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Active Directory 2008 features

By mail2spi2014 | January 30, 2010 0 Comment

Whats new in windows 2008 Active Directory

As an Active Directory administrator very curies about the

windows 2008 features compare to the earlier version like
windows 2003, Windows 2008 comes with the whole
bunch of features, and am going to discuss speci c about
the features of Active Directory server roles in Windows
2008

For Active Directory 2012 features

First I will list the features of windows 2008 Active

directory and will discuss in detail of each in my upcoming
article

Auditing

Now you can know the previous and present values for the changed attributes of the active directory object using the
new auditing feature in windows 2008, as per the windows 2003 auditing you will only know the present values of the
changed attribute

This is very useful features in windows 2008 since you can revert back the changes using the previous value of the
attribute

Fine-Grained Passwords

By default in windows 2003 all the user account in the domain should use the same password policy con gured in
domain level, thats why we called domain is a security boundary, if you require a di erent password policy then you
have to create new domain

In windows 2008 password policy can be con gured for speci c group of peoples with in the domain

Read-Only Domain Controller

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Every one know about the BDC (backup domain controller) and it’s a same as the BDC but it only take the advantages
from the BDC and it’s speci cally designed for the today’s requirements like branch o ce setup and to managing the
branch o ce

We all know how di cult to design and manage the domain controller from the branch o ce, some time it lead to the
lingering object, but using the Read-Only Domain Controller
In the branch o ce where the physical security of the domain controller is in question, or domain controllers that host
additional roles, requiring other users to log on and maintain the server

In any Active Directory environment if one Domain Controller not replicated with the partner Domain Controller more
then one month, then it’s a very critical issue you have to rectify the replication problem as soon as possible or the
Domain Controller needs to be decommissioned with in the tombstone lifetime, since its read-only domain controller
no worries about the tombstone time.

Restartable Active Directory Domain Services

Hey good new, now no need to restart the domain controller for every time for the active directory maintenance.

In windows 2008 active directory is a services, you can stop or restart the services for maintenance without restarting
the domain controller and restarting it in Directory Services Restore Mode is not required for most maintenance
functions, however still some maintenance function require Directory Services Restore Mode

Database Mounting Tool

Active Directory Database mounting tool in Windows Server 2008 to create and view snapshots of data that is stored
in Active Directory Domain Services, and no need to restart the domain controller. A snapshot is a shadow copy
created by the Volume Shadow Copy Service, at di erent times so that you can better choose which data to restore
after object deletion. This reduces the administrator time and no need to restore multiple backups to compare the
Active Directory data.

Active Directory Database mounting tool can be called Snapshot Viewer, Snapshot Browser, and Active Directory data
mining tool.

Active Directory Recycle Bin

You can restore the accidentally deleted Active Directory object, without Active Directory authoritative restore, this
can be used for single object restore like a accidental deletion of user or OU and you can reduce the domain controller
downtime

Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell

PowerShell available on windows 2003 itself, however it’s not fully supported for Active Directory, you can’t manage
the Active Directive using the PowerShell in windows 2003

In windows 2008 Windows PowerShell provides command-line scripting for administrative, con guration, and
diagnostic tasks

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You can manage the Active Directory with Exchange Server, Group Policy, and other services and it’s very easy to use
like a windows commands, you can easily pipe cmdlets to build complex operations

Active Directory Administrative Center

It’s new tool in windows 2008 R2 to manage active directory, we already have active directory users and computer to
manage the active directory, using this new tool you can manage active directory in a new way

As an administrator you perform most of the task commonly that is daily, some how it’s hard to open an active
directory user and computer and nd the object and do the task, in this new tool Active Directory Administrative
Center it’s very easy to do a common task like password reset and search the Active Directory object and others

Active Directory Best Practices Analyzer

This can be helped to identify and implement the best practices in the con guration of your active directory
environment, this will scan your network and nd the best practice violations,
Then you can correct that, to get the best out of Active Directory services in windows 2008.

Active Directory Web Services

Active Directory Web Services is give you the Web service interface to Active Directory domains and AD LDS instances
(Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services)

Active Directory Database Mounting Tool uses the Active Directory Web Services as a front end, like that Windows
PowerShell and Active Directory Administrative Center is used the Active Directory Web Services to access the
directory service instances.

O ine domain join

O ine domain join makes to join a member server to the domain even the domain controller not reachable from the
member server

And this can be very useful for bulk deployment, when the system starts, it will automatically joined to the domain,
this will reduce the administrative e ort

Managed Service Accounts

Normally applications and services uses the Local Service and Network Service and Local System accounts, it’s easy to
con gure and shared among multiple applications and services and cannot be managed on a domain level

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You can use the domain account for the application (services), this can isolate the privileges for the application, but it’s
very hard to manage these domain accounts like password management

We have two new types of accounts, Managed service accounts and virtual accounts in windows 2008, now you can
easily manage the service principal names (SPNs), it will provide Automatic password management

Active Directory Management Pack

You can monitor the Active Directory service on windows 2008 using the Active Directory Management Pack (MOM,
SCOM)

Designed speci cally to monitor the performance and availability of Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), also
monitors the overall health of AD DS and alerts you to critical performance issues.

Am sure you also amused about the features of windows 2008 and I would like to explain in details of each of this
features in my up-coming article and your feedbacks are welcome

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Category: AD Windows Server 2008

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