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Active Directory

Active Directory (AD) is an identity directory service for users and computers that was developed and marketed by Microsoft for use on Windows domains. The AD service is comprised of several sub-services, with some of the main ones described below:

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), also known as a domain controller, stores all the user and computer information for members of a Windows domain network, verifies their credentials and defines their access rights. When a user wants to log on to an AD managed computer, access the domain network or any resource on the domain network, the domain controller is contacted so it can verify the user’s credentials and access permissions.

Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) provides a standard LDAP interface to the directory of users and computers.

Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) provides the public key infrastructure functionality that underpins identities and other security functionality on the Windows domain (i.e. file encryption email encryption, and network traffic encryption). It can create, validate and revoke public key certificates for internal uses of an organization. These certificates can be used to

Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) provides AD users with the ability to gain access to off-domain resources (i.e. web-based services) using their AD domain credentials. AD FS uses the concept of federated identity, which means that a trust relationship needs to be established between AD FS and the external resource accessed.

Read about Double Octopus’s passwordless Active Directory solution.

  • What is active directory? and how does it work?

    Active Directory (AD) is an identity directory service for users and computers that was developed and marketed by Microsoft for use on Windows domains

    Microsoft active directory domain services is a Microsoft directory server service which provides a framework to control authentication and authorization in an organization or government, the framework allows other complimentary services to be deployed such as certificate services and federated services.

  • For which server edition is active directory available?

    Active Directory was first released with Windows 2000 Server edition, with consequent releases offering extended functionality and improved administration.

  • What is active directory domain services?

    Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), also known as a domain controller, stores all the user and computer information for members of a Windows domain network, verifies their credentials and defines their access rights. When a user wants to log on to an AD managed a computer, access the domain network or any resource on the domain network, the domain controller is contacted so it can verify the user’s credentials and access permissions.

  • What is the difference between active directory and LDAP?

    Active Directory (AD) is the directory service published by Microsoft. LDAP is a standard protocol for accessing directory services, including Microsoft AD.

  • What is an active directory forest?

    Active Directory is logically organized into domains, trees and forests. User and computer objects are grouped into domains. Objects are stored in a single database (which can be replicated). Domains are identified by their DNS name structure, the namespace.

    A tree is a collection of one or more domains.

    A forest is a collection of trees that share a common global catalog, directory schema, logical structure, and directory configuration. The forest represents the security boundary within which users, computers, groups, and other objects are accessible.

  • Can active directory be used in a hybrid enterprise?

    Organizations that have an on-premise active directory and use external services that use domain-joined devices can connect those to Azure AD by configuring hybrid Azure AD joint devices

  • How do I identify my domain controller?

    Follow the following steps

    • use the Run command from your start menu.
    • In the Open box, type cmd.
    • Type nslookup, and then press ENTER.
    • Type set type=all, and then press ENTER.
    • Type _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.Domain_Name, where Domain_Name is the name of your domain, and then press ENTER.