Active Directory (AD) is a distributed directory service created by Microsoft. It stores all information and settings for a deployment in a central database. AD allows administrators to assign policies, deploy and update software. AD networks can vary from a small installation with a few computers, users and printers to tens of thousands of users, many different network domains and large server farms spanning many geographical sites.
Active Directory uses a number of standardized protocols to provide a variety of network services, including:
- Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), the industry standard directory access protocol, compatible with many management and query applications. Active Directory supports LDAPv3 and LDAPv2.
- Optional Kerberos-based authentication
- DNS-based naming and other network information
Features include:
- Central location for network administration and security
- Information security and single sign-on for user access to networked resources
- The ability to scale up or down easily
- Standardizing access to application data
- Synchronization of directory updates across servers
