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Directory Partition

The Active Directory database is logically separated into directory partitions including the schema, configuration, domain, and application partitions. The schema partition contains definitions for all objects and attributes and is replicated to all domain controllers. The configuration partition contains forest-wide structure information and is also replicated across all domain controllers. Domain partitions contain user and group information and are replicated within individual domains. Application partitions can store application-specific data and have domain-specific and forest-wide options.

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80 views10 pages

Directory Partition

The Active Directory database is logically separated into directory partitions including the schema, configuration, domain, and application partitions. The schema partition contains definitions for all objects and attributes and is replicated to all domain controllers. The configuration partition contains forest-wide structure information and is also replicated across all domain controllers. Domain partitions contain user and group information and are replicated within individual domains. Application partitions can store application-specific data and have domain-specific and forest-wide options.

Uploaded by

wajahat baig
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Directory Partition

Types of Partitions

The Active Directory database is logically separated into directory partitions:

• Schema partition
• Configuration partition
• Domain partition
• Application partition
Here is a conceptual diagram of the directory tree hierarchy, including the directory root (rootDSE)
and the default directory partitions below the directory root. In any Active Directory forest, the
configuration directory partitions and schema directory partitions are always in these locations.
Overview

 To scale to tens of millions of objects, a forest is partitioned into domains.


 Each Active Directory domain controller can be a member of one domain, and domain
controllers within the same domain contain the same information.
 Domain controllers from different domains share the same configuration and schema data,
but they do not share the same domain data. The means to distributing storage in this
manner is the directory partition , which is also called a "naming context."
Schema

 Only one schema partition exists per forest.


 The schema partition is stored on all domain controllers in a forest. It contains definitions
of all objects and attributes that can be created in the directory, and the rules for creating
and manipulating them.
 Schema information is replicated to all domain controllers in the attribute definitions.
Domain

 Many domain partitions can exist per forest. Domain partitions are stored on each domain
controller in a given domain.
 A domain partition contains information about users, groups, computers, and
organizational units.
 The domain partition is replicated to all domain controllers of that domain.
 All objects in every domain partition in a forest are stored in the global catalog with only
a subset of their attribute values.
Configuration

 There is only one configuration partition per forest.


 Second on all domain controllers in a forest, the configuration partition contains
information about the forest-wide active directory structure including what domains and
sites exist, which domain controllers exist in each forest, and which services are available.
 Configuration information is replicated to all domain controllers in a forest.
Application

 Applications and services can create and use application directory partitions to store their
own application specific data.
 e.g. DNS data – only replicated to DCs which are DNS servers
 Application directory partitions are not part of the directory data store by default; they
must be created, configured, and managed by administrators or by the directory aware
application on behalf of an administrator.
As an example of application partition, if a Domain Name System (DNS) that is integrated with
Active Directory is used, there are two application partitions for DNS zones – ForestDNSZones and
DomainDNSZones:

• ForestDNSZones is part of a forest. All domain controllers and DNS servers in a forest receive a
replica of this partition. A forest-wide application partition stores the forest zone data.

• DomainDNSZones are unique for each domain. All domain controllers that are DNS servers in that
domain receive a replica of this partition. The application partitions store the domain DNS zone in
the DomainDNSZones<domain name>.
Each domain has a DomainDNSZones partition, but there is only one ForestDNSZones partition. No
DNS data is replicated to the global catalog server.

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