Active Directory

Harikrishnan V G 18 March 2009

Presentation titlePage 2

Agenda

► Introduction – Active Directory► Directory Service► Benefits of Active Directory► Terminology and Logical representation► OU, Domains, Tree, Forest► EY – AD infrastructure► The Global Catalog

Presentation titlePage 3

Active Directory

► Active Directory is a hierarchically structured administrative environment that enables all aspects of a network environment to be administered at the local, country practice, or Global level.

► The Active Directory technology manages all user, computer, printer, groups, users, domains, security policies, and any type of user-defined objects

► Its global structure enables users to seamlessly logon onto their home server from anywhere within the EY.NET infrastructure.

Presentation titlePage 4

Directory Services

► Active Directory is the Microsoft Windows implementation of a directory service

► The term directory service refers to two things

1.Directory

2.Service► Directory is where information about users and resources

are stored. ► Service or services that let you access and manipulate

those resources

Presentation titlePage 5

Directory Services Common Features:

► Provide file shares► Authenticate users► Provide services, such as Email, Access to the

internet, Print services etc.► Control access to services and shares.

Presentation titlePage 6

Active Directory Terminology

► Site: A site is a physical location, or LAN. This is different from a web site, which is an organization’s internet presence.

► Domain: ► All resources under the control of a single computer

system.► A sub-network comprised of a group of clients and

servers under the control of one security database.► Dividing LANs into domains improves performance and

security.

Presentation titlePage 7

What benefits does Active Directory provide?

► Active Directory provides a number of benefits to the firm, especially when implemented at the Global level. These benefits include

► Enabling users to log onto the network, without needing any special modifications to be made to their machine, access accounts, etc., anywhere within the firms network infrastructure

► Enabling network services to be more centralized, enabling easier and more efficient management, etc.

Presentation titlePage 8

Benefits of Active Directory (cotd.)

► The main purpose of Active Directory is to provide central authentication services for Windows based computers.

► Active Directory also allows administrators to assign policies, deploy software, and apply critical updates to an entire organization.

► Active Directory stores information and settings relating to an organization in a central, organized, accessible database.

Presentation titlePage 9

Logical representation of Active Directory

► Organizational Unit► Domain► Tree► Forest

Presentation titlePage 10

What are Organizational Units?

► Organizational Units are logical containers that can be defined within the Active Directory infrastructure.

► As a result it is possible to create as many containers as is required. In addition it is possible to create logical units within logical units.

► Thus enabling a hierarchical structure to be created that mirrors the organizational structure of the country practice.

Presentation titlePage 11

Presentation titlePage 12

Domains

► Active Directory uses domains and forests to represent the logical structure of the directory hierarchy

► Domains are used to manage the various populations of users, computers, and network resources in your enterprise

Presentation titlePage 13

Presentation titlePage 14

Trees

► A tree represents a contiguous name space in Active Directory and consist of a hierarchy of domains

Presentation titlePage 15

Active Directory Trees

EY.NET

NA.EY.NET

US.NA.EY.NET

Presentation titlePage 16

Presentation titlePage 17

Forest

► A forest is the set of all domains in an organization's network

► It consists of one or more trees, combined with two way transitive trusts.

Presentation titlePage 18

Active Directory Forest

Microsoft. COM

IN.Microsoft.COM

EY.COM

US.EY.COM

Presentation titlePage 19

Logical Structure of Active Directory

DomainDomain

Domain

Domain

Domain

DomainOU

OU OU

Domain TreeDomain Tree

DomainDomain

ForestForest

Organizational UnitOrganizational Unit

ObjectsObjects

Presentation titlePage 20

EY AD Infrastructure

Presentation titlePage 21

Active Directory Tier architecture

Presentation titlePage 22

EY AD Infrastructure

EY.NET

NA.EY.NET SA.EY.NET MEA.EY.NET EURW.EY.NET

ME

AE BH EG SY

EY ACTIVE DIRECTORY INFRASTRUCTURE

Presentation titlePage 23

How does one get Authenticated in AD

► Each domain controller has information for the entire forest to support authentication and access control.

► This provides the ability for local domain controllers (the “tree”) to provide a quick local lookup of authority.

Presentation titlePage 24

The concept of Global Catalog

► The global catalog is the mechanism that tracks all of the objects managed across the network, across all domains within the organization.

► Elements of the catalog are replicated across all of the domain controllers within all domains across the organization.

Presentation titlePage 25

Time Saving

Before

► PCs that were still running Windows NT Workstation or Windows 98, it would take as much as 40 hours of effort to manually visit each desktop and install the patch.

After► Desktops that are running Windows XP Professional, A

group policy can be created that will push a new security patch out to all of them in less than 30 minutes.

Presentation titlePage 26

User Account

Local user accounts (stored on local computer)Local user accounts (stored on local computer)

Domain user accounts (stored in Active Directory)Domain user accounts (stored in Active Directory)

Windows Server 2003 Domain

Presentation titlePage 27

Groups

Groups simplify administration by enabling you to assign permissions for resources

GroupGroup

Presentation titlePage 28

Demonstration: Creating Active Directory Objects

How to create:► Organizational Units► User Accounts ► Groups

Basic Commands:►Replmon►Repadmin /showrep►Dcdiag►Dcpromo

Presentation titlePage 29

Queries

Thank You