Limitations of Classic NT Security

The first questions you may ask when hunkering down to study Active Directory is, “What is it?” and “Why have it?” This section answers the second question. The remainder of the chapter answers the first.

Account administration in a classic NT network is hampered by many limitations. The most important of these limitations are the following:

  • Restricted SAM size

  • Multiple logon IDs

  • Single point of failure at the primary domain controller

  • Poor operational performance

  • Poor replication performance

  • Lack of management granularity

  • The fact that security databases differ between servers and domain controllers

  • Nontransitive trust relationships

I'm going to discuss each of these limitations to show exactly how they hinder classic ...

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