What this book covers

Chapter 1, Optimizing Forests, Domains, and Trusts, discusses how Active Directory for large organizations entails managing many logical aspects of Active Directory. This chapter focuses on the intangible aspects of Active Directory: forests, domains, trusts, schemas, and partitions.

Chapter 2, Managing Domain Controllers, shows how domain controllers represent Active Directory towards devices, applications, and users. 

Chapter 3, Managing Active Directory Roles and Features, details how some domain controllers are created more equal than others. The differences between domain controllers and how to manage them are described in this chapter. 

Chapter 4, Managing Containers and Organizational Units, explains how there is a standard set of containers and OUs that are created during the installation of Active Directory. These are usually confused by Active Directory administrators. This chapter will help administrators understand when and why they need to use OUs instead of containers and how to perform all common tasks.

Chapter 5, Managing Active Directory Sites and Troubleshooting Replication, looks at how a site is a logical means to represent the physical aspects of AD. In this chapter, you will create and manage sites, subnets, and sitelinks. The focus here will also be on identifying, managing, and solving AD replication problems.

Chapter 6, Managing Active Directory Users, looks at Active Directory objects, which are where you manage the organization's resources. With the effective tips and tricks given in this chapter, you will be able to create, delete, and manage users. 

Chapter 7, Managing Active Directory Groups, looks at groups, which are the cornerstone to providing access in Active Directory. With the information in this chapter, you will be able to create, delete, and manage groups and change the scope of a group based on your requirements. 

Chapter 8, Managing Active Directory Computers, discusses how Active Directory computer objects offer single sign-on and a secure channel between devices, domain controllers, and resources. 

Chapter 9, Managing DNS, looks at Domain Name System (DNS), which is important to Active Directory. While not every domain controller is a DNS server, most are. You will learn how to manage DNS.

Chapter 10, Getting the Most Out of Group Policy, looks at Group Policy, which helps to control the settings deployed to the user objects and computers of your Active Directory infrastructure. In this chapter, we will cover recipes to work with Group Policy objects (GPOs) to help bring greater understanding to this topic.  

Chapter 11, Securing Active Directory, discusses how Active Directory plays a critical role in the IT infrastructure and safeguards the security of different network resources in an interconnected environment. In this chapter, we will cover a set of practical techniques that will help administrators protect an enterprise Active Directory environment.

Chapter 12, Managing Certificates, covers certificates. To secure communications between hosts and the internet, certificates can be issued by certification authorities (CAs). In this chapter, you'll learn how to set one up, manage it, and optionally decommission it.

Chapter 13, Managing Federation, looks at federation, which is the way organizations collaborate using open authentication standards. You will learn how to set up, configure, and manage Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) servers and Web Application Proxy servers in this chapter.

Chapter 14, Handling Authentication in a Hybrid World (AD FS, PHS, PTA, and DSSO), shows you how to integrate Active Directory identities with your Azure AD. The information in this chapter will revolve around managing AD FS, PHS, PTA, and DSSO.

Chapter 15, Handling Synchronization in a Hybrid World (Azure AD Connect), explains how synchronization works with Azure AD Connect and how to customize it. It helps you choose the right source anchor attribute and manage the Azure AD Connect service accounts.

Chapter 16, Hardening Azure AD, discusses how many organizations depend on the integrity of the privileged accounts that manage IT systems for the security of business assets. Cyber-attackers focus on Active Directory and Azure AD to gain access to an organization's sensitive data. This chapter will offer expert tips on hardening security with Azure AD.