Stanek - Active directory administration: the personal trainer, Windows Server 2012 & Windows Server 2012 R2

Active Directory Administration:

The Personal Trainer

Windows Server 2012 &
Windows Server 2012 R2

William R. Stanek

PUBLISHED BY

Stanek & Associates
PO Box 362
East Olympia, WA 98540-0362

Copyright 2015 William R. Stanek

All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written permission of the publisher.

United States of America

Stanek & Associates is a trademark of William R. Stanek. All other marks are property of their respective owners.

The example names for companies, organizations, persons and other named elements used in the book are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, person or other named element is intended or should be inferred.

This book expresses the authors views and opinions. The information contained herein is provided without any express, statutory or implied warranties. Neither the authors, the publishers, the resellers nor distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused either directly or indirectly by this book.

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Contents at a Glance

Table of Contents

Introduction

Active Directory Administration: The Personal Trainer for Windows Server 2012 & Windows Server 2012 R2 is the authoritative quick reference guide to Active Directory and is designed to be a key resource you turn to whenever you have questions about Active Directory. To this end, the book zeroes in on the key aspects of Active Directory that you'll use the most.

Inside this books pages, you'll find comprehensive overviews, step-by-step procedures, frequently used tasks, documented examples, and much more. One of the goals is to keep the content so concise that the book remains compact and easy to navigate while at the same time ensuring that the book is packed with as much information as possiblemaking it a valuable resource.

Active Directory Administration: The Personal Trainer for Windows Server 2012 & Windows Server 2012 R2 is designed to be used in the daily administration of Active Directory. In this book, I teach you how features work, why they work the way they do, and how to customize them to meet your needs. I also offer specific examples of how certain features can meet your needs, and how you can use other features to troubleshoot and resolve issues you might have. In addition, this book provides tips, best practices, and examples of how to fine-tune all major aspects of Active Directory.

This book covers Active Directory for small, medium, and large organizations. To get practical and useful information into your hands without the clutter of a ton of background material, I had to assume several things. If you are reading this book, I hope that you have basic networking skills and a basic understanding of Windows Server operating systems, and that Windows Server is already installed on your systems. With this in mind, I dont devote entire chapters to understanding Windows Server architecture, installing Windows Server, or Windows networking. I do, however, provide complete details on the components of Active Directory networks and how you can use these components. I cover installing domain controllers, configuring Active Directory sites, and much more.

Making this book easy to follow and understand was my number one goal! I really want anyone, skill level or work schedule aside, to be able to learn how to effectively manage Active Directory.

To make the book easy to use, Ive divided it into 9 chapters. In Chapters 1 and 2, youll roll up your sleeves and dive right in to the good stuff while also learning how Active Directory works. Chapter 1 provides an overview of tools, techniques, and concepts related to Active Directory. Chapter 2 discusses installing forests, domain trees, and child domains.

Chapter 3 details techniques for deploying writeable domain controllers and the tasks youll need to perform to set up domain controllers. Chapter 4 covers the deployment of read-only domain controllers. Together, these chapters provide the detailed information you need to configure domains and forests, whether you are deploying Active Directory Domain Services for the first time or extending your existing infrastructure.

In addition to their standard roles, domain controllers can also act as global catalog servers and operations masters. Chapter 5 explores techniques for configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting global catalog servers. Chapter 6 examines how you manage operations masters. Chapter 7 describes your work with Active Directory sites, subnets, and replication. Youll learn the essentials for creating sites and associating subnets with sites. Youll also learn advanced techniques for managing site links and replication.

Chapter 8 describes how to manage trusts and authentication. Youll learn how Active Directory authentication works within domains, across domain boundaries, and across forest boundaries. Youll also learn how trusts are used and established. Chapter 9 provides techniques you can use to maintain, monitor, and troubleshoot Active Directory infrastructure. In addition to learning techniques for backing up and recovering Active Directory, youll also learn how to perform essential maintenance tasks and how to configure related options and services, including Windows Time service.

Finally, Appendix A provides a quick reference for command-line utilities youll use when working with Active Directory.

Ive used a variety of elements to help keep the text clear and easy to follow. Youll find code terms and listings in monospace type, except when I tell you to actually enter a command. In that case, the command appears in bold type. When I introduce and define a new term, I put it in italics.

This book also has notes, tips and other sidebar elements that provide additional details on points that need emphasis.

Although some books are offered as all-in-one guides, there's simply no way one book can do it all. This book is intended to be used as a concise and easy-to-use resource. It covers everything you need to perform core tasks for Active Directory, but it is by no means exhaustive.

As you encounter new topics, take the time to practice what you've learned and read about. Seek additional information as necessary to get the practical experience and knowledge that you need.

I truly hope you find that Active Directory Administration: The Personal Trainer for Windows Server 2012 & Windows Server 2012 R2 helps you manage Active Directory successfully and effectively.

Thank you,

William R. Stanek

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Chapter 1. Active Directory Essentials

Whether you are a skilled administrator who has worked with Windows networks for years or a novice with a basic understanding, your long-term success in the ever-changing technology landscape increasingly depends on how well you understand Active Directory. Active Directory is an extensible directory service that enables centralized management of network resources. It allows you to easily add, remove, or relocate accounts for users, groups, and computers as well as other types of resources. Nearly every administrative task you perform affects Active Directory in some way. Active Directory is based on standard Internet protocols and has a design that helps you clearly identify the physical and logical components of your networks structure.