Learn Microsoft Active Directory (ADDS) in 30mins

Summary

This educational video delves into the fundamentals of Active Directory Domain Services, a crucial skill for IT professionals. The host, a Microsoft MVP and certified trainer, offers an in-depth look at the logical and physical aspects of Active Directory, exploring its structure, replication, and database management. The session includes practical demonstrations on creating users, groups, and organizational units, as well as discussing the evolution from on-premises to cloud-based identity platforms like Azure Active Directory. Aimed at beginners, the video provides a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to this foundational technology.

Takeaways

• 😀 Active Directory Domain Services is a foundational skill for IT professionals looking to advance their careers, despite the rise of Azure Active Directory.
• 🔒 Active Directory acts as an identity platform, managing access to resources within an organization based on user credentials and permissions.
• 📚 It originated with Windows 2000 and has evolved over time, serving as a database of objects such as users, groups, and computers.
• 🌐 The logical structure of Active Directory involves organizing objects into Organizational Units (OUs), which can be arranged by location, department, or function.
• 💾 The physical aspect of Active Directory includes the replication of its database across multiple domain controllers for redundancy and performance.
• 🔄 Replication can occur within a site (intra-site) automatically or between sites (inter-site) which may require scheduling and can use different protocols.
• 🔑 Active Directory uses a schema to define the complete set of object types and their attributes, such as first name, last name, and email address.
• 👤 The process of creating user accounts involves assigning a username and password, with options for password policies and account activation settings.
• 👥 Groups in Active Directory are used to manage permissions for multiple users collectively, simplifying the administration of access to resources.
• 🗃️ The 'ntds.dit' file is the physical database of Active Directory, storing user information and other directory objects.
• 🔧 Tools like Active Directory Users and Computers, Sites and Services, and Domains and Trusts are used to manage and configure the directory environment.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the session presented in the script?

The main focus of the session is to provide a deep dive into Active Directory Domain Services from Windows Server, explaining how it works and its importance, especially for advancing an IT career.

Who is the presenter of the session?

The presenter is Andy Malone, a Microsoft MVP and a Microsoft Certified Trainer.

Why is it suggested to use a combination of a surname and an initial for usernames in Active Directory?

Using a combination of a surname and an initial for usernames helps to avoid conflicts in large organizations where there might be multiple users with the same first name.

What is the purpose of creating Organizational Units (OUs) in Active Directory?

The purpose of creating OUs is to organize users, computers, and other objects within Active Directory based on factors such as location, department, or function, making management more efficient.

What is the difference between intra-site and inter-site replication in Active Directory?

Intra-site replication occurs automatically between domain controllers within the same site, assuming high-speed bandwidth. Inter-site replication is used between sites, often with slower links, and can be scheduled to manage replication traffic.

What is the 'ntds.dit' file in the context of Active Directory?

The 'ntds.dit' file is the physical database file of Active Directory, which stores the directory data.

How can multiple domain controllers be managed in Active Directory to avoid a single point of failure?

Multiple domain controllers can be set up and organized into sites using tools like Active Directory Sites and Services, which allows for replication and load balancing.

What is the Recycle Bin feature in Active Directory and why is it important?

The Recycle Bin feature in Active Directory allows for the recovery of accidentally deleted objects. It's important because it provides a safety net to restore users or other objects without data loss.

What is Azure Active Directory and how does it differ from Windows Server Active Directory?

Azure Active Directory is Microsoft's cloud-based identity and access management service. It differs from Windows Server Active Directory in that the database is stored and managed in Azure, eliminating the need for on-premises domain controllers.

What are some of the attributes that can be set for a user object in Active Directory?

Some of the attributes that can be set for a user object in Active Directory include first name, last name, email address, and login hours.

How can permissions be more efficiently managed in Active Directory?

Permissions can be more efficiently managed by assigning them to groups rather than individual users, as groups can contain multiple users and simplify the administration of access rights.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introduction to Active Directory Domain Services

In this introductory segment, the presenter, Andy Malone, a Microsoft MVP and certified trainer, sets the stage for a deep dive into Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), explaining its importance for IT professionals. He contrasts AD DS with Azure Active Directory, acknowledges the prevalence of cloud technologies, and emphasizes the enduring relevance of on-premises directory services. The session promises a comprehensive overview of AD DS, including its logical structure, physical replication, and foundational role in identity management.

