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Systems & Data Center · Foundational

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)

Microsoft's on-premises directory service that stores users, computers and groups and provides authentication and policy for Windows domains.

Definition

AD DS runs on domain controllers and organizes objects into domains, trees and forests, using Kerberos and NTLM for authentication, LDAP for queries and multi-master replication. It is installed as a Windows Server role and promoted with Install-ADDSForest or Install-ADDSDomainController.

Example

Install-WindowsFeature AD-Domain-Services -IncludeManagementTools adds the role before promotion.

Exam tip

Do not confuse AD DS (on-premises, Kerberos/LDAP) with Microsoft Entra ID (cloud identity, formerly Azure AD).

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