Getting Started with Microsoft Active Directory

Demonstrates using the DC promotion wizard to create a child domain in a lab forest, configure DNS, and validate the new domain.

Install a new forest, plan resources, weigh separate domains versus delegated administration, consider naming requirements, and create the forest with the AD DS configuration wizard on Windows Server.

Microsoft DNS stores DNS records in the Active Directory database, enabling replication across DNS servers and offering forest-wide or domain-specific storage options.

Examine dynamic DNS in Microsoft DNS, enabling systems to add their own records via dynamic updates to support Active Directory scalability and remote site replication across the domain.

Learn how DNS maps domain names to IP addresses, enabling Active Directory to locate resources and advertise services via DNS records, with dynamic updates and replication.

Explore Active Directory users and computers to manage users, groups, and objects, connect to child and root domain controllers, and review flexible single master operations and the PDC role.

Explore how to access the Active Directory schema via the schema management tool, understand classes and attributes, indexing, global catalog replication, and the need to limit schema admins group membership.

Explore active directory with ADSI Edit by connecting to domain controllers, viewing domain, configuration, and schema partitions, and browsing objects and attributes, including global catalog and replication.

Explore how Active Directory partitions divide the database into domain, configuration, and schema partitions, plus application partitions for DNS zones, with independent replication across domain controllers and forests.

Discover how the global catalog on a domain controller maintains a partial, read-only replica of each domain's partition, with the partial attribute set, to enable forest-wide object lookups.

Demonstrates how to create an Active Directory replication topology by defining sites and subnets, configuring site links and replication intervals, and deploying domain controllers with DNS and global catalog considerations.

Monitor and troubleshoot domain controller replication with Active Directory sites and services, repadmin tools, DNS health checks, and event viewer insights for common failures.

Understand active directory replication, including multi-master design, update sequence numbers, per-attribute versioning with timestamps, and the most recent change wins, with global catalog petitions. Explore replication topology and kcc.

Explain the direction and transitivity of trust relationships in Active Directory, covering one way and two way trusts, transitive and nontransitive, automatic two-way parent-child trusts, shortcut trusts, and realm trusts.

Learn how to create a two-way transitive trust between Active Directory forests, configure DNS and conditional forwarders, and manage forest wide versus selective authentication.

Learn to create, modify, and organize users and groups in Active Directory, delegate control, and use built-in containers, organizational units, and PowerShell for domain resource access.

Learn to delegate control in active directory by granting a group permissions to create, delete, and manage user accounts, using the delegate control wizard and Detroit examples.

Navigate Active Directory Users and Computers to manage domain structure, built-in groups, computers, and users, create and copy accounts, set passwords, and delegate control across offices.

Learn what it means for Windows workstations or servers to join an active directory domain, establish a secure channel, and enable domain users to access resources with a single identity.

Join a member server to a domain via server manager, creating a machine account and applying domain policies; verify DNS and log in with domain administrator to confirm domain joined.

Explain how policy settings are stored in GPOs and apply to users or computers. Show how linking a GPO at the domain top level or other domain locations determines scope.

Understand how group policy precedence and inheritance determine which settings apply across an Active Directory domain, with child GPOs inheriting from parents and later GPOs overriding conflicts.

explain how group policy objects are stored as Active Directory objects and sysvol filesystem objects, with a grid number, and how clients query the domain controller, download settings, and apply.

Learn to control GPO applicability using security filtering, WMI filters, and item-level targeting, alongside OU placement, to ensure policies apply only to intended users or computers.

Manage group policy with domain administrators to apply security and configuration settings to domain-joined systems and users. Understand group policy objects, inheritance, and security and WMI filtering via Active Directory.

Explore how the distributed file system creates a common namespace for file shares, obscures server names, and uses optional replication to keep servers in sync and connect users to shares.

Active Directory and group policy rely on a dfs namespace with replication to maintain group policy objects and login scripts, while domain controllers host netlogon and dfs shares for access.

Explore the DFS namespace and file replication service to access distributed shares via a common server name, with group policy applying replication on domain controllers.