05:05

🔍 Exploring Active Directory's Identity Platform and Database

This paragraph delves into the concept of Active Directory as an identity platform, using an analogy of accessing a building to explain the authentication process. It traces the history of directory services from Windows NT to Windows 2000, highlighting AD DS as a database of objects like users, groups, and computers. The explanation covers the logical and physical perspectives of AD DS, including the replication of the directory database across servers to ensure high availability and data integrity.

10:05

👥 Organizational Units and Active Directory Schema

The presenter discusses the organization of objects within Active Directory, focusing on Organizational Units (OUs) as a way to categorize users, computers, and groups by location, department, or function. He introduces the concept of the Active Directory schema, which defines the types of objects and their attributes. The paragraph also touches on the physical aspects of AD DS, such as the replication methods between domain controllers for disaster recovery and performance optimization.

15:08

🌐 Active Directory Replication and Multi-Site Management

This section explains the replication process in Active Directory, distinguishing between intra-site and inter-site replication based on the speed of network connections and the location of domain controllers. The presenter uses a scenario with two sites in London and New York to illustrate how replication can be managed for performance and disaster recovery. The explanation includes the use of different protocols like RPC or SMTP for replication, depending on the site's network capabilities.

20:10

🛠️ Setting Up Active Directory Domain Services

The presenter provides a step-by-step guide on installing and configuring Active Directory Domain Services on a Windows Server. He discusses accessing the Server Manager to add roles and features, such as DNS and AD DS, and explains the process of selecting a server for installation. The paragraph also covers the use of various tools for managing AD DS, including the Active Directory Users and Computers tool for managing the logical structure of the directory.

25:13

👤 Creating Users and Groups in Active Directory

This paragraph demonstrates the process of creating user accounts and groups within Active Directory. The presenter explains the importance of using a structured naming convention for usernames and the benefits of organizing users into groups for easier permission management. He also discusses the attributes of user objects, such as first name, last name, and email address, and the options available for managing user permissions and account settings.

30:15

🔧 Physical Aspects of Active Directory and Database Management

The focus shifts to the physical implementation of Active Directory, describing it as a database stored in the ntds.dit file on the domain controller's C drive. The presenter explains the process of transaction logging and how changes are written to the database. He also discusses the importance of having multiple domain controllers to avoid single points of failure and the replication process between them.

35:15

🔄 Active Directory Replication Settings and Site Management

This section explores the configuration of replication settings in Active Directory, including the creation of sites and site links to manage replication between domain controllers. The presenter discusses the use of IP and SMTP as replication protocols and the scheduling options for inter-site replication. He also explains how to organize domain controllers into sites to control replication and improve performance.

🗂️ Domains, Trusts, and the Recycle Bin Feature

The presenter discusses the management of domains and trusts in Active Directory, including the creation of child domains and trust relationships between forests. He also introduces the Recycle Bin feature in Active Directory, which allows for the recovery of accidentally deleted objects. The explanation includes how to enable this feature and the benefits it provides for maintaining directory integrity.

📚 Conclusion and Final Thoughts on Active Directory

In the concluding paragraph, the presenter wraps up the session by emphasizing the enduring importance of Active Directory, especially in the context of cloud computing and hybrid environments. He encourages viewers to subscribe for more tutorials, invites feedback, and thanks them for watching. The presenter also provides recommendations for further learning, including other videos on his channel that cover Azure Active Directory and related topics.

Keywords

💡Active Directory

Active Directory is a directory service by Microsoft that stores and manages information about network resources and user data. It is integral to the video's theme as it serves as the central identity platform for managing access to resources within an organization. The script discusses both the logical and physical aspects of Active Directory, emphasizing its importance in IT infrastructure.

💡Azure Active Directory

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is Microsoft's cloud-based identity and access management service, which extends the functionality of on-premises Active Directory to the cloud. The video mentions Azure AD as a comparison to the traditional Active Directory Domain Services, highlighting the shift towards cloud-based identity management.

💡Domain Services

Domain Services refers to the functionality provided by Active Directory to manage domains within a network. The script delves into how domain services work, their role in authentication, and how they can be replicated across different servers to ensure availability and redundancy.

💡Microsoft MVP

Microsoft MVP, or Most Valuable Professional, is an award given by Microsoft to individuals who have demonstrated expertise and community involvement in Microsoft technologies. The presenter identifies himself as a Microsoft MVP, which adds credibility to his expertise in discussing Active Directory.

