Contains a < domain > container (for example, the abc.com container), which stores users, computers, groups, and other objects for a specific Windows domain (for example, the abc.com domain). Updates to the < domain > container are replicated to only domain controllers within the domain and to Global Catalog servers if the update is made to an attribute that is marked for replication to the Global Catalog. The < domain > container is displayed in the Active Directory Users and Computers console. The hierarchy of domain directory partitions can be viewed in the Active Directory Domains and Trusts console, where trust relationships between domains can be managed.
Active Directory data is logically partitioned so that each domain controller does not store all objects in the directory. Each directory partition, also called a naming context, contains objects of a particular scope and purpose. Below are the three major Active Directory partitions described:-· Schema Partition defines the object classes and their attributes for the entire directory. The configuration is replicated to everydomain controller in the forest.· Domain Partition contains all the objects stored in a domain, including users, groups, computers, and group policy containers (GPCs). This partition information is replicated to all domain controllers within a domain, but not to domain controllers in other domains.· Configuration Partition contains objects that represent the logical struct-er of the forest, domains, as well as the physical topology, including sites, subnets, and services.Application Directory Partition replicates directory partition only to specific domain controllers. This is responsible for generating and maintaining Replication topology. Objects stored in Application directory partition are not replicated to the Global Catalog.
Configuration Contains the Configuration container, which stores configuration objects for the entire forest in cn=configuration,dc= forestRootDomain . Updates to this container are replicated to all domain controllers in the forest. Configuration objects store information about sites, services, and directory partitions. You can view the contents of the Configuration container by using ADSI Edit.Schema Contains the Schema container, which stores class and attribute definitions for all existing and possible Active Directory objects in cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc= forestRootDomain . Updates to this container are replicated to all domain controllers in the forest. You can view the contents of the Schema container in the Active Directory Schema console.Domain Contains a < domain > container (for example, the abc.com container), which stores users, computers, groups, and other objects for a specific Windows 2000 domain (for example, the abc.com domain). Updates to the < domain> container are replicated to only domain controllers within the domain and to Global Catalog servers if the update is made to an attribute that is marked for replication to the Global Catalog. The < domain > container is displayed in the Active Directory Users and Computers console. The hierarchy of domain directory partitions can be viewed in the Active Directory Domains and Trusts console, where trust relationships between domains can be managed.Each directory partition is a contiguous portion of the directory tree, and each one starts at a single point (the directory partition head ) and spreads to either leaf nodes (for the schema and configuration directory partitions) or to the heads of other directory partitions below it (for domain directory partitions). Each directory partition, therefore, has exactly one directory partition immediately above it in the tree (except for a tree root domain directory partition, which has only the rootDSE above it) and possibly more directory partitions immediately below it
Application Directory Partition is a partition space in Active Directory which an application can use to store that application specific data. This partition is then replicated only to some specific domain controllers. The application directory partition can contain any type of data except security principles (users, computers, groups).
1.-schema partition 2.-configuration partition 3.-domain partition 4.-application partition
All databases have a schema which is a formal definition (set of rules) which govern the database structure and types of objects and attributes which can be contained in the database. The schema contains a list of all classes and attributes in the forest.The schema keeps track of:ClassesClass attributesClass relationships such as subclasses (Child classes that inherit attributes from the super class) and super classes (Parent classes).Object relationships such as what objects are contained by other objects or what objects contain other objects.There is a class Schema object for each class in the Active Directory database. For each object attribute in the database, there is an attributeSchema object.PartitionsActive Directory objects are stored in the Directory Information Tree (DIT) which is broken into the following partitions:Schema partition - Defines rules for object creation and modification for all objects in the forest. Replicated to all domain controllers in the forest. Replicated to all domain controllers in the forest, it is known as an enterprise partition.Configuration partition - Information about the forest directory structure is defined including trees, domains, domain trust relationships, and sites (TCP/IP subnet group). Replicated to all domain controllers in the forest, it is known as an enterprise partition.Domain partition - Has complete information about all domain objects (Objects that are part of the domain including OUs, groups, users and others). Replicated only to domain controllers in the same domain. Partial domain directory partition - Has a list of all objects in the directory with a partial list of attributes for each object.The DIT holds a subset of Active Directory information and stores enough information to start and run the Active Directory service
All databases have a schema which is a formal definition (set of rules) which govern the database structure and types of objects and attributes which can be contained in the database. The schema contains a list of all classes and attributes in the forest.The schema keeps track of:ClassesClass attributesClass relationships such as subclasses (Child classes that inherit attributes from the super class) and super classes (Parent classes).Object relationships such as what objects are contained by other objects or what objects contain other objects.There is a class Schema object for each class in the Active Directory database. For each object attribute in the database, there is an attributeSchema object.PartitionsActive Directory objects are stored in the Directory Information Tree (DIT) which is broken into the following partitions:Schema partition - Defines rules for object creation and modification for all objects in the forest. Replicated to all domain controllers in the forest. Replicated to all domain controllers in the forest, it is known as an enterprise partition.Configuration partition - Information about the forest directory structure is defined including trees, domains, domain trust relationships, and sites (TCP/IP subnet group). Replicated to all domain controllers in the forest, it is known as an enterprise partition.Domain partition - Has complete information about all domain objects (Objects that are part of the domain including OUs, groups, users and others). Replicated only to domain controllers in the same domain. Partial domain directory partition - Has a list of all objects in the directory with a partial list of attributes for each object.The DIT holds a subset of Active Directory information and stores enough information to start and run the Active Directory service
