Network Solution for Windows – Windows system, Linux system, Ubuntu server configuration tip

Welcome to the 15th installment of Learn Active Directory Design and Administration in 15 Minutes a Week, a weekly series aimed at current IT professionals preparing to write the new Windows Active Directory Design and Administration exams (70-219 and 70-217 respectively), as well as newcomers to the field who are trying to get a solid grasp on this new and emerging directory service from Microsoft. This installment is going to begin the more detailed discussion of the Windows 2000 Active Directory Single Masters of Operation. This particular article is going to be a more detailed breakdown of the Domain Naming Master Flexible Single Masters of Operation Domain Controller.

In the Windows 2000 Active Directory, there are certain specific domain controllers that are assigned the extra role of Operations master. Sometimes referred to as Flexible Single Masters of Operation (FSMO) servers, these roles are special roles assigned to one or more domain controllers in an Active Directory domain and forest. The domain controllers assigned these roles perform single-master replication of the data they are in charge of (or, if they have more than one role placed on them, multiple replication, albeit, independently of one another). Some of these servers hold forest-wide operations master roles and others hold domain-wide operations master roles.

The Windows 2000 Active Directory design supports multimaster replication of the Active Directory domain database partition between all domain controllers in the domain. This basically means that you can make changes to the domain database partition at any given domain controller, such as functions at a user level like changing your domain password all the way up to a Domain Administrator adding new users to the domain at a remote site by hitting the local domain controller at that site.