Techies Box

Back in the days of Windows NT, the roaming profile was all the rage. A user could go to the office and work at his own computer, using the network, e-mail, files, and other resources. If, for some reason, that user has to switch to another workstation temporarily, he logs on to a different computer and Windows downloads the settings for his individual profile; just as if he were sitting at his own computer.

Over the last several parts of this article series, I have talked a lot about the inner workings of the Active Directory. In this article, I want to switch gears and show you what all of this information has to do with running a network.

Windows Server 2003 comes with several different tools used for managing the Active Directory. The Active Directory management tool that you will use most often for day-to-day management tasks is the Active Directory Users and Computers console. As the name implies, this console is used to create, manage, and delete user and computer accounts.

In the previous part of this article series, I explained that the LDAP protocol references objects in the Active Directory by their distinguished name, and that every object in the directory has its own unique distinguished name. In this article, I want to continue the discussion by explaining how distinguished names work.
Before I Begin

In the last few parts of this article series, I talked a lot about what the Active Directory is, and how it works in regards to your network's domain controllers. You already know from the previous articles in this series that the Active Directory is essentially a database containing various objects such as user accounts and computer accounts. In this article, I want to continue the discussion by showing you how the Active Directory is structured.

This article will continue the discussion of FSMO roles by discussing what the various roles do, the consequences of FSMO failures, and how to determine which server is hosting the FSMO roles.
The Importance of FSMO Roles

So far in this article series, I have explained that the Active Directory consists of a forest filled with domain trees, and that the names of each domain indicate its position within the forest. Given the hierarchical nature of the Active Directory, it might be easy to assume that domains near the top of the hierarchy (or rather the domain controllers within those domains) are the most important. This isn't necessarily the case though. In this article, I will discuss the rules that individual domain controllers play within the Active Directory forest.

In the previous article in this series, I introduced you to the concept of domains and domain controllers. In this article, I want to continue the discussion by talking about the anatomy of a Windows domain.

As I explained in Part 5 of this article series, domains are not something new. Microsoft originally introduced them in Windows NT Server. Originally, domains were completely self contained. A single domain often housed all of the user accounts for an entire company, and the domain’s administrator had complete control over the domain and anything in it.

In the previous article in this series, I talked about the roles of various computers on a network. As you may recall, one of the roles that I talked a little bit about was that of a domain controller. In this article, I will talk more about what domain controllers are and how they fit into your network infrastructure.

This article continues the Networking for Beginners series by talking about the differences between workstations and servers.

So far in this article series, I have talked a lot about networking hardware and about the TCP/IP protocol. The networking hardware is used to establish a physical connection between devices, while the TCP/IP protocol is essentially the language that the various devices use to communicate with each other. In this article, I will continue the discussion by talking a little bit about the computers that are connected to a network.

This article continues the Networking for Beginners series by talking about how DNS servers work.

In the last part of this article series, I talked about how all of the computers on a network segment share a common IP address range. I also explained that when a computer needs to access information from a computer on another network or network segment, it’s a router’s job to move the necessary packets of data from the local network to another network (such as the Internet).