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Active Directory
Architecture White Paper - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727030.aspx
How to uniquely identify an user in a forest across domains :
Security IDs (SIDs)
A security identifier (SID) is a unique number created by the security subsystem of the Windows 2000 operating system, and assigned to security principal objects, that is, to user, group, and computer accounts. Every account on your network is issued a unique SID when that account is first created. Internal processes in the Windows 2000 operating system refer to an account's SID rather than to the account's user or group name.
Each Active Directory object is protected by access control entries (ACEs) that identify which users or groups can access that object. Each ACE contains the SID of each user or group who has permission to access that object and defines what level of access is allowed. For example, a user might have read-only access to certain files, read-and-write access to others, and no access to others.
If you create an account, delete it, and then create an account with the same user name, the new account does not have the rights or permissions previously granted to the old account, because the accounts have different SID numbers.
User Principal Name
In Active Directory, each user account has a user principal name (UPN) in the format <user>@<DNS-domain-name>. A UPN is a friendly name assigned by an administrator that is shorter than the LDAP distinguished name used by the system and easier to remember. The UPN is independent of the user object's DN, so a user object can be moved or renamed without affecting the user logon name. When logging on using a UPN, users no longer have to choose a domain from a list on the logon dialog box.
The UPN's three parts are the UPN prefix (user logon name), the @ character, and the UPN suffix (usually, a domain name). The default UPN suffix for a user account is the DNS name of the Active Directory domain where the user account is located9. For example, the UPN for user John Doe, who has a user account in the OrgName.com domain (if OrgName.com is the only domain in the tree), is JDoe@OrgName.com.The UPN is an attribute (userPrincipalName) of the security principal object. If a user object's userPrincipalName attribute has no value, the user object has a default UPN of userName@DnsDomainName.
If your organization has many domains forming a deep domain tree, organized by department and region, default UPN names can become unwieldy. For example, the default UPN for a user might be sales.westcoast.microsoft.com. The logon name for a user in that domain is user@sales.westcoast.microsoft.com. Instead of accepting the default DNS domain name as the UPN suffix, you can simplify both administration and user logon processes by providing a single UPN suffix for all users. (The UPN suffix is used only within the Windows 2000 domain and is not required to be a valid DNS domain name.) You can choose to use your e-mail domain name as the UPN suffix—userName@companyName.com. This gives the user in the example the UPN name of user@microsoft.com.
For a UPN–based logon, a global catalog may be necessary, depending on the user logging on, and the domain membership of the user's computer. A global catalog is needed if the user logs on with a non-default UPN and the user's machine account is in a different domain than the user's user account. That is, if, instead of accepting the default DNS domain name as the UPN suffix (as in the example just given, user@sales.westcoast.microsoft.com), you provide a single UPN suffix for all users (so that the user then becomes simply user@ microsoft.com), a global catalog is required for logon.
You use the Active Directory Domains and Trusts tool to manage UPN suffixes for a domain. UPNs are assigned at the time a user is created. If you have created additional suffixes for the domain, you can select from the list of available suffixes when you create the user or group account. The suffixes appear in the list in the following order:
A Security Account Manager (SAM) account name is required for compatibility with Windows NT 3.x and Windows NT 4.0 domains. The Windows 2000 user interface refers to the SAM account name as the "User logon name (pre-Windows 2000)."
SAM account names are sometimes referred to as flat names because—unlike DNS names—SAM account names do not use hierarchical naming. Because SAM names are flat, each one must be unique in the domain.
LDAP URL Names
Active Directory supports access using the LDAP protocol from any LDAP-enabled client. RFC 1959 describes a format for an LDAP Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that lets Internet clients have direct access to the LDAP protocol. LDAP URLs are also used in scripting. An LDAP URL begins with the prefix "LDAP," and then it names the server holding Active Directory services followed by the attributed name of the object (the distinguished name). For example:
LDAP://server1.USRegion.OrgName.com/cn=JDoe,ou=Widgets,ou=Manufacturing,dc=USRegion,dcOrgName,dc=com
LDAP-based Active Directory Canonical Names
By default, Active Directory administrative tools display object names using the canonical name format, which lists the RDNs from the root downward and without the RFC 1779 naming attribute descriptors (dc=, ou=, or cn=). The canonical name uses the DNS domain name format, that is, the constituents of the domain labels section of the name are separated by periods—USRegion.OrgName.com. Table 3 contrasts the LDAP DN with the same name in canonical name format.
LDAP DN format contrasted with the canonical name format
Same Name in Two Formats
LDAP DN Name: cn=JDoe,ou=Widgets,ou=Manufacturing,dc=USRegion,dcOrgName.dc=com
Canonical Name: USRegion.OrgName.com/Manufacturing/Widgets/JDoe
Object GUIDs
In addition to its LDAP DN, every object in Active Directory has a globally unique identifier (GUID), a 128-bit number assigned by the Directory System Agent when the object is created. The GUID, which cannot be altered or removed, is stored in an attribute, objectGUID, which is a required attribute for every object. Unlike a DN or RDN, which can be changed, the GUID never changes.
When storing a reference to an Active Directory object in an external store (for example, a Microsoft SQL Server™ database), the objectGUID value should be used.
