TABLE OF CONTENTS High availability is a buzzword in today s networking world, and that s because having network services available when users need them is so important to the functioning of the organization. An important part of the administrator s job is ensuring that the Windows Server 2003 network s directory services are highly available, and preventing performance problems and downtime issues that can interrupt users ability to perform their work on the network.
This final chapter deals with how to maintain high availability of your Active Directory services. You ll learn about the Active Directory database, and the importance of system state data to Active Directory availability. We ll discuss fault tolerance plans as well as Active Directory performance issues. You ll find out how to perform necessary maintenance tasks, such as defragging the database, and you ll learn how to monitor or move the database.
Next, we ll address backup and restoration of the Active Directory, and show you the different restoration methods that you can use and when each is appropriate. We ll walk you through the steps of performing both an authoritative and a normal restore. Finally, you ll learn how to troubleshoot Active Directory availability problems.
In this section, we look at the core components of the Windows Server 2003 Active Directory service. First, we discuss the structure and type of database, including its files and related components. You ll also learn how updates are written to the Active Directory database, and how it recovers in the event of a failure during the...
