Microsoft Active Directory training

Lesson 1 • Active Directory Objects and Schema

Introduces objects, attributes, and the schema as the blueprint for all AD data. Prepares students to work with users, groups, and computers in later chapters.

Lesson 2 • Physical Structure of Active Directory

Covers sites, site links, and domain controllers as physical AD components. Connects physical design to replication and authentication performance.

Lesson 3 • Logical Structure of Active Directory

Explains forests, trees, domains, and organizational units as logical containers. Students map these structures to real enterprise scenarios.

Lesson 4 • What Is a Directory Service

Defines directory services and their purpose in centralized identity management. Establishes the conceptual baseline for all subsequent AD topics.

Lesson 1 • Promoting a Server to Domain Controller

Guides students through the dcpromo-equivalent wizard and PowerShell promotion. Covers new forest, new domain, and additional DC scenarios.

Lesson 2 • Planning an AD Deployment

Covers hardware, OS, and DNS prerequisites before any installation begins. Proper planning prevents common post-deployment issues covered later.

Lesson 3 • Post-Installation Configuration Tasks

Covers time synchronisation, UPN suffixes, and initial site configuration after promotion. These tasks ensure a stable, production-ready domain controller.

Lesson 4 • Installing AD Domain Services Role

Walks through adding the AD DS role via Server Manager and PowerShell. Students perform the installation in a lab environment for hands-on reinforcement.

Lesson 1 • Group Types and Scopes

Distinguishes security groups from distribution groups and explains domain local, global, and universal scopes. Correct group design is essential for scalable access control.

Lesson 2 • Managing Computer Accounts

Covers joining computers to a domain, managing computer objects, and resetting accounts. Computer accounts authenticate machines and enable Group Policy application.

Lesson 3 • Creating and Managing User Accounts

Covers user account creation via GUI and PowerShell, including attribute population. Accurate user objects are the foundation of authentication and authorisation.

Lesson 4 • User Account Policies and Controls

Explains password policies, account lockout, and logon hour restrictions at the account level. These controls directly enforce organisational security requirements.

Lesson 1 • Creating and Linking GPOs

Demonstrates creating GPOs in GPMC and linking them to sites, domains, and OUs. Proper linking scope determines which objects receive policy settings.

Lesson 2 • GPO Inheritance and Processing Order

Covers LSDOU processing order, inheritance blocking, and enforcement flags. Students predict effective policy outcomes in complex OU hierarchies.

Lesson 3 • Group Policy Architecture

Explains GPO structure, SYSVOL storage, and the client-side extension model. Understanding architecture prevents common misconfiguration and troubleshooting errors.

Lesson 4 • Filtering and Targeting GPOs

Teaches security filtering and WMI filters to target GPOs to specific objects. Precise targeting reduces unintended policy application across the environment.

Lesson 1 • Monitoring and Troubleshooting Replication

Uses repadmin, dcdiag, and Event Viewer to detect and resolve replication failures. Students practice diagnosing USN rollback and lingering object scenarios.

Lesson 2 • Replication Fundamentals

Explains the multi-master replication model, update sequence numbers, and change notification. This foundation is required to diagnose replication failures in later sections.

Lesson 3 • Knowledge Consistency Checker

Describes how the KCC automatically builds the replication topology and connection objects. Understanding KCC behaviour helps administrators avoid manual topology conflicts.

Lesson 4 • Site Links and Inter-Site Replication

Explains site link cost, schedule, and interval settings for inter-site replication control. Students balance replication frequency against available WAN bandwidth.

Lesson 1 • AD Permissions and Access Control

Explains the AD ACL model, permission inheritance, and effective permissions calculation. Mastery of ACLs is prerequisite to safe delegation and auditing tasks.

Lesson 2 • Fine-Grained Password Policies

Configures Password Settings Objects to apply different password rules to specific groups. Enables stricter controls for privileged accounts without domain-wide policy changes.

Lesson 3 • Delegating Administrative Control

Uses the Delegation of Control Wizard and manual ACL edits to assign scoped admin rights. Delegation reduces reliance on Domain Admins for routine tasks.

Lesson 4 • Auditing Active Directory Changes

Configures AD DS auditing via GPO to log object creation, modification, and deletion. Audit logs provide forensic evidence and support compliance requirements.

Lesson 1 • Active Directory Federation Services Overview

Introduces AD FS as a claims-based identity federation solution for web applications. Connects on-premises AD identities to cloud and partner services without password sharing.

Lesson 2 • Creating and Validating Forest Trusts

Walks through forest trust creation using the Active Directory Domains and Trusts console. Validation steps confirm authentication flows correctly across forest boundaries.

Lesson 3 • Integrating AD with Azure AD

Covers Azure AD Connect sync, pass-through authentication, and hybrid identity scenarios. Prepares students for the hybrid environments common in modern enterprise deployments.

Lesson 4 • SID Filtering and Trust Security

Explains SID filtering, SID history, and quarantine settings that protect trusting domains. These controls prevent privilege escalation via trusted forest compromise.

Lesson 1 • Authoritative Restore of AD Objects

Uses ntdsutil to mark restored objects as authoritative so they replicate outward. Critical for recovering accidentally deleted users, groups, or OUs.

Lesson 2 • FSMO Role Seizure and Transfer

Explains the five FSMO roles and procedures for graceful transfer and emergency seizure. Maintaining FSMO availability prevents domain-wide authentication and replication failures.

Lesson 3 • AD Backup Strategies

Covers Windows Server Backup, system state backups, and backup frequency recommendations. A tested backup strategy is the first requirement of any recovery plan.

Lesson 4 • Non-Authoritative Restore

Demonstrates restoring a DC from backup when replication can resync remaining changes. Used when a DC fails but other DCs hold current data.