- Active Directory
- In Microsoft Windows 2000, a system for large-scale network management that views the network as a hierarchy of objects. Active Directory does the following:• Provides a hierarchy for the management of all network objects, including users, servers, services, file shares, Web pages, printers, and so on.• Divides administration and security into subdomains, domains, and trees of domains.Scales to 10 million users per domain.• ImplementsMIT's Kerberos authentication system based on private key encryption and also supports public key encryption for authentication of clients and business partners.Emulates Windows NT 4.x directory services for backward compatibility. Uses DNS rather than WINS, and requires all user and host names to be in DNS form.Uses LDAP rather than a proprietary protocol so that non-Microsoft applications can query the name database.Interoperates with Novell NetWare Directory Services.
Dictionary of networking . 2014.