This course will transition you from working on a single computer to an entire fleet. Systems administration is the field of IT that’s responsible for maintaining reliable computers systems in a multi-user environment. In this course, you’ll learn about the infrastructure services that keep all organizations, big and small, up and running. We’ll deep dive on cloud so that you’ll understand everything from typical cloud infrastructure setups to how to manage cloud resources. You'll also learn how to manage and configure servers and how to use industry tools to manage computers, user information, and user productivity. Finally, you’ll learn how to recover your organization’s IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster. By the end of this course you’ll be able to: ● utilize best practices for choosing hardware, vendors, and services for your organization ● understand how the most common infrastructure services that keep an organization running work, and how to manage infrastructure servers ● understand how to make the most of the cloud for your organization ● manage an organization’s computers and users using the directory services, Active Directory, and OpenLDAP ● choose and manage the tools that your organization will use ● backup your organization’s data and know how to recover your IT infrastructure in the case of a disaster ● utilize systems administration knowledge to plan and improve processes for IT environments
Directory Server provides a central repository for storing and managing information. Almost any kind of information can be stored, from identity profiles and access privileges to information about application and network resources, printers, network devices and manufactured parts.
In computing, a directory service or name service maps the names of network resources to their respective network addresses. … A directory server or name server is a server which provides such a service. Each resource on the network is considered an object by the directory server.
What does a directory server provide? a lookup service for an organization; A directory service allows members of an organization to lookup information about the organization, like network resources and their addresses.
Relying on Active Directory® directory services, Centralized Management provides a powerful and cost-effective method for managing policies for users and servers. It also enables the extension of access permissions to external reseller and customer users, all while enforcing strict security standards.
The Active Directory structure is comprised of three main components: domains, trees, and forests. Several objects, like users or devices that use the same AD database, can be grouped into a single domain. Domains have a domain name system (DNS) structure.
Types of Directory Services
- LDAP — Stores user and group information in an LDAP-based directory server.
- Key File — A text file that contains the user’s password in a hashed format, and the list of groups to which the user belongs. …
- Digest File — Stores user and group information based on encrypted username and password.
The key components include domain, tree, forest, organizational unit, and site. As you read through each structural component description, consider that domains, trees, forest, and sites are not only integral with Active Directory but also integral with DNS.
Advantages and Benefits of Active Directory
Centralized resources and security administration. Single logon for access to global resources. Simplified resource location.
Active Directory (AD) is a Microsoft technology used to manage computers and other devices on a network. … The Active Directory structure includes three main tiers: 1) domains, 2) trees, and 3) forests. Several objects (users or devices) that all use the same database may be grouped into a single domain.
It is a database and set of services developed to help you with access, management, and permissions for your network resources. The organizational data is stored as an object in the Active Directory, and it can be in the form of devices, files, users, applications, groups, or shared folders.
Active Directory domains can be identified using a DNS name, which can be the same as an organization’s public domain name, a sub-domain or an alternate version (which may end in . local).
AD has three main tiers: domains, trees and forests. A domain is a group of related users, computers and other AD objects, such as all the AD objects for your company’s head office. Multiple domains can be combined into a tree, and multiple trees can be grouped into a forest.
An organizational unit (OU) is a container used to organize objects within a domain into logical administrative groups, and an OU can contain objects such as user accounts, groups, computers, printers, applications, file shares, and other OUs.
There are two types of groups in Active Directory: Distribution groups Used to create email distribution lists. Security groups Used to assign permissions to shared resources.
Active Directory stores information about objects on the network and makes this information easy for administrators and users to find and use. Active Directory uses a structured data store as the basis for a logical, hierarchical organization of directory information.
Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is a server role in Active Directory that allows admins to manage and store information about resources from a network, as well as application data, in a distributed database.
Active Directory networks are organized using four types of divisions or container structures. These four divisions are forests, domains, organizational units and sites.
A forest is a logical construct used by Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) to group one or more domains. The domains then store objects for user or groups, and provide authentication services. In an Azure AD DS managed domain, the forest only contains one domain.
There are three group scopes in active directory: universal, global, and domain local.