Microsoft Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) is a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory service that provides flexible support for directory-enabled applications, without the dependencies that are required for Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS).
AD LDS Features
Install from Media (IFM) Generation
With this feature, you can use a one-step Ntdsutil.exe or Dsdbutil.exe process to create installation media for subsequent AD LDS installations.
Audit AD LDS changes
With this feature, you can set up AD LDS auditing with a new audit subcategory to log old and new values when changes are made to objects and their attributes.
Data Mounting Tool
With this feature, you can view directory data that is stored online in snapshots that are taken at different points in time to better decide which data to restore, without having to restart the server.
Support for Active Directory Sites and Services
With this feature, you can use the Active Directory Sites and Services snap-in to manage replication among AD LDS instances. To use this tool, you must import the classes in MS-ADLDS-DisplaySpecifiers.LDF to extend the schema of a configuration set that you want to manage. To connect to an AD LDS instance that hosts your configuration set, specify the computer name and the port number of a server that hosts this AD LDS instance.
Dynamic list of LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) files during instance setup
With this feature, you can make custom LDIF files available during AD LDS instance setup—in addition to the default LDIF files that are provided with AD LDS—by adding the files to the %systemroot%\ADAM directory.
Recursive linked-attribute queries
With this feature, you can create a single LDAP query that can follow nested attribute links. This can be very useful in determining group membership and ancestry.
