ACTIVE DIRECTORY COMPONENTS

LOGICAL STRUCTURE	PHYSICAL STRUCTURE
Domains Trees                             Forest        Organizational units	Sites Domain controllers

A.D. Components:

·       Logical structure is useful for organizing the network.

·       Logical components cannot be seen

·       Physical structure is useful for representing our organization for developing the organizational structure.

·       It reflects the organization (mirrors)

·       Physical structure can be seen. Ex. Site – India, US, UK etc.

TREE:

A tree is a group of domains which share contiguous name space.

If more than one domain exits we can combine the multiple domains into hierarchical tree structures.

The first domain created is the root domain of the first tree.

Additional domains in the same domain tree are child domains.

A domain immediately above another domain in the same domain tree is its parent.

FOREST:

 Multiple domain trees within a single forest do not form a contiguous namespace. i.e. they have non-contiguous DNS domain names

Although trees in a forest do not share a name space, a forest does have a single root domain, called the forest root domain

The forest root domain is, by definition, the first domain created in the forest.

The two forest wide predefined groups – Enterprise.

Administrators and schema administrators reside in this domain.

Physical structure

SITES:

 Site is a combination of TCP/IP, subnets, connected with high-speed links.

Sites provide replication

There are 2 types of replications

1.    Intrasite replication

2.    Intersite replication

Intrasite Replication: It is a replication with in the same site. It offers full time replication between DC & ADC when they are within the same site.

Intersite Replication: It is a replication between two different sites.

Intersite replication is implemented when the sites are away from each other.

-It requires a site link

-Site link is a logical connection between sites, which can be created &   scheduled.

-Site link offers communication only at scheduled intervals.

Implementing sites:

Forceful replication:

On DC

Start >programs> admin tools > ADSS > expand sites > default first site>servers

>Expand DC server > NTDS settings >right click on automatically generated>replicate now>ok.

Repeat the same for DC & ADC

Creating a site:

Open ADSS>Right click on sites>New site>Site name (e.g. UK, US)

Select default site link>Ok

Moving ADC into another site:

Select ADC>Right click on ADC>Select move>Select site.

Creating a Site link:

Expand inter site transports>Right click on IP>Select new site link

Link name (ex. Link US –UK)

Scheduling a site link:

Expand inter site transport>IP>Double click on site link>Change schedule

Click on replication not available>set the timings>click on replication available.

KCC: (Knowledge Consistency Checker): It is a service of A.D., which is responsible for intimating, or updating the changes made either in DC or ADC.

Active Directory is saved in a file called NTDS.DIT

C:\windows\ntds\ntds.dit