Installing Active Directory

Summary

In this first chapter, we talked about the process of planning and performing an installation of the Active Directory directory service. Before you can install a new domain controller, you first need to have a good understanding of the overall structure of Active Directory, including how it logically organizes your network resources into forests, domain trees, and domains. This logical design is separate from the physical components of AD such as sites and subnets, which allows you to design your AD network to meet your business needs, rather than being tied into any limitations created by network connectivity or bandwidth. We also looked at ways to automate the Active Directory installation process by using answer files and scripts.

Now that we’ve seen how to implement the logical components of Active Directory, Chapter 2 will cover the network infrastructure that’s necessary to allow AD to function. The majority of our focus will be on the Domain Naming System (DNS), but we’ll also look at using DHCP for automated IP addressing for your Windows clients, and using WINS to provide NetBIOS name resolution.