The course approaches Active Directory as an implementation of LDAP the emphasis being on understanding how is organized rather that what it does. Students will learn/review the theory and organization of the LDAP hierarchy or Object Tree Structure covering the Data Information Tree (DIT), objectClasses and attributes. LDAP Interchange Files (LDIF), LDAP security, STRUCTURAL, AUXILIARY and ABSTRACT Object Classes, Schemas, ASN.1 notation, matching rules, indexing and searching are all covered in detail. Students will then learn the scope, organization and functionality of the Active Directory implementation including forest and domain organization, the role of catalog servers and group policy objects. As part of the couse studenst will extend AD with new OUs and other objectClasses. A platform independent LDAP browser, together with Microsoft tools, is used throughout the course to examine and extend the Windows Active Directory LDAP implementation.

Microsoft's Active Directory (AD) is an implementation of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) used to centrally maintain and manage a Windows environnment. Active Directory was introduced with Windows 2000 Server as an optional feature but since the advent of Server 2003 AD is now a mandatory part of a Windows installation to manage forests, domains and networked computers. AD's function is widely mis-understood. It is an entirely passive component, like all LDAP implementations, being merely a repository and access method for disparate data. The confusion arises primarily because Microsoft's applications, network and systems management functions read, and cache, all their data from AD. Microsoft's Active Directory is but one of a number of enterprise wide solutions using LDAP to glue together disparate data.

LDAP Training Audience: