Mastering Active Directory: Administration and Fundamentals

Active Directory, a foundational technology introduced with Windows 2000, remains integral to modern domains, employing key concepts such as users, computers, groups, and organizational units. These elements are as vital today as they were at the inception of Active Directory administration.

Mastering both Active Directory and Group Policy is essential for any IT professional or helpdesk technician, as these skills are universally applied in large organizations with IT support teams. In this comprehensive course on Active Directory and Group Policy, you will learn:

• How to efficiently manage Active Directory user accounts, groups, and organizational units using the Active Directory Users and Computers console.
• Best practices for setting and resetting Active Directory account passwords.
• Utilizing the Active Directory search facility to quickly locate what you need.
• Creating and managing group policies effectively.
• Understanding the importance of local computer policies in relation to group policies.
• Detailed explanations of user password policies.
• How to use Group Policy Preferences and Starter GPOs.
• The mechanics of replication and the role of the SYSVOL folder.

Additionally, this course includes valuable shortcuts and tutorials on command-line utilities that will be beneficial in your IT support career. Knowing the most efficient way to complete a task can often be beneficial, especially if you have a lot to do within a short space of time.

On the DNS part of the course, you’ll find information on Domain Name System (DNS) configuration on Windows Server , topics covered include the following:

* Installation and Configuration of DNS Services – Explanation of how to install DNS with a walkthrough guide

* Creating and managing DNS Zones – Deals with primary, secondary and stub zones

* Creating and managing DNS Records – Covers different types of DNS records

* Explanation of special record types and reverse DNS – i.e. TXT records and PTR records

* Root Zones and Nameservers – Settings dealing with where DNS goes to if it can’t find a resource record

* Load balancing – Balances traffic between multiple servers

* Configuring DNS Scavenging – Deals with clearing old and unused DNS records – use with care!

* Securing DNS in a production environment – Prevents potential DNS based attacks

Ideally, any practice should be done on a test environment, as some configuration changes can have wide-spread impact on your organisation if done incorrectly. As with any changes to a production environment, you should be sure to follow your organisation’s change control processes as appropriate.

Note that this can vary largely from organisation to organisation, because most of them, and especially the larger ones, will have this in place and often you can only get non-emergency changes approved once a week, at least in my experience.

On the WDS part of the course, we’ll be covering how to install and configure Windows Deployment Services, otherwise known as WDS. Topics covered on this course are as follows:

* An overview of Windows Deployment Services and how it can benefit your organisation

* The difference between Active Directory Integrated and Standalone configuration modes

* Setting up and installing Windows Deployment Services

* A detailed overview of the WDS Console itself

* The DISM command and the various subcommands available within DISM.

* Setting up your WDS server to accept incoming connections from client machines

* How to setup a multicast transmission.

Note that there may be some additional steps required for WDS setup, depending on your network environment, such as making sure that there are no speed limitations or other restrictions that can sometimes be an issue with managed switches commonly found on corporate networks.

Also, there may be times where it’s more appropriate to do a manual install rather than rely on automation, this often applies in smaller branch office environments that may not necessarily have enough bandwidth to do this or where it would be quicker to use other deployment methods with the same image, i.e. a USB stick for an office with less than 10 or so computers.

One of the many tools that administrators use on a daily basis is the Windows Command Line (cmd) / Prompt. On the cmd part of this course, you’ll learn the following skills, which are often used in the real world by computer technicians:

* How to create, rename, move and delete files and directories within the Windows operating system using the command line.

* The different types of file systems and how to navigate between directories using the cmd prompt.

* Setting the date and time on your PC using the date, time and tzutil commands

* Managing and formatting disk drives using the Diskpart command

* Shutting down, restarting and logging off your machine

* Viewing and applying group policy information using the Gpupdate and Gpresult commands, which can often be useful when troubleshooting conflicting group policies.

* Creating cmd batch files and some of the most common commands used within them, which can often save time when dealing with repetitive tasks.

* How to access system information contained within the Windows Management Instrumentation database (WMI) information using the WMIC command and sub-commands.

Whilst there are some differences between versions of Windows, a lot of these commands haven’t changed since Windows 2000, meaning that any prior knowledge of this subject, while not essential by any means, would be advantageous at any stage of your IT career.