What is a Domain Controller?
Microsoft Windows OS for PCs
• MS-DOS - Microsoft Disk Operating System (1981)
• Windows 1.0 – 2.0 (1985 – 1992)
• Windows 3.0 – 3.1 (1990 – 1994)
• Windows 95 (1995)
• Windows 98 (1998)
• Windows ME (September 2000)
• Windows 2000 (February 2000)
• Windows XP (2001)
• Windows Vista (2006)
• Windows 7 (2009)
• Windows 8 (2012)
• Windows 10 (2015)
• Windows 11 (2020)
Peer-to-Peer Networking
• Peer-to-Peer Networking
– Two or more computers are connected through a network and can
share resources without having a server.
– every connected end device, called a peer, can function either as a
client or server.
– information can be located anywhere on any connected device
(decentralized resources).
– user accounts are set on each
peer device.
– difficult to enforce security and
access policies.
The Client-Server Networking
• The device requesting the information is called a client
Client starts data transfers
• The device responding to the request is called a server.
Servers provided services to clients.
• Files can be download from the server to client. Files can also
be upload from client to the server.
Microsoft Windows OS for Servers
• MS-DOS - Microsoft Disk Operating System (1981)
• Windows 1.0 – 2.0 (1985 – 1992)
• Windows 3.0 – 3.1 (1990 – 1994)
• Windows 95 (1995) Windows NT 4.0 (1996)
• Windows 98 (1998)
• Windows ME (September 2000)
• Windows 2000 (February 2000) ------------Windows 2000 (2000)
• Windows XP (2001) Windows Server 2003 (2003)
• Windows Server 2003R2 (2005)
• Windows Vista (2006) Windows Server 2008 (2008)
• Windows 7 (2009) Windows Server 2008R2 (2009)
• Windows 8 (2012) Windows Server 2012 (2012)
• Windows 8.1 (2013) Windows Server 2012R (2013)
• Windows 10 (2015) Windows Server 2016 (2016)
• Windows 11 (2020) Windows Server 2019 (2019)
Domain Controller?
Domain Controller
• Domain Computer:
– Domain Name
– User Name
– Time Stamp encrypted by password
– Return Access Token back to workstation
– Workstation uses the Access Token to download the files in the
shared folder
Domain-joined Computer
• Domain-Joined computer
If a computer (server or workstation) has been
joined into a Domain, the computer is called
domain-joined computer:
domain-joined workstation
domain-joined server or member server
• None domain-Joined computer is called stand alone
computer
stand alone server
MICROSOFT
WINDOWS SERVER 2003
DOMAIN AND DOMAIN CONTROLLER
• Domain
A domain is a security boundary for access to
resources such as computers, printers, servers,
applications, and file systems.
• Domain Controller (DC)
A domain controller is a server that stores user’s
information (database file).
When a user logs on through the network, the
domain controller decides whether give the user’s
access to the resources or not.
MICROSOFT
WINDOWS SERVER 2008
Active Directory Components
• Domains – A logical unit of computers and network
resources that defines a security boundary.
• Domain trees – One or more domains with
contiguous name space.
• Forests – One or more domain trees, with each tree
having its own unique name space. (defines a trust
boundary).
MICROSOFT
WINDOWS SERVER 2012
Domains
• A domain is the fundamental component of the
Active Directory architecture.
• Domain function by default as the boundary of
administration, access control, database
management, and replication.
Forests
• An Active Directory forest consists of one or more
separate domain trees, which have the same two-
way trust relationships between them as two
domains in the same tree.
• Forests defines the security boundary or trust
boundary.
• When you create the first domain on an Active
Directory network, you are creating a new forest,
and that first domain becomes the forest root
domain.
MICROSOFT
WINDOWS SERVER 2016
Understanding Active Directory
• Domains: Administrative boundaries for
users and computers that are stored in a
common directory database.
• Domain trees: Collections of domains that
are grouped together in hierarchical
structures and that share a common root
domain.
• Forests: Collections of domain trees that
share a common AD DS (Active Directory
Domain Services).