💡Organizational Units (OUs)

Organizational Units are containers within Active Directory that help organize users, groups, and computers based on common attributes such as department or location. The script explains how OUs can be used to structure Active Directory in a logical manner, making it easier to manage and apply policies.

💡Replication

Replication in the context of Active Directory refers to the process of synchronizing directory data across multiple domain controllers to ensure consistency and availability. The script discusses both intra-site and inter-site replication, illustrating the importance of replication for performance and disaster recovery.

💡Domain Controllers

Domain Controllers are servers that hold a copy of the Active Directory database and are responsible for authenticating and authorizing all users and computers within a domain. The video script explains how domain controllers play a critical role in the physical infrastructure of Active Directory.

💡User Principal Name (UPN)

User Principal Name is a unique identifier used for logging into Microsoft services, typically in the format username@domain. The script mentions UPN as an example of the type of logon name used in Active Directory, which is important for understanding user authentication in modern IT environments.

💡Schema

In Active Directory, the schema defines the structure of the directory, including the types of objects and their attributes. The script refers to the schema when discussing the complete set of object types within Active Directory, emphasizing its role in defining the directory's organization.

💡Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin in Active Directory is a feature that allows administrators to recover deleted objects. The script explains how enabling this feature can prevent accidental loss of data, which is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the directory database.

💡Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid Cloud refers to a computing environment that combines on-premises infrastructure with cloud-based services. The video touches on the importance of understanding Active Directory in the context of hybrid cloud environments, especially for managing security and identity across different platforms.

Highlights

Introduction to Active Directory Domain Services and its importance for IT career advancement.

Explanation of Active Directory as an identity platform using an analogy of accessing a building with credentials.

Historical background of Active Directory, tracing back to Windows 2000 and the evolution from Windows NT.

Description of Active Directory as a database of objects including users, groups, and computers.

Overview of the logical and physical perspectives of Active Directory, including structure and replication.

Demonstration of creating organizational units (OUs) for organizing users by location or department.

Process of creating user accounts in Active Directory with examples and best practices for usernames.

Explanation of user object attributes in Active Directory, such as first name, last name, and email address.

Discussion on the physical aspects of Active Directory, focusing on the ntds.dit file as the database.

Importance of multiple domain controllers to avoid single points of failure in Active Directory.

Technical details on intra-site and inter-site replication for Active Directory database synchronization.

Introduction to Azure Active Directory as Microsoft's identity as a service platform in the cloud.

Comparison between on-premises Active Directory and Azure Active Directory in terms of database management.

Use of PowerShell and Active Directory Administrative Center for enabling features like the Recycle Bin.

Highlighting the Recycle Bin feature in Active Directory for recovering deleted objects.

Final thoughts on the enduring relevance of Active Directory for cloud computing and hybrid environments.

Transcripts

[Music] Right now with the cloud everybody wants

to know azure active directory but taking a trip back can be really useful

so what i'm going to do in this session is take a look at active directory

domain services from windows server how does it work what does it do and can i

do a deep dive in 30 minutes let's find out

[Music]

Greetings my fellow YouTubers welcome back to the channel i really appreciate

you stopping by Andy Malone Microsoft MVP as well as a Microsoft certified Trainer

In this episode i'm going to take a look at active directory domain

services and i know what you're thinking you're thinking andy that's old stuff

we should be learning azure active directory i know i've done plenty of

videos of that on this channel but active directory domain services is such

an important skill especially if you want to move your it career forward so

in this session what i thought i'd do is just take 20 to 30 minutes and really go

deep on exactly what you need to know about active directory so we're going to

talk about the logical approach to it so the structure of it

we'll talk about the physical aspects of it for example replication how it works

how it's structured and really it's going to be a busy session so as they

say buckle up and get ready to learn now if you've not subscribed to the session

please go ahead click on that subscribe button ring that bell and you won't miss

out on the good stuff in the future and as always i love your comments your

questions and your feedback so just get them down below there and i'll do my

best for you all right so i think without any more jibber jabber i think

it's about time we get into some demos let's go

so let's see if we can do active directory for beginners in 30 minutes

so who am i just a quick reminder i'm a

microsoft certified trainer as well as a microsoft mvp

now um

when we talk about active directory of course it's an identity

platform and an identity platform obviously involves

i walking up to a desk in a building so this is our analogy so you're getting

into the computer system so we walk up to the desk we present our credentials

or our username and our method of authentication so

whether that be a password whether it be some kind of card entry

biometrics once you get added once you get admitted

uh you're in the door now once in the building of course you

can then be further scrutinized and given permissions to certain resources

depending on the role that you play in the organization

or the permissions that you have so when we talk about a directory

service um active directory actually goes back

to about windows 2000 back in the early days that's quite a few years ago now

before that though the first kind of microsoft directory service was actually

a product called windows nt so in 2000 we had windows 2000 and

really active directory really took form then so what is a directory service well