How to uniquely identify an user in a forest across domains :
Security IDs (SIDs)
A security identifier (SID) is a unique number created by the security subsystem of the Windows 2000 operating system, and assigned to security principal objects, that is, to user, group, and computer accounts. Every account on your network is issued a unique SID when that account is first created. Internal processes in the Windows 2000 operating system refer to an account's SID rather than to the account's user or group name.
Each Active Directory object is protected by access control entries (ACEs) that identify which users or groups can access that object. Each ACE contains the SID of each user or group who has permission to access that object and defines what level of access is allowed. For example, a user might have read-only access to certain files, read-and-write access to others, and no access to others.
If you create an account, delete it, and then create an account with the same user name, the new account does not have the rights or permissions previously granted to the old account, because the accounts have different SID numbers.
User Principal Name
In Active Directory, each user account has a user principal name (UPN) in the format <user>@<DNS-domain-name>. A UPN is a friendly name assigned by an administrator that is shorter than the LDAP distinguished name used by the system and easier to remember. The UPN is independent of the user object's DN, so a user object can be moved or renamed without affecting the user logon name. When logging on using a UPN, users no longer have to choose a domain from a list on the logon dialog box.
The UPN's three parts are the UPN prefix (user logon name), the @ character, and the UPN suffix (usually, a domain name). The default UPN suffix for a user account is the DNS name of the Active Directory domain where the user account is located9. For example, the UPN for user John Doe, who has a user account in the OrgName.com domain (if OrgName.com is the only domain in the tree), is JDoe@OrgName.com.The UPN is an attribute (userPrincipalName) of the security principal object. If a user object's userPrincipalName attribute has no value, the user object has a default UPN of userName@DnsDomainName.
If your organization has many domains forming a deep domain tree, organized by department and region, default UPN names can become unwieldy. For example, the default UPN for a user might be sales.westcoast.microsoft.com. The logon name for a user in that domain is user@sales.westcoast.microsoft.com. Instead of accepting the default DNS domain name as the UPN suffix, you can simplify both administration and user logon processes by providing a single UPN suffix for all users. (The UPN suffix is used only within the Windows 2000 domain and is not required to be a valid DNS domain name.) You can choose to use your e-mail domain name as the UPN suffix—userName@companyName.com. This gives the user in the example the UPN name of user@microsoft.com.
For a UPN–based logon, a global catalog may be necessary, depending on the user logging on, and the domain membership of the user's computer. A global catalog is needed if the user logs on with a non-default UPN and the user's machine account is in a different domain than the user's user account. That is, if, instead of accepting the default DNS domain name as the UPN suffix (as in the example just given, user@sales.westcoast.microsoft.com), you provide a single UPN suffix for all users (so that the user then becomes simply user@ microsoft.com), a global catalog is required for logon.
You use the Active Directory Domains and Trusts tool to manage UPN suffixes for a domain. UPNs are assigned at the time a user is created. If you have created additional suffixes for the domain, you can select from the list of available suffixes when you create the user or group account. The suffixes appear in the list in the following order:
-
Alternate suffixes (if any; last one created appears first).
-
Root domain.
-
The current domain.
A Security Account Manager (SAM) account name is required for compatibility with Windows NT 3.x and Windows NT 4.0 domains. The Windows 2000 user interface refers to the SAM account name as the "User logon name (pre-Windows 2000)."
SAM account names are sometimes referred to as flat names because—unlike DNS names—SAM account names do not use hierarchical naming. Because SAM names are flat, each one must be unique in the domain.
LDAP URL Names
Active Directory supports access using the LDAP protocol from any LDAP-enabled client. RFC 1959 describes a format for an LDAP Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that lets Internet clients have direct access to the LDAP protocol. LDAP URLs are also used in scripting. An LDAP URL begins with the prefix "LDAP," and then it names the server holding Active Directory services followed by the attributed name of the object (the distinguished name). For example:
LDAP://server1.USRegion.OrgName.com/cn=JDoe,ou=Widgets,ou=Manufacturing,dc=USRegion,dcOrgName,dc=com
LDAP-based Active Directory Canonical Names
By default, Active Directory administrative tools display object names using the canonical name format, which lists the RDNs from the root downward and without the RFC 1779 naming attribute descriptors (dc=, ou=, or cn=). The canonical name uses the DNS domain name format, that is, the constituents of the domain labels section of the name are separated by periods—USRegion.OrgName.com. Table 3 contrasts the LDAP DN with the same name in canonical name format.
LDAP DN format contrasted with the canonical name format
Same Name in Two Formats
LDAP DN Name: cn=JDoe,ou=Widgets,ou=Manufacturing,dc=USRegion,dcOrgName.dc=com
Canonical Name: USRegion.OrgName.com/Manufacturing/Widgets/JDoe
Object GUIDs
In addition to its LDAP DN, every object in Active Directory has a globally unique identifier (GUID), a 128-bit number assigned by the Directory System Agent when the object is created. The GUID, which cannot be altered or removed, is stored in an attribute, objectGUID, which is a required attribute for every object. Unlike a DN or RDN, which can be changed, the GUID never changes.
When storing a reference to an Active Directory object in an external store (for example, a Microsoft SQL Server™ database), the objectGUID value should be used.
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