Skills Mastered

Ability to analyze the business requirements and design a directory service architecture, including:

• Unified directory services such as Active Directory™ and Windows NT® domains.
• Connectivity between and within systems, system components, and applications.
• Data replication such as directory replication and database replication.

In addition, the skills required to analyze the business requirements for desktop management and design a solution for desktop management that meets business requirements.

Analyzing Business Requirements

Analyze the existing and planned business models.

• Analyze the company model and the geographical scope. Models include international, national, regional, branch, and subsidiary offices.
• Analyze company processes. Processes include information flow, communication flow, service and product life cycles, and decision-making.

Analyze the existing and planned organizational structures. Considerations include the management model; company organization; vendor, partner, and customer relationships; and acquisition plans.

Analyze factors that influence company strategies.

• Identify company priorities.
• Identify the projected growth and growth strategy.
• Identify relevant laws and regulations.
• Identify the company's tolerance for risk.
• Identify the total cost of operations.

Analyze the structure of IT management. Considerations include the type of administration, such as centralized or decentralized; funding model; outsourcing; decision-making process; and change-management process.

Analyzing Technical Requirements

Evaluate the company's existing and planned technical environment.

• Analyze company size and the distribution of users and resources.
• Assess the available connectivity between the geographic locations of work sites and remote sites.
• Assess the net available bandwidth.
• Analyze performance requirements.
• Analyze data and system access patterns.
• Analyze network roles and responsibilities.
• Analyze security considerations.

Analyze the impact of Active Directory on the existing and planned technical environment. Considerations include Microsoft Exchange 2000.

• Assess existing systems and applications.
• Identify existing and planned upgrades and rollouts.
• Analyze the technical support structure.
• Analyze existing and planned network and systems management.

Analyze the business requirements for client computer desktop management.

• Analyze end-user work needs.
• Identify technical support needs for end users.
• Establish the required client computer environment.

Designing a Directory Service Architecture

Define the scope of the Active Directory design.

Design an Active Directory forest and domain structure.

• Design a forest and schema structure.
• Design a domain structure.
• Analyze and optimize trust relationship requirements.

Design an Active Directory naming strategy.

• Plan the WINS NetBIOS name resolution strategy.
• Design the namespace.
• Plan the DNS strategy.

Design and plan the structure of organizational units. Considerations include administrative control, existing domain structures, administrative policy, and geographic and company structure.

• Develop an organizational unit delegation plan.
• Plan Group Policy object management.
• Develop a change in the configuration management plan for client computers.

Plan for the coexistence of Active Directory and other directory services.

Design a schema modification policy.

Design an Active Directory implementation plan.

Designing Service Locations

Design the placement of operations masters. Considerations include performance, fault tolerance, functionality, and manageability.

Design the placement of global catalog servers. Considerations include performance, fault tolerance, functionality, and manageability.

Design the placement of domain controllers. Considerations include performance, fault tolerance, functionality, and manageability.

Design the placement of DNS, WINS, and DHCP servers. Considerations include performance, fault tolerance, functionality, manageability, and interoperability.

Design an Active Directory site topology.

• Design a replication strategy.
• Define site boundaries.