in essence it's a database it's a database of objects so users groups

computers and so on now to be honest it's

advanced over the years and this is windows server active

directory and the two ways to look at it you can

look at it from a logical perspective so the structure how you've laid it out

and also a physical precipice perspective as well

so from the physical perspective we look at it from the actual

database so how do we back up the database how do we replicate the

database to another server because of course if you just have it installed on

one server then potentially if something went wrong with that server you would

lose all your users and everything so again we don't want that you want to

replicate that so in essence what we have is active

directory domain services this is the directory services of windows server

both 2016 2019 and now 2022 as well if you for example were using windows

explorer and you can see that this does actually look a little bit like that

so organizing your users we don't put them in folders we actually arrange them

into something called organizational units and you can organize

organizational units by location by department

function and so on so i can create my users computers

groups and i can organize them in there now of course i said that active

directory is a database and databases have objects so a user object a group

object and a device object and objects have attributes so a user's

first name last name email address and so on

the complete set of object types in active directory we refer to it as the

schema okay

and you can as i said organize your users into these organizational units

and i'm going to be doing some demos in a moment

okay so that's the first thing that we have then all right

now from the physical side

of active directory and again i'm going to give you a nice demo of this in a

moment in this example we have obviously dc1

and dc1 contains a master copy of our account directory

so obviously you don't just want to store active directory database on dc1

so you want to replicate that now you can replicate it

for a number of reasons you can replicate it for disaster recovery

reasons and you can also replicate it for performance reasons or

load balancing so as i said in this example we have two

sites we've got site a let's say london and we've got site b in new york

so inside a i've got three servers that have installed active directory on and

these are replicating copies of the database and we refer to these machines

as dc's or domain controllers and within a site you can see that we

have something called intra site replication

now intra site replication basically means that these replicate automatically

for example we don't you don't need to schedule these so it assumes that you

have a very high speed bandwidth however if you have remote sights and

you don't have a high speed bandwidth then we can use

something called inter-site replication now in the slide here it talks about rpc

or smtp connections remote procedure calls now this doesn't

exist anymore and because obviously since this slide was written we'd now

have the delights of broadband and super fast

connections which make things easier but the principle just remember the

principle if it's within a site it's called intra site and if it's between

sites it's called intersight replication now again with windows server active

directory um you can have

a number of companies so you can see here that we've got a

company called akaim.com and depending on the size of your

companies you might want to create different or what we call child domains

and a child domain might be for a very large corporation and let's say you've

got offices all around the world and you want to have

an it team dedicated to that particular domain

but also you might want to mask um for example for security reasons you might

not for example want the sales team to have access to the engineering

components and so on so moving right up to date um one of the

reasons why i wanted to show you this presentation was obviously we're all

learning about this this is microsoft's azure active directory and this is

microsoft's identity as a service platform

so rather than having the database on your domain controllers installed on

premises what we now have is we have the databases stored in azure and azure

microsoft maintain all the databases they structure it they manage it for us

so you don't need to worry about all of that

um we don't have ou's as such but the thing about

azure is it's a little bit like again file explorer so think about the c drive

on your computer as being azure active directory

well in this case you can see that you have your own tenant or folder so all

your users all your management features are managed within your own individual

tenant and again you can create users groups devices and so on and like before

these devices also give you access to multiple resources and again they have

attributes first names last names and email addresses and so on

and the nice thing about azure is you can have multiple customers so you

can have multiple accounts different tenants and you can share resources

between those tenants now this particular session i'm going to

focus on active directory if you want to see my sessions on azure

then please have a look i've already recorded some of these on my youtube

channel

so to understand active directory we start here in our windows server now

this particular machine has got active directory already pre-installed so what

i'm going to do is i'm going to click up here and i'm going to go into server

manager and server manager is our main portal that manages kind of all our

features and functionality now just to let you know that when you

if you purchase windows server or you download it

it actually comes in with no roles or no features installed on it

so one of the first things that you're going to do is you're going to go ahead

and obviously install the features and functionality that you want and to do

that essentially we go up here and to tools to manage all the features that

are currently installed but also if you go into manage this is where you can add

roles and features now adding roles are the major functions

of the computer so things like active directory domain services your domain

name services and various other features like that and you can see it's asking me

