The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5) - MS Active Directory, tips, rants, info, resources?

MS Active Directory, tips, rants, info, resources?

Hi all!!

I'm looking for _good_ AD resources (online, links, books) to be able to "grok" Active Directory.

The company I work for has a product that uses / extends AD schema to store configuration and pass it down to client modules, etc. and our previous "resident AD quite-Expert" has gone on to greener pastures, so I've been tasked with fielding all the AD related queries /problems that might arise, etc...

Currently some of our clients are reporting having problems that might be related with replication issues and the like, and I have a strong suspicion that the schema of some of the objects we create might have "odd" or inconsistent attributes. As I have a strong suspicion that just "twiddling bits" to see what happens might be the shortest way to disaster (specially on our client's LIVE production domain), I think that I'd better try and give myself some grounding on the subjetct...

So, what was the route you took to understand Active Directory?

Thanks a lot

Javier Jarava
Sunday, November 2, 2003

If you are just getting started with Active Directory, check out the following Microsoft resources:

Active Directory white papers:
http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/whitepapers/ad.asp

Active Directory SDK Documentation:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/netdir/ad/active_directory.asp

The Active Directory Design white paper is a good reference to keep handy if you have questions about particular aspects. It discusses the schema and includes some information on modifying it.

The SDK docs go into detail on how to modify the schema, how to modify the UI in tools like Active Directory Users and Computers to work with your changes, etc.

Modifying the AD schema is a non-trivial task - don't do it if you don't need to ;)

Mike Treit
Monday, November 3, 2003