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Active Directory: Advanced AD DS infrastructure management
Role Play
Rating: 4.3 out of 5(90 ratings)
565 students

Active Directory: Advanced AD DS infrastructure management

Plan and run complex Active Directory: multiple domains and forests, trusts, functional levels and a DC in Azure
Created byVitalii Shumylo
Last updated 11/2026
English

What you'll learn

  • Decide when you need more than one domain or forest
  • Deploy new domains and manage objects in a multi-domain forest
  • Create and secure forest and external trusts, including selective authentication
  • Raise domain and forest functional levels and plan AD DS upgrades
  • Deploy a domain controller in Azure IaaS
  • Build a multi-region Windows Server 2022 AD lab on Azure
  • Check your knowledge with two practice tests

Course content

5 sections • 69 lectures • 8h 35m total length

  • Course Overview2:18

    Understand the components of advanced Active Directory Domain Services deployments, learn to deploy distributed AD DS across WANs, and configure AD trusts to support complex, multi-domain or multi-forest environments.

  • Section Overview5:57

    Explain the AD DS structure and how domains, trees, forests, and the global catalog define security and administration boundaries; discuss reasons for multiple domains or forests and managing objects.

  • Overview of domain and forest boundaries in an AD DS structure8:01

    Explore domain and forest boundaries in an Active Directory environment, including replication, administration, group policy, auditing, and DNS boundaries that shape authentication and resource access.

  • Knowledge Check 1: Overview of domain and forest boundaries7:46

    Learn how domain and forest boundaries shape security, replication, and administration in Active Directory, including why forests are the true security boundary and how domain partitions replicate within a domain.

  • Knowledge Check 2: Overview of domain and forest boundaries9:43

    Explore how domain and forest boundaries shape group policy scope, DNS replication, and forest-wide versus domain-specific partitions, guiding multi-domain administration and policy deployment.

  • Why implement multiple domains?3:55

    Discover when to deploy multiple active directory domains to address replication and bandwidth constraints, DNS namespace needs, and distributed administration, while balancing administrative autonomy with forest-level considerations.

  • Why implement multiple forests?3:40

    Organizations deploy multiple forests to meet security isolation, administrative isolation, and Pam bastion forest needs, addressing incompatible schema, multinational requirements, extra net security, perimeter network, and merger or divestiture considerations.

  • Knowledge Check 1: Why implement multiple domains and forests?9:09

    Assess when to deploy multiple domains within a forest versus separate forests in Active Directory. Balance administrative autonomy and isolation, network constraints, and DNS namespace preservation during mergers.

  • Knowledge Check 2: Why implement multiple domains and forests?9:53

    Explain how resource domain models isolate application administration for ERP systems, granting full domain admin rights without affecting regular user accounts, via a separate resource domain and cross-domain authentication.

  • Deploying a domain controller in Azure IaaS9:48

    Deploy Active Directory domain controllers on Azure IaaS to enable disaster recovery, geo-distributed authentication, and isolated applications, while planning network topology, site links, and static IPs.

  • Knowledge Check 1: Deploying a domain controller in Azure IaaS8:52

    Learn to deploy Active Directory domain services in Azure IaaS within hybrid clouds, covering network topology, site replication, and data protection for domain controllers and disaster recovery.

  • Knowledge Check 2: Deploying a domain controller in Azure IaaS10:00

    Deploy domain controllers in Azure IaaS with VM generation ID protection, proper guest OS shutdown, static IPs, extended on-premises DNS, and data disk configurations with host caching set to none.

  • Managing objects in complex AD DS deployments6:54

    Learn to manage objects in multi-forest AD DS deployments with automation, delegation, and self-service, using Microsoft Identity Manager 2016 to sync identities with Azure Active Directory and secure admin accounts.

  • Knowledge Check 1: Managing objects in complex AD DS deployments6:56

    Automate user and group management in complex AD DS deployments using HR system data and identity synchronization to scale across forests and improve efficiency.

  • Knowledge Check 2: Managing objects in complex AD DS deployments5:52

    Learn how user self-service with multi-factor authentication for password resets and account unlocks reduces helpdesk workload and speeds access, and how multi-forest certificate management requires independent CA coordination across forests.

  • Knowledge Check 3: Managing objects in complex AD DS deployments7:04

    Coordinate identity synchronization across multiple authentication stores in hybrid AD DS deployments, and examine privileged access management with a bastion forest and time-bound access, MFA and HR data integration.

  • Section Quiz: Overview of advanced AD DS deployments

Requirements

  • Experience with a single-domain Active Directory (users, groups, DCs)
  • A lab or an Azure subscription if you want to repeat the demos

Description

One domain is easy. Several domains, a second forest after a merger, a trust to a partner or a domain controller in Azure is where Active Directory gets hard. This course explains advanced AD DS deployments: when you need more than one domain or forest, how to build them, and how to connect them safely.

How the course works

Each section starts with the design question and then shows the build on Windows Server, in the consoles and in PowerShell. A complete lab section builds a multi-region Windows Server 2022 environment on Azure, and two practice tests at the end check what you learned.

Inside the course

  • Advanced AD DS deployments: why multiple domains or forests, domain and forest functional levels, upgrading and migrating AD DS, a domain controller in Azure IaaS.
  • A distributed AD DS environment: deploying new domains and managing objects across them.
  • AD DS trusts: trust types, direction, transitivity and selective authentication.
  • Lab on Azure: Windows Server 2022 domain controllers, a child domain, DNS and sites across regions.

A practical example

A typical project: your company buys another one with its own forest. You set up a forest trust, limit who can use it with selective authentication and plan the migration - the decisions the trust and deployment sections walk through.

The course runs about 8.5 hours in 69 lectures and includes two practice tests (44 questions). It assumes you already run a single-domain Active Directory.

Who this course is for:

  • Active Directory administrators facing multi-domain or multi-forest designs
  • Infrastructure engineers planning mergers, trusts or AD upgrades
  • Windows Server administrators extending AD into Azure
  • Senior help desk staff moving into AD architecture

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