which server do i want to go ahead and install add-on so you can set this up on

a server if you have a pool of servers so

mult you can have manage multiple servers here or you can install it on a

particular virtual hard disk for the purpose of this demo i'm just going to

click on next here and you can see here at the moment we've

got dns and we've got active directory domain services installed now how did i

install that i'm going to leave that for another video because obviously not

enough time here but i'll certainly go through that in in a future session

so here you can see that i've got all the different roles that you can install

on the windows server now i'll be honest with you windows hasn't

really changed that much in a number of years so if you're familiar with it from

the likes of windows server 2012 then coming to this in windows server 2019 or

2022 i'll be honest it's not going to be hugely different for you

if you click on next it now asks you if you want to install features and the

features are they're important features but they're not as big as the roles so

once you select those features click on install and off it goes and it will

install the role so to manage the role as i mentioned we

can go up here into tools and really you've got a number of tools

that you can manage you see once active directory is installed you've now got a

number of dedicated active directory tools and the first of those the most

primary tool i would say is probably active directory users and computers

and this is where we manage the logical aspects of active directory logical

aspects i mean the oh just general design of how it looks

now you can see here if you're familiar with windows file manager for example or

file explorer as it's now known you'll see that it looks somewhat similar so up

here at the top we've got our domain name and my domain name here is called

adatum.com and

adatum.com you can see contains a number of built-in

groups and features here

now the yellow folders here we actually call these

organizational units and you can pretty much guess what that means

so if i didn't use organizational units i

could just have a big default folder called users

and you could put basically everything in there and it's not very organized so

probably one of the thing things that you probably want to do is you probably

want to create organizational units based on location

or based on department needs or things like that

so for example here i'm going to create a new organizational unit just by either

right clicking on the right hand mouse menu here or there's also buttons here

on the toolbar that will do the same thing

so i'm going to go up i'm going to create new and i'm going to create a new

organizational unit and in here just pull that over slightly i'm going to

call this operations okay so i'm going to call this operations now

you can see here protect the container from accidental deletion and it's

actually switched on so if you want that on or off you can go ahead and switch

that so i've now created an ou

and the next thing i'll probably want to do is create some users in here so i'm

going to create a new user account in here

so i can create a new user and this user i'm going to call this i'm

a bit of a trekkie as anybody knows so i'm going to call this guy sean luke and

i'm going to call him jean-luc picard so i'm going to give him a username of

picard j now just a tip about usernames you

wouldn't call the user robert or karen or something like that because you could

have a company that's got many users called john or karen or bob so it's a

good idea to use the surname followed by an initial and you can see that this is

giving this user a logon name now you'll notice that there's two types of logon

name here um so picard.j at

company.com and a datum slash

picard.j so this is kind of uh this is typically windows like a

windows type login but if you're moving to the cloud for example into microsoft

365 you'll be familiar with this type of login format this is called um a

upn a user principal name type login so i'm going to click next

and of course i'm going to put in a password for captain picard here so i'm

going to just put that password in here and again you can see the user can

change their password at next log on user can not change their password the

password never expires you might use these um if it's for example a service

account or something like that and of course if you're ready if you're not

ready for jean-luc to join the organization yet you can actually go

ahead and disable the account so i've created the account off it goes

and it now creates jean-luc's account now so that's the first thing

