Terms and Abbreviations

A

Access Control Entry (ACE)

Element in an Access Control List (ACL).

Access Control List (ACL)

Collection of ACE's defining permissions on shares, files/directories, etc.

Active Directory (AD)

Directory service developed by Microsoft. Samba, since version 4.0 can act as an AD, too. For a detailed description, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory.

Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)

It is an MMC snap-in for managing e. g. user and computer accounts.

B

Backup Domain Controller (BDC)

In an NT4 domain, the BDC is a computer having a copy of the user and groups database. Changes are always done on the PDC. The Backup Domain Controller is only read-only. Changes are pushed from the PDC via Master-Slave-Replication to the BDC(s). In case of an outage of an PDC, a BDC can be promoted to an PDC.

Active Directory doesn't have PDCs/BDCs any more.

D

Distributed File System (DFS)

Please describe.

Domain Name System (DNS)

Hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services and resources connected to the Internet or private network. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System.

Domain

User accounts, computers and other security principals, that are registred and maintained within a central database. In an Active Directory domains can be connected via Trusts in a Tree or Forest.

Domain Controller (DC)

Server with Samba/Microsoft Active Directory services installed. A Domain Controller (DC) is authorative for the domain it is part of. AD DCs are doing multi-master replication.

An AD Domain Controller should not to be confused with PDC/BDC!

F

Forest

Please describe.

Fully qualified Domain Name (FQDN)

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_qualified_domain_name.

Flexible Single Master Operator (FSMO)

Please describe.

Functional Level

Please describe.

G

Global Catalog (GC)

Please describe.

Group Policy Object (GPO)

Please describe.

Group

Please describe.

Globally Unique Identifier (GUID)

Please describe.

H

Host

Please describe.

K

Key Distribution Center (KDC)

Please describe.

Kerberos

Please describe.

L

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

Please describe.

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol over SSL (LDAPS)

Acronym for LDAP over SSL.

LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF)

Please describe.

M

Microsoft Management Console (MMC)

Graphical interface for managing services and resources under Microsoft Windows. Snap-ins can be used for administering different Windows services, users, etc. An often used snap-in in an Active Directory environment is e. g. ADUC (Active Directory Users and Computers).

N

Namespace

Please describe.

Naming Context (NC)

Please describe.

NetBios

Please describe.

Network Time Protocol (NTP)

Please describe.

O

Object Identifier

Please describe.

Organizational Unit (OU)

Please describe.

P

Partition

Please describe.

Primary Domain Controller (PDC)

Please describe.

PDC Emulator

Please describe.

R

Replication

Please describe.

Relative Identifier (RID)

Please describe.

Read Only Domain Controller (RODC)

Please describe.

RootDSE

Please describe.

Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)

Please describe.

S

Security Account Manager (SAM)

Please describe.

Schema

Please describe.

Security Principal

Please describe.

Security Identifier (SID)

Please describe.

Site

Please describe.

Service Principal Name (SPN)

Please describe.

Snap-In

Please describe.

T

Tree

Please describe.

U

User Principal Name (UPN)

Please describe.

W

Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS)

Please describe.