Active Directory- WTF?

[eSDee]

So I just moved a group here from a crappy Exchange 5.5 server to a new Exchange 2k server that our University is providing. There is big hype over Active Directory services that it uses. Can anyone give me a quick summary of what the heck Active Directory does, and why it's supposedly so cool?

Thanks in advance.

[Tommy Boomfiger]

AD centralizes managing networks. it puts most of the tools you need to administer accounts, permissions and servers in one place.

[eSDee]

Thanks Tommy for the summary. Do you administer the accounts via an Outlook client or is there some other way to do so? I was told something about installing an "Admin pack". Is this an addition to Outlook?

[Tommy Boomfiger]

sorry esdee, ive never worked with outlook or exchange. im guessing that you will be able to manage accounts from active directory users and computers unless exchange guves you some exchange specific tools to use

[Jeffbx]

AD is essentially a big LDAP database used to manage users, machines and resources in a heirarchical manner. It's actually a LOT bigger than just Exchange - it replaces just about every administration tool in NT4.

The good news is that it's actually based on Exchange's version of LDAP, so the admin interface is very similar to the old Exchange admin interface.

As far as administering users, you want to install the administraive client (or the console plug-in) from the Exchange CD.

[nhbilly]

www.labmice.net

http://www.labmice.net/ActiveDirectory/default.htm

all you ever wanna know about AD

[eSDee]

TommyB- Thanks brutha you always have something good to say. Much appreciated.

JeffBx- Thanks for the nice summary and the linkage. I am working slowly but surely towards figuring this crap out.

nhbilly- Dude, that's a killer link! Tons of info, and one I will definitely bookmark. Thank you very much.