so creating a user account really really easy like i said creating new

and user and the rest is pretty self-explanatory as well

now another type of thing that you might want to create is a group

so a group of course allows you to manage multiple users hey you know what

i'm going to do i'm actually going to create another user just so that

jean-luc's got some company so this time i'm going to create a user called james

kirk and of course james cook will have a

username of corp j and i'll click next and again i'm going

to put in a password for the user and i'm going to say that the user can

change their own password at their next login and i'm going to finish and you

can see i've now got a couple of users in here now

um again i'm going to now go into new and

this time instead of creating a user i'm going to go in i'm going to create

a group okay now we've got

a number of different types of groups in windows server

i'm going to call this my managers group i'm going to call this in fact you know

just to differentiate it i'm just going to call it ops managers okay

so this is my ops managers and is it a domain local or is it a global to be

honest in this case i've only got one domain so it's not really a problem if i

had multiple domains you would you could create global groups

and you could create domain local groups that are specific to a local domain but

as i say in this case it really doesn't matter because i've only got one domain

that i'm working with okay so i'm going to click on here and

what i can now do with these users um i can now of course add these users

to a group and i'm just going to call this

ops and as i start to type i can click on check name and you can see it says

yes this name exists already and i'm going to click ok

and i've now added those users to a group now

why would i do that because it's easier to assign permissions to resources to

groups rather than individual users okay

so again my whistle stop tour of active directory i'm now going to go into the

properties of my user and let's have a look at some of the

resources in here that we can see so first of all

you'll notice that we have a number of tabs

active directory of course is a database and a database has

objects so jean-luc is an object in my database he's a user in my database we

can also have groups we can have devices and so on

so you can see that every object has attributes so our first name last name

email address and so on okay so i can go in and and fill that in if i want to and

there's a couple of tabs here that you can do that

um member of shows me if the user is a member of some groups

um dial in i can take a trip back to the 1990s if i want to

but i'm not going to bother with that this time

um and again here um if you wanted the uh you can do an uh an environment thing

so when the user logs in start this program and so on which is it might be

quite useful um again if you click onto the sessions

you can set timeouts for the user sessions here

again depending on you might work in a call center or something like that that

might be quite useful all right

um remote control enable remote control so if you're using uh remote control or

remote desktop um and it's switched on here you'll be able to go in and help

the user if they're having problems all right other useful things here the most

useful one is probably the account tab so the account tab here you can do

things like i can click on to log on hours

and you might say okay from midnight to 6 a.m i don't want the user to log on

because that's when you might do backups for example

uh and i could then say okay from eight let's say to midnight again

i don't want to the user to log in now you would do this for every user

possibly okay and you can you can um this is quite useful to do that

okay um other things here again

log on to so again do you want the user to log on to all computers or only these

computers so again quite useful we've got some password options here so

things like user cannot change the password never expires and this is a

useful one by the way if you uh bring in for example contractors so if you're

bringing in contractors you can expire their user account after a certain

amount of time again very very useful

um again the other thing that we've got here is the profile so user profiles

here so if you've got a shared folder i think i did a session on this recently

actually so go ahead and check out that okay so that's creating a user

and creating a group so as i've mentioned this is pretty much the

logical aspects of active directory

for the next part we want to take a look at the physical side of active directory

