identifiers for users on a network and for groups of users. As you can see, a directory service organizes the pieces of a network, enablinga way to create relationships between the pieces.The relationships between thesepieces are what make the directory service so powerful. For example, in DNS, aDNS client computer can query a DNS server to find out the IP address of aserver that it wants to contact.The DNS server receives the host name andreturns the IP address in short order. More complex relationships can be createdin more complex directory services, such as providing access to network resourcesand services for users who logon.Directory Enabled NetworksThe Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) is developing a standard forDirectory Enabled Networks (DEN).You can access the DMTF Web site atwww.dmtf.org. Even though many network operating systems support one ormore types of directory services, most of those directory services are vendor spe-cific.This means that one server on a network might be able to access one partic-ular directory, but another server on the same network will not be able to accessthat directory simply because it is running a different vendor’s network operatingsystem. As a result of using multiple network operating systems, you might beusing multiple directory services on a single internetwork.This poses problemsfor users who are faced with multiple logons and for network administrators whomust manage information that is duplicated across multiple directory services. As vendors create DEN-compliant directories, multiple network operatingsystems will be able to participate in a ...