All databases have a schema which is a formal definition (set of rules) which govern the database structure and types of objects and attributes which can be contained in the database. The schema contains a list of all classes and attributes in the forest.The schema keeps track of:ClassesClass attributesClass relationships such as subclasses (Child classes that inherit attributes from the super class) and super classes (Parent classes).Object relationships such as what objects are contained by other objects or what objects contain other objects.There is a class Schema object for each class in the Active Directory database. For each object attribute in the database, there is an attributeSchema object.PartitionsActive Directory objects are stored in the Directory Information Tree (DIT) which is broken into the following partitions:Schema partition - Defines rules for object creation and modification for all objects in the forest. Replicated to all domain controllers in the forest. Replicated to all domain controllers in the forest, it is known as an enterprise partition.Configuration partition - Information about the forest directory structure is defined including trees, domains, domain trust relationships, and sites (TCP/IP subnet group). Replicated to all domain controllers in the forest, it is known as an enterprise partition.Domain partition - Has complete information about all domain objects (Objects that are part of the domain including OUs, groups, users and others). Replicated only to domain controllers in the same domain. Partial domain directory partition - Has a list of all objects in the directory with a partial list of attributes for each object.The DIT holds a subset of Active Directory information and stores enough information to start and run the Active Directory service
An application directory partition is a directory partition that is replicated only to specific domain controllers. A domain controller that participates in the replication of a particular application directory partition hosts a replica of that partition. Only domain controllers running Windows Server 2003 can host a replica of an application directory partition. Application directory partitions are usually created by the applications that will use them to store and replicate data. For testing and troubleshooting purposes, members of the Enterprise Admins group can manually create or manage application directory partitions using the Ntdsutil command-line tool. One of the benefits of an application directory partition is that, for redundancy, availability, or fault tolerance, the data in it can be replicated to different domain controllers in a forest
Domain
only one as soon as the first DC is created automatically rest depends on the infrastructure how many DCs one wants to configure as GCs The global catalog contains a complete replica of all objects in Active Directory for its Host domain, and contains a partial replica of all objects in Active Directory for every other domain in the forest. The global catalog is a distributed data repository that contains a searchable, partial representation of every object in every domain in a multidomain Active Directory forest. The global catalog is stored on domain controllers that have been designated as global catalog servers and is distributed through multimaster replication. Searches that are directed to the global catalog are faster because they do not involve referrals to different domain controllers. In addition to configuration and schema directory partition replicas, every domain controller in a Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 forest stores a full, writable replica of a single domain directory partition. Therefore, a domain controller can locate only the objects in its domain. Locating an object in a different domain would require the user or application to provide the domain of the requested object. The global catalog provides the ability to locate objects from any domain without having to know the domain name. A global catalog server is a domain controller that, in addition to its full, writable domain directory partition replica, also stores a partial, read-only replica of all other domain directory partitions in the forest. The additional domain directory partitions are partial because only a limited set of attributes is included for each object. By including only the attributes that are most used for searching, every object in every domain in even the largest forest can be represented in the database of a single global catalog server.
An application directory partition is a directory partition that is replicated only to specific domain controllers. A domain controller that participates in the replication of a particular application directory partition hosts a replica of that partition. Only domain controllers running Windows Server 2003 can host a replica of an application directory partition. Applications and services can use application directory partitions to store application-specific data. Application directory partitions can contain any type of object, except security principals. TAPI is an example of a service that stores its application-specific data in an application directory partition. Application directory partitions are usually created by the applications that will use them to store and replicate data. For testing and troubleshooting purposes, members of the Enterprise Admins group can manually create or manage application directory partitions using the Ntdsutil command-line tool. One of the benefits of an application directory partition is that, for redundancy, availability, or fault tolerance, the data in it can be replicated to different domain controllers in a forest. The data can be replicated to a specific domain controller or any set of domain controllers anywhere in the forest. This differs from a domain directory partition in which data is replicated to all domain controllers in that domain. Storing application data in an application directory partition instead of in a domain directory partition may reduce replication traffic because the application data is only replicated to specific domain controllers. Some applications may use application directory partitions to replicate data only to servers where the data will be locally useful.
global catalog The global catalog contains a complete replica of all objects in Active Directory for its Host domain, and contains a partial replica of all objects in Active Directory for every other domain in the forest. The global catalog is a distributed data repository that contains a searchable, partial representation of every object in every domain in a multidomain Active Directory forest. The global catalog is stored on domain controllers that have been designated as global catalog servers and is distributed through multimaster replication. Searches that are directed to the global catalog are faster because they do not involve referrals to different domain controllers. In addition to configuration and schema directory partition replicas, every domain controller in a Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 forest stores a full, writable replica of a single domain directory partition. Therefore, a domain controller can locate only the objects in its domain. Locating an object in a different domain would require the user or application to provide the domain of the requested object. The global catalog provides the ability to locate objects from any domain without having to know the domain name. A global catalog server is a domain controller that, in addition to its full, writable domain directory partition replica, also stores a partial, read-only replica of all other domain directory partitions in the forest. The additional domain directory partitions are partial because only a limited set of attributes is included for each object. By including only the attributes that are most used for searching, every object in every domain in even the largest forest can be represented in the database of a single global catalog server. schema All databases have a schema which is a formal definition (set of rules) which govern the database structure and types of objects and attributes which can be contained in the database. The schema contains a list of all classes and attributes in the forest. The schema keeps track of: * Classes * Class attributes * Class relationships such as subclasses (Child classes that inherit attributes from the super class) and super classes (Parent classes). * Object relationships such as what objects are contained by other objects or what objects contain other objects. There is a class Schema object for each class in the Active Directory database. For each object attribute in the database, there is an attributeSchema object. Schem Master is A FSMO role held by single DC in forest