What Is It?
Centralized service for managing windows networks of every scale. Consists of the following components:
- Schema: Defines objects and attributes
- Query and Index: Allows for searching through domain objects
- Global Catalog: Contains information of every directory object
- Replication Service: Copies information across domain controllers
- Organizational Unit: Group of objects within a domain
- Forest: Security boundary containing multiple domains
PowerShell is deeply incoperated into AD and can be used to manage it.