TABLE OF CONTENTS Windows Server 2003 includes a powerful set of command-line utilities for managing objects in the Active Directory database. These commands are handy for everyday directory database administration. Active Directory stores complete information about all types of objects, or object classes, in the network. These object classes include computers, servers, sites, subnets, users, groups, quotas, and directory partitions. Managing this wide variety of objects from the graphical interface can be a time-consuming job for a common administrator. Although managing Active Directory from the command line isn t necessarily easy, once you learn the basics of the command-line utilities available for managing directory objects, you will find that these utilities can really save you time and effort in the long run. In this chapter, we will introduce you to the Directory Services command-line utilities (also known as DS commands). In the next chapter, you will learn how to use these commands to manage Active Directory objects such as users, groups, and computers.
This chapter provides an overview of the DS commands for managing objects in the Active Directory database. The DS commands included with the Windows Server 2003 operating system are as follows:
DSAdd Used to add new objects to Active Directory.
DSGet Used to display properties of the objects in Active Directory.
DSMod Used to...
