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Microsoft Active Directory for Windows
Microsoft Active Directory is an integral part of Windows infrastructure and networking, and has become a ubiquitous and irreplaceable component within many corporate IT environments. Microsoft Active Directory is now a mature, well established LDAP type technology that has proven to be highly scalable and secure. Its incorporation of enterprise technologies such as Kerberos for single-sign-on authentication within the domain environment, and its Group Policy support extend its value beyond a simple LDAP Directory. However, much of this additional power and flexibility also opens the door to a number of basic administration and integration problems that can make life very difficult for the Microsoft Active Directory administrator.Common problems include schema changes, setting up trust relationships to enable authentication across domains, handling SSL/TLS and the performance hit that it has on Active Directory services, and integrating applications that are not capable of using Kerberos to authenticate within the domain infrastructure.
Symlabs Virtual Directory Server and Symlabs LDAP Proxy can both be used to help resolve a wide range of common problems experienced by Microsoft Active Directory administrators. The following sections explore these issues in more detail and explain how these two products can be used to quickly overcome obstacles that appear within Active Directory environments.