Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Administrators Companion

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Now that we have covered the basics of the Windows 2000 family, let's focus on Windows 2000 features. These features can be divided into several categories: reliability, security, ease of use, system administration, mobile computing, performance and scalability, Internet access, and, finally, Active Directory.

Reliability

Windows 2000 incorporates many new features to increase the reliability of your system. Let's look at a few of these key features:

Security

Today's computing environments have differing security requirements. Windows 2000 allows you to customize the level of security to meet your needs. The following features assist you in securing both your computer and network access:

Ease of Use

Some of the most important features of Windows 2000 are its ease-of-use features. Without these features, Windows 2000's myriad and complex functions would be extremely difficult to use. The operating system incorporates many new features that make it one of the most easy-to-use operating systems. Some of these features are listed here:

System Administration and Deployment

The Windows 2000 operating system family offers several features that enhance administration and deployment. These features aid in large-scale rollouts of the operating systems as well as in ongoing administration and maintenance. These features include the following:

The Mobile Experience

Windows 2000 Professional was designed from the beginning to assist the notebook computer user and encourage notebook computing. Although the other Windows 2000 family members will run on a notebook system, they do not include the power management and offline features of Windows 2000 Professional. Several features were incorporated into Windows 2000 Professional that make it the desired mobile computing operating system.

Figure 2-9. The Power Options Properties window.

Performance

Operating system performance is a critical plank in the Windows 2000 platform. Extensive performance testing was done at both the operating system level and the SQL Server level. Several features are included in Windows 2000 to address performance:

Internet Access

Internet support is another key component of the Windows 2000 operating system family. Internet technologies were designed as core components of the operating system to ensure high levels of integration and performance. Some of the Internet features of Windows 2000 are listed here:

Active Directory

Active Directory, a new feature in Windows 2000 Server, is the core management component for data and resources on a Windows 2000 network. This section provides an overview of Active Directory technology.

Active Directory Architecture

Active Directory is a place to store information about all network-based entities, such as applications, files, printers, and people. Active Directory provides a consistent method to describe any entity on a network, no matter how diverse the entities are. You can think of Active Directory as the main switchboard. It is a central authority that manages all the relationships among the distributed resources of a network. Active Directory contains management tools as well as security tools to maintain complete integrity and privacy of a network.

Active Directory is both a management tool and a user tool. Active Directory provides consistent user interaction with and access to the diverse and widespread resources of a network. The user no longer has to be concerned with determining a network resource location or name. With Active Directory, resources are "advertised" to those users who have been granted access. This advertisement is done via the Add/Remove Programs Wizard or the Add/Remove Printers Wizard.

Active Directory provides system administrators with a consistent set of components and controls to manage network resources. Active Directory simplifies management issues that characterize large, diverse networks; strengthens overall system security; and extends the interoperability of a network.

Active Directory provides a single point of management for all Windows-based user accounts, client systems, server systems, and applications. It also aids in organizing and integrating non-Windows systems. Active Directory allows organizations to further extend their systems to the Internet in a highly secure manner.

Active Directory is based on a hierarchical structure, which Figure 2-12 illustrates. Objects are used to represent users, groups of users, systems, devices, applications, and other network entities. Objects are kept in containers, which represent organizations, such as the legal department, or collections of related objects, such as printers.

Active Directory also manages the relationships among the various objects and containers. This allows system administrators to view the entire network as a comprehensive entity rather than looking in one place for resources and in another for resource relationships.

Figure 2-12. Active Directory hierarchy.

Each object in the Active Directory structure contains attributes that can describe a wide variety of characteristics. These attributes are secured so that potentially sensitive information can be hidden from everyone except those users or administrators who have a need to know. Each attribute attached to an object can have access rights assigned to it. In addition, a global access setting can be set for an object.

To maintain performance, availability, and flexibility, Active Directory uses multimaster replication. Administrators can create multiple copies of the directory, known as directory replicas, and locate them throughout their network. When a change is made anywhere on the network to any replica of the directory, the change is automatically replicated throughout the network.

Why Use Active Directory

We learned earlier that Active Directory simplifies management, strengthens network security, and eases interoperability. Let's look at each of these benefits in a little more detail.

Simplifies Management Today's networks are often distributed across a large geographical area. Managing these diverse and widespread networks can become a time-consuming process. In addition, as the network becomes geographically larger, administrative functions are often replicated in several locations, leading to redundancy and coordination issues. Active Directory provides a single point of control for managing the diverse resources of a network.

Active Directory also aids in the deployment of applications and other software to user systems. In the past, a technician had to visit each user workstation that required a piece of software. This process was costly and slow. Later, tools were developed to allow application deployment from a central server. Though this technique was better, it lacked the integration into the overall network management process. Active Directory allows system administrators to deploy software within the existing security and management framework, thereby easing the burden of using separate tools for deployment and management.

Active Directory also allows administrators to delegate some administrative functions to a user or an organization, where appropriate. This is a secure delegation process and can allow those "power users" to provide IT skills at a departmental level, thus freeing the IT staff for other duties.

Strengthens Security A critical component of Active Directory is the security services. Active Directory centralizes user authentication and management and enforces a role-based security model. Users and organizations are given roles that have predefined, yet editable, security aspects and rules. Administrators can choose to enable strict security on certain users and resources or to lessen it when appropriate. The security model of Active Directory supports security protocols such as the Kerberos protocol, X.509 certificates, and smart card technology. The security model also provides consistent security whether a user is locally connected to the network or dialed-in via a remote connection.

Extends Interoperability As networks evolved, a diverse collection of resources and technologies evolved along with them. These technologies must work together to maximize the investment in their development and deployment. The current environment of most networks includes a collection of disparate directories for e-mail, applications, network devices, Internet/intranet firewalls, and e-commerce applications. Active Directory addresses this diversity by providing a set of standard interfaces for integrating applications and a set of open synchronization mechanisms to ensure that the Windows operating system components can actively interoperate with a wide variety of non-Windows operating system devices and applications.

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