Active Directory Design

The Active Directory is Microsoft's replacement for the old Windows NT4 Security Account Management (SAM) Database. It provides centralised storage for the authorised user and computer information on the network.

The great power of Active Directory is due to its' scalability, fault tolerance and speed. However, it is fundamental to the correct operation of the network that the Active Directory design matches the business and network infrastructure requirements of the organisation.

The Active Directory operates in two different modes: mixed and native. When the Active Directory is first installed on to a Windows 2000 or 2003 Server the Active Directory is operating in mixed mode, this mode is backwards compatible with the NT4 Backup Domain Controller (BDC) servers that were providing fault tolerance and load balancing for the SAM Database. Now that Windows NT4 is nearing the end of its' supported life networks should be upgraded to the newer version of Windows server.

Therefore, to gain the full benefits of Active Directory all the Domain Controllers must be Windows 2000 or 2003 servers and the Active Directory should be changed to native mode: this is a one-time irreversible action.

In summary, the deployment of Active Directory is the best way to manage your Microsoft Windows network, even for NT4 and Windows 98 machines. However, the power of Active Directory relies upon the underlying complexity and to fully benefit from its' deployment a planning and design process should be completed before rolling out the network upgrade.

We offer a complete range of Active Directory Design services, progressing through a sequence of key stages:

• business requirements analysis
• network infrastructure analysis
• TCP/IP planning
• DNS namespace planning
• Active Directory fault tolerance analysis

For more information please complete an information request form and one of our team will contact you to discuss your requirements