Related Chapters:

• Chapter 4: Attacking and Defending Windows XP Professional

• Chapter 5: Attacking and Defending Windows 2000

• Chapter 8: Attacking and Securing DNS

• Chapter 16: Network Architecture

• Chapter 17: Architecting the Human Factor

Introduction

In November 1996, Microsoft delivered the first preview of Active Directory for developers at the Professional Developers Conference held in Long Beach, California. At the time, it was just the directory service that was shipped with Windows NT 5.0, and the preview included many other Windows NT 5.0 features. A lot of changes have taken place since then. For one, Windows NT 5.0 was renamed Windows 2000, and it was released to the public officially in February 2000, four years after its original preview to developers.

The change of the name from Windows NT 5.0 to Windows 2000 was a surface change only. Windows 2000 inherits the NT technology legacy from previous versions. It has been established as the basic network operating system for Microsoft's .NET platform. All .NET services run on Windows 2000 Server. Applications developed with the .NET Framework also require servers to be running Windows 2000. The directory service used by .NET applications is Active Directory.

It should come as no surprise, given the amount of time and care Microsoft has put into developing its directory services for Windows 2000, that the developers paid a great deal of attention to making Active Directory a feature-rich service that would be able to compete with other established directory services in the marketplace. After extensive study...