As a Windows Server® 2008 administrator, you maintain Active Directory® Domain Services (AD DS) domain controllers. Important tasks include offline defragmentation, NTDSUtil.exe modifications and locking down services.
Configuring AD DS auditing
In any secure environment, actively monitor AD DS as part of the overall security strategy. Auditing identifies successful and unsuccessful attempts to modify Active Directory objects, revealing unauthorised logon attempts to computers or network folders.
Monitoring AD DS using Reliability and Performance Monitor
Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor tracks how applications and services affect performance, creates logs and takes action when user-defined optimal performance thresholds are exceeded.
Monitoring AD DS using Event Viewer
Monitoring server health is an important part of OS maintenance and administration. Event Viewer lets you view, manage and monitor events recorded in event logs.
Web Part Connection – connecting a DataView and a Web Part
Connecting a DataView and Web Part for one list through Web Part Connection is useful, for example, with an employee list.
Configuring security using Group Policy (GPO)
Group Policy applies numerous security settings, including password complexity, folder and registry permissions, authentication protocols and communication encryption.
Configuring the user environment using Group Policy (GPO)
Group Policy can configure many aspects of the user environment in bulk, such as folder redirection, running scripts and deploying corporate software.
Group Policy Reporting and Modeling
Planning new Group Policies or troubleshooting existing ones can be difficult in a complex corporate network and restriction structure. Two tools simplify this work: Group Policy Reporting and Group Policy Modeling and they are available in the administration console Group Policy Management
What is Group Policy?
Group Policy manages permissions and settings in bulk for computers and signed-in users. Collections of settings, called Group Policy Objects (GPOs), change specific computer or user behaviours. Linking GPOs to organisational units (OUs) in AD applies them only to selected computers or users. Changing one GPO can therefore manage potentially thousands of computers or users.
AD DS sites and their connections (Sites and Site Links)
AD sites and site links define the physical network structure, allowing replication to reflect connection speeds where DCs are located. Sites and subnets also let workstations determine their current location and nearest DC. For example, a computer moved from New York to Czech Republic can detect from its assigned IP address that it is in a different subnet, belonging to another site with different DCs.