Welcome to the world of managing identities! Doesn't it sound fun? As system administrators, system engineers, and infrastructure engineers, we spend a significant amount of time every day managing identities in organizations. These identities can be user accounts, applications, or other resources. Over 15 years, Microsoft Active Directory has maintained its premier position in the market by helping organizations build their identity infrastructures. As a directory service, it stores an organization's identity data in a central repository and allows us to arrange it in a hierarchical organizational structure to satisfy the business' needs.
Over the years, Microsoft has been releasing a new version of Active Directory with new features and enhancements. For the last 12 years, I have worked on thousands of different Active Directory-related projects and answered lots of questions through my blog. For me, it's straightforward: providing a feature-rich product is not enough to maintain a secure, efficient, and reliable identity infrastructure. Just two Christmases ago, I gave a pack of watercolors to my little girl, Selena, as her present. I still remember the excitement in her eyes and how much fun it was trying different colors on a canvas and her Christmas dress. In the end, it was just a bunch of lines and color patches. This Christmas too, I (Santa) gave her a new drawing pad and watercolor pack. Now she knows how to draw different objects and place them nicely on the canvas and make something meaningful. It is practice, creativity, and guidance that have helped her do it. This book is meant to equip you with knowledge using in-depth analysis and best practices in order to use the Microsoft Active Directory service and its components in a secure, efficient way to address modern identity infrastructure requirements.
Even though this book is more for administrators and engineers who have basic knowledge of Active Directory, it is not a bad idea to re-read and refresh your memory about the building blocks of the Microsoft Active Directory service before we dive into advanced topics. In this chapter, you will learn the following:
- Benefits of using Active Directory
- Understanding Active Directory components
- Understanding Active Directory objects
- Active Directory server roles
