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Mastering Active Directory

By : Dishan Francis

4.4 (10)

Mastering Active Directory

4.4 (10)

By: Dishan Francis

Overview of this book

Active Directory is a centralized and standardized system that automates networked management of user data, security, and distributed resources and enables interoperation with other directories. If you are aware of Active Directory basics and want to gain expertise in it, this book is perfect for you. We will quickly go through the architecture and fundamentals of Active Directory and then dive deep into the core components, such as forests, domains, sites, trust relationships, OU, objects, attributes, DNS, and replication. We will then move on to AD schemas, global catalogs, LDAP, RODC, RMS, certificate authorities, group policies, and security best practices, which will help you gain a better understanding of objects and components and how they can be used effectively. We will also cover AD Domain Services and Federation Services for Windows Server 2016 and all their new features. Last but not least, you will learn how to manage your identity infrastructure for a hybrid-cloud setup. All this will help you design, plan, deploy, manage operations on, and troubleshoot your enterprise identity infrastructure in a secure, effective manner. Furthermore, I will guide you through automating administrative tasks using PowerShell cmdlets. Toward the end of the book, we will cover best practices and troubleshooting techniques that can be used to improve security and performance in an identity infrastructure.

Preface

Preface

Why subscribe?

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

Active Directory Fundamentals

Active Directory Fundamentals

Benefits of using Active Directory

Active Directory components

Active Directory objects

Active Directory server roles

Summary

Active Directory Domain Services 2016

Active Directory Domain Services 2016

AD DS 2016 features

Privileged Access Management

Time-based group memberships

Microsoft Passport

Active Directory Federation Services improvements

Time sync improvements

Summary

Designing Active Directory Infrastructure

Designing Active Directory Infrastructure

What makes a good system?

Gathering business data

Designing the forest structure

Designing the domain structure

Designing the OU structure

Designing the physical topology of Active Directory

Global catalog server placement

Summary

Active Directory Domain Name System

Active Directory Domain Name System

What is DNS?

Hierarchical naming structure

How DNS works

DNS essentials

Summary

Placing Operations Master Roles

Placing Operations Master Roles

FSMO roles

FSMO roles placement

Moving FSMO roles

Seize FSMO roles

Summary

Migrating to Active Directory 2016

Migrating to Active Directory 2016

Active Directory Domain Service installation prerequisites

Active Directory Domain Service deployment scenarios

How to plan Active Directory migrations

Summary

Managing Active Directory Objects

Managing Active Directory Objects

Tools and methods to manage objects

Creating, modifying, and removing objects in Active Directory

Finding objects in Active Directory

Summary

Managing Users, Groups, and Devices

Managing Users, Groups, and Devices

Object attributes

User accounts

Groups

Devices and other objects

Best practices

Summary

Designing the OU Structure

Designing the OU Structure

OUs in operations

OU design models

Managing the OU structure

Summary

Managing Group Policies

Managing Group Policies

Benefits of group policies

Group Policy capabilities

Group Policy objects

Group Policy processing

Group Policy inheritance

Group Policy conflicts

Group Policy mapping and status

Group Policy filtering

Group Policy preferences

Item-level targeting

Loopback processing

Group Policy best practices

Summary

Active Directory Services

Active Directory Services

The AD LDS overview

The Active Directory replication

Active Directory sites and replication

Sites

Managing Active Directory sites and other components

How does replication work?

The read-only domain controllers

Active Directory database maintenance

Active Directory backup and recovery

Summary

Active Directory Certificate Services

Active Directory Certificate Services

PKI in action

Planning PKI

PKI deployment models

Setting up PKI

Summary

Active Directory Federation Services

Active Directory Federation Services

How does AD FS work?

AD FS components

AD FS deployment topologies

AD FS deployment

Integrating with Azure MFA

Summary

Active Directory Rights Management Services

Active Directory Rights Management Services

What is AD RMS?

AD RMS components

How does AD RMS work?

AD RMS deployment

AD RMS configuration

Summary

Active Directory Security Best Practices

Active Directory Security Best Practices

Active Directory authentication

Delegating permissions

Fine-grained password policies

Pass-the-hash attacks

Just-in-time administration and just enough administration

Summary

Advanced AD Management with PowerShell

Advanced AD Management with PowerShell

AD management with PowerShell – preparation

Azure Active Directory Hybrid Setup

Azure Active Directory Hybrid Setup

What is Azure AD?

Integrate Azure AD with on-premises AD

Step-by-step guide to integrate on-premises AD environment with Azure AD

Manage Azure AD Domain Services using virtual server

Summary

Active Directory Audit and Monitoring

Active Directory Audit and Monitoring

Auditing and monitoring Active Directory using inbuilt Windows tools and techniques

Active Directory audit

Demonstration

Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics

Demonstration

Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS)

Demonstration

Summary

Active Directory Troubleshooting

Active Directory Troubleshooting

How to troubleshoot AD DS replication issues

Troubleshooting replication issues

DFS replication issues

How to troubleshoot Group Policy issues

How to troubleshoot AD DS database-related issues

Summary

Customer Reviews

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DFS replication issues

After Windows Server 2003, FRS is not used for SYSVOL replication. It is being replaced by DFS. But if you are upgrading AD DS from an older version, it will be still in use and migration from FRS to DFS is required. We have covered this in Chapter 11, Active Directory Services.

The SYSVOL folder in a DC includes the domain's public files such as Group Policy files, batch files, login scripts, and so on. Healthy replication of SYSVOL is required to maintain a functional AD environment. When there are SYSVOL replication issues, you may experience issues such as:

Group Policies are applied partially or not applied at all
Group Policies are being applied to part of the target object group
Login scripts are not running

We also can see the following events in the event viewer under the ;DFS Replication log and System log files:

Event ID

Event description...

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