Ad Management Simplified With Active Directory Tutorial

By Author: jamesh rider
Total Articles: 2
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Active Directory is used by a wide range of system activities and services to store critical information, which makes this service one of the central cohesive elements of Microsoft Windows environment. Owing to its complexity, a high degree of expertise is required to manage even medium scale Active Directory structures. Therefore, a thorough understanding of Active Directory is a compulsion for every system administrator and programmers who deal with directory-enabled applications.

Active Directory tutorial is an effort in easing this very task for administrators, IT managers and application developers. This tutorial gives information about commands, scripts, tools that can simplify tasks performed during Active Directory installation and management.

Active Directory is the quintessential technology that can enable administrators centrally manage massive networks. However, for most part this piece of information is often ignored, coupled to the fact that Active Directory also has flaws in the form of redundancies and fault intolerances when network security comes into question. Using Active Directory, ...
... administrators can manage user and computer settings, install and remove services or applications and set security policies across the organization.

This Active Directory tutorial starts from the very basics of Active Directory and walks the reader through the domain model; schema; AD replication procedure, the in-built utilities and services; sites, subnets and OUs; and also teaches Active Directory users to create and deploy AD objects in the domain. Apart from the technicalities, this tutorial provides a complete solution for the common task related to AD management, so that the dependency on surfing through on line libraries and white papers is reduced.

For the target audience, this Active Directory tutorial can be considered as an ideal desk-side reference manual. Topics such as how AD replication works, how is KCC related to Active Directory, modifying object attributes of multiple users, migrating the Active Directory for server up-gradation or performing AD cleanup are carefully explained without overstating on things.

This Active Directory tutorial follows a clear and to-the-point approach and all its chapters have similar structure and a regimented format. The topics covered comprise of some problem or overview of a concept, followed by an explanation along with the most effective approach or solution to that problem. Finally depending on what all tools are available multiple suggestions are provided to accomplish the problem, making the tutorial highly informative.

Say for example, a common problem such as “Stimulating the RsoP based on OU, site and security group membership” is approached in such a way that readers can easily get the solution and viable alternatives to the problem along with concept information. Since interacting with the Active Directory involves working on GUI, the solution to any problem starts off with the look at the interface and its configuration. Next explanation covers the installation and functioning of the required snap-in console or the command-line tool for obtaining the result. Process to be followed to run the command or query the Active Directory when required also finds mention in the book. In addition to that, wherever appropriate, VBScripts with fully working code to carry out the required task are also provided. Use of other scripting language codes like Perl and Shell Script for programming AD is also present.

The chapters within the tutorial are grouped enough in a logical manner so that the readers can locate the topics quickly. For administrators who work on different networks, this Active Directory tutorial is the perfect reference manual offering solutions for frequent AD tasks.

The author of this article is a writer, trainer and consultant specializing in Windows Server operating systems and Active Directory. This article is a review of an Active Directory tutorial which sheds light on the Active Directory concepts its fundamental technology, beneficial for active directory users.