In: Categories » Computers and technology » Microsoft OS family » The Active Directory
|
As you know, Microsoft sells several versions of Windows Vista: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate. One key difference is that computers running the two Home editions can't join a domain. There are other versions of Windows, however: the specialized ones that run on those domain controller computers. To create a domain, at least one computer must be running either Windows .NET Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server. These are far more expensive operating systems (the price depends on the number of machines that they serve) and they run only on high-octane PCs. They also require high-octane expertise to install and maintain. One key offering of these specialized Windows versions is an elaborate application called Active Directory. It's a single, centralized database that stores every scrap of information about the hardware, software, and people on the network. (The older operating system called Windows NT Server can create domains, but it doesn't include Active Directory.) After creating a domain by installing Active Directory on a server computer, network administrators can set about filling the directory (database) with information about the network's resources. Every computer, printer, and person is represented by an object in the database and attributes (properties) that describe it. For example, a user object's attributes specify that person's name, location, telephone number, email address, and other, more technical, elements. Active Directory lets network administrators maintain an enormous hierarchy of computers. A multinational corporation with tens of thousands of employees in offices worldwide can all be part of one Active Directory domain, with servers distributed in hundreds of locations, all connected by wide-area networking links. (A group of domains is known as a tree. Huge networks might even have more than one tree; if so, they're calledyes, you guessed ita forest.) The objects in an Active Directory domain are arranged in a hierarchy, something like the hierarchy of folders within folders on your hard drive. Some companies base their directory-tree designs on the organization of the company, using departments and divisions as the building blocks. Others use geographic locations as the basis for the design, or use a combination of both. Unless you've decided to take up the rewarding career of network administration, you'll never have to install an Active Directory domain controller, design a directory tree, or create domain objects. However, you very well may encounter the Active Directory at your company. You can use it to search for the mailing address of somebody else on the network, for example, or locate a printer that can print on both sides of the page at once. Having some idea of the directory's structure can help in these cases.
|
legal disclaimer
1) Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article as well for any and all copyright infringements by authors and writers. E-articles is a free information resource. If you suspect this article for any copyright infringements, please read the Terms of service and contact us to investigate the problem.
2) The E-articles directory team is not responsible for inaccuracies, falsehoods, or any other types of misinformation this tutorial may contain and will not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by a user through the user's reliance on the information gained here. Please read the Terms of service
Useful tools and features
If you like this article (tutorial), please link to it from your web page using the information above. Linking to this page, this is the only way to help us improve our service, the same time providing your visitors with a way to improve their online experience.
related articles
To use Remote Desktop to reach your computer from the Internet, both the computer and your Internet connection must always be up and running. In addition, you must be able to make connections from the outside world to your computer, so there are additional requirements: If you use dial-up Internet service, you'll need someone at home to establish the connection before you can connect to your computer. If you use cable or DSL Internet service, you must either have a static IP address ass...
2. How to Update DirectX ~ Advantages
Although most Windows applications place fairly low demands on the display system, putting up fairly static displays and updating them relatively infrequently, interactive games and video displays are very graphics intensive. Game players pay big bucks for fps, or frames per second, which is a measure of how fast the hardware and software can generate new images as the scene changes and objects move. Under about 30fps, the image flickers and motion is noticeably jerky. Beyond 30fps, faster updates aren't noticeable, and the e...
3. Using Simple File Sharing in Windows
Although most home users are typically happy letting anyone at any computer read or modify any file, business users need to restrict access to files with payroll, personnel, and proprietary information. Windows XP and its predecessors, Windows NT and Windows 2000, were primarily designed for business use, so they require usernames and passwords for identification, and have a security system that lets computer owners restrict access to sensitive files on a user-by-user and file-by-file basis on each computer. Unfortunate...
4. The Evolution of Microsoft Windows ~ The Windows 9x Family
By the mid-1990s, processor power had increased and memory prices had decreased dramatically since Windows' original release. The Internet had also sprung onto the world stage, from an academic tool to an instrument of global communication and commerce. (You may recall that Windows 3.1 did not even include support for the TCP/IP network protocol used on the Internetyou had to purchase it from a third-party vendor.) Users' expectations likewise had grown with computers' capabilities, and desktop publishing, graphics editing, and...
5. How to install Windows and Installation Types
Deciding on the type of installation to perform is dictated by many factors, such as the following: Is there an operating system currently installed? If so, do you want to preserve settings and configurations, or start from scratch? Will the installation be performed interactively or remotely? How many computers are to be installed at a single time? Is your network arranged in a domain model using Active Directory? These are ...
6. How to adjust Text Icons and Window Element Sizes
If you find the items on the screen difficult to read or see, you can either lower the screen resolution, which makes everything larger but blurrier, or ask Windows to make the elements themselves larger while keeping a crisper, high screen resolution. There are two ways you can do this. Here's the first procedure: 1. Right-click the Desktop and select Properties. 2. Save the current screen settings so if you're unhappy with the results, you can back the changes out. Select the Themes tab, click Save As, and enter ...
7. DOS Versions
Let's take a look at the actual nuts and bolts that constituted each version of DOS. DOS 1.x PC DOS 1.0 was introduced along with the IBM PC on August 12, 1981, and supported only single-sided 5.25-inch drives. Floppy disks were formatted using 8 sectors per track (one side, 40 tracks) resulting in a capacity of only 160KB when formatted. There was no support for hard disks at all, which were generally quite rare for personal computers at the time. DOS was a text-based operating system, hence there was no graphi...