Thecus Technology N3200PRO manual Appendix D Active Directory Basics, What is Active Directory?

Appendix D: Active Directory Basics

Overview

With Windows 2000, Microsoft introduced Active Directory (ADS), which is a large database/information store. Prior to Active Directory the Windows OS could not store additional information in its domain database. Active Directory also solved the problem of locating resources; which previously relied on Network Neighborhood, and was slow. Managing users and groups were among other issues Active Directory solved.

What is Active Directory?

Active Directory was built as a scalable, extensible directory service that was designed to meet corporate needs. A repository for storing user information, accounts, passwords, printers, computers, network information and other data, Microsoft calls Active Directory a "namespace" where names can be resolved.

ADS Benefits

ADS lets the N3200PRO integrate itself with the existing ADS in an office environment. This means the N3200PRO is able to recognize your office users and passwords on the ADS server. Other major benefits ADS support provides include:

1.Easy integration of the N3200PRO into the existing office IT infrastructure

The N3200PRO acts as a member of the ADS. This feature significantly lowers the overhead of the system administrator. For example, corporate security policies and user privileges on an ADS server can be enforced automatically on the N3200PRO.

2.Centralized user/password database

The N3200PRO does not maintain its own copy of the user/password database. This avoids data inconsistency between the N3200PRO and other servers. For example, without ADS support, an administrator might need to remove a specific user privilege on the N3200PRO and each individual server. With ADS support, the change on an ADS server is known to all of its ADS members.

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