14-1
Lesson 1: Overview of Active Directory
Most computers running Windows XP Professional on large networks are clients in an
Active Directory domain running Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003. Much
like a phone book acts as a directory of people’s phone numbers and street addresses,
Active Directory acts as a directory for resources on a network. Active Directory cata-
logs information about all the objects on a network, including users, computers, and
printers, and makes that information available throughout a network. Active Directory
provides a consistent way to name, find, manage, and secure information about these
resources.
After this lesson, you will be able to■ Identify the advantages of Active Directory■ Describe the logical structure of Active Directory■ Describe the physical structure of Active Directory■ Describe replication within an Active Directory siteEstimated lesson time: 15 minutesThe Advantages of Active Directory
In a workgroup environment, each computer running Windows XP Professional is
responsible for maintaining its own security database. Local user accounts are used to
log on to the computer and to control access to resources on the computer. Security
and administration in a workgroup are distributed. You must create local user accounts
on each computer, and although you can often manage a computer remotely, you must
manage each computer separately. The larger the network you are working with, the
more overhead this distributed management creates.
Active Directory simplifies the security and administration of resources throughout a
network (including the computers that are part of the network) by providing a single
point of administration for all objects on the network. Active Directory organizes
resources hierarchically in domains, which are logical groupings of servers and other
network resources. Each domain includes one or more domain controllers. A domain
controller is a computer running Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 on
which Active Directory is installed. The domain controller stores a complete replica of
the domain directory. To simplify administration, all domain controllers in the domain
are peers. You can make changes to any domain controller, and the updates are repli-
cated to all other domain controllers in the domain.
Bạn đang xem 14- - MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL EXAM 70 270 PHẦN 6 PPTX