now just to understand what i mentioned i said that active directory is actually

a database and you can see the database by going into the windows folder on your

domain controller's c drive if you scroll down

you'll see a folder here called ntds nt directory services

so if i click into here this is the golden ticket ntds.dit

this is your active directory database and the other things that we've got here

are essentially log files and check files

so in essence what happens is like every most databases

when a user is performing transactions in active

directory users are logging on logging off you're doing maintenance

those operations are taking place in memory

once they've been in memory they then get written to a log file

and then after the log file reaches a certain size so for example

what i don't know five gigs let's say those transactions are then written to

active directory or to the database so that's that's what it is so active

directory is a physical database to understand now

of course the problems with that are obvious if i

install one active directory domain controller

then that's a single point of failure so one of the great things about active

directory is that you can have multiple domain controllers now in my demo here

i've only got one domain controller in my environment but um let me show you

what you would do so i'm going to go up into tools here

and for this with there are a couple of tools for the

physical side so the first one is active directory sites and services

now in our little organization here you can see that if i go into sites here

and we have got a default first site okay so this is my default first site

name i can double click this and in here you can see that it says ntds

settings again i can double click that and we can have a look at it so at the

moment my domain controller is dc1 and it's actually in my default first

site okay and we can see that you've got various

options for caching group membership for example which will obviously improve

things like performance and so on um so that's the first thing that's

where the

domain controller goes now you'll remember from the slide at the beginning

of this presentation that i talked about intra site replication and intra site

replication so basically if i had multiple domain

controllers within this site and you can see it says servers and at the moment

i've only got dc1 so if there were other servers in here it would replicate

copies of the active directory database and if i double click this you can see

this is the actual settings for that individual domain controller okay and as

i said at the moment there's nothing here because to be honest there's only

one domain controller all right now if i just click into the ntds

settings and if i go into properties on that

setting you can see that

one thing that you'll notice about active directory is that active

directory like azure active directory objects are sometimes represented by

what we call a grid a globally unique id which is this big long hexadecimal

number now it shows me the connection detail so

um within a site of course it uses interest site so in other words um any

if you've got multiple domain controllers um they're constantly

updating each other and to be honest you can't control

the uh when and how it actually

replicates because it's interest site now if you have multiple sites within

your organization so depending on the size of your company you may want to

create another site so i can come down here and if i just click into sites here

for example and i can come down i can say hey i want

to go and create a new site and i'll call this oslo okay so i'll

call it my oslo site all right

and it's saying do you want to use this site link i'll say yes that's fine

now if you don't have this site link at the moment you you can create

different links now remember that active directory was written for a different

time um so back in the 1990s we didn't have

the scalability and we didn't have the network speeds that we do now but

fortunately now we do so i'm just going to go ahead i'm going

to click on to that and you can see it's now created this oslo site

and i've got cert and it's got a little folder for servers so again what i could

do is if i've got multiple servers here i could easily move those servers

into this site so i've got multi i've got two sites by the way you can

rename that default site if you want to call it something else as well

okay so that's the first thing from a physical perspective so as i said it's a

physical database and you can control

the replication by organizing your

domain controllers into sites where they're located

and here you can see that this is now inter site

so that being the case one of the things you might want to

control is how the

how the replication between the domain controllers actually works and to be

honest we've got two choices you can use ip which is super fast

because the chances are you're using broadband or you can use an older

protocol for example smtp which is actually an email protocol

and that can be scheduled so for example if you happen to have a very slow link

you could potentially schedule that all right

now i mentioned that that's so that's the basics as i said of

um inter-site

and interest site okay so that's the first thing there now the other tool

that i just wanted to show you was active directory domains and trusts

now in this example we only have one domain that we're dealing with here and

if i just click into here you can see that this is to do with your domains or

your uh forests now when we talk about a

forest is if i installed active directory

another cop install of active directory it could

say do you want to join this forest or do you want to create what we call a

branch so for example you might create a child domain so us.adatum.com

india dot and so on so we can create those here

all right now um if i go into properties um you

can see that if i have you this is where you can actually

create relationships between other forests so if you were working with

business partners for example or you were let's say a group of companies you

could establish trust relationships between

those organizations and i'm going to cover this in a future session all right

now one really important aspect of active

directory ladies and gentlemen is if i go back into

users and computers you'll see that in users and computers

here i've got a series of organizational units and here's the one i created

earlier now if i click into view

and go into let's say advanced features you'll now notice that i can see an

awful lot more and i'm now actually seeing

hidden objects and one of those hidden objects is lost

and found now if you delete something

in active directory

obviously it goes to a recycle bin well actually it doesn't because you need to

actually switch this feature on and you can either switch the feature on

via powershell or you can go into tools and if you go

into the active directory admin center here and i've mentioned this previously

on one of my videos for um deploying azure ad connect

so in essence what we do is i click into my local domain here

and again this is just the admin center is just another viewing

tool and i can manage the various nodes and the various features but the key

thing here is we have this enable recycle bin here and you can go in and

you can switch that on and the idea of this is if you accidentally now delete

any objects they will go to that recycle bin and you

can restore your users okay

so there we go just a little look at the logical aspect of active directory

we created some users we created a group and we looked at the physical side of

active directory so there you have it active directory

windows server to be honest it's a product that's not really changed in

many years but again like i said at the beginning it's so important at the

moment especially if you're learning cloud computing especially if you're

going to be learning a hybrid especially the security aspects of it well hey look

i really appreciate you stopping by if you've enjoyed the video give me a big

thumbs up it really does help my channel and of course if you've not subscribed

go ahead click on that subscribe button ring the bell and you won't miss out on

future tutorials and as always i love comments your questions and any feedback

about this or any of my other videos all right so that's it for this week you

stay safe and i'll see you next time around take care

hey thanks so much for dropping by today here's a couple of videos that you may

enjoy and while you're here go ahead click on the subscribe button and you

won't miss out

[Music]