System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory Architecture

Classes in the System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory namespace facilitate various Active Directory Domain Services management tasks such as schema management, replication management, trust management, and topology management. The namespace can be used by line-of-business client applications as well as server-side applications.

The classes in the System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory namespace can be organized into four general categories:

• Partition
• Schema
• Server and Replication
• Trust Management

For an overview diagram of the classes in System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory, see the Class Hierarchy topic.

Architecture Elements

The following sections describe the architecture of each of the four categories of classes in the System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory namespace.

Trust Management

The top-level trust-related classes are Domain, Forest, and TrustRelationshipInformation. An additional class that is based on the TrustRelationshipInformation class, ForestTrustRelationshipInformation, provides access to methods and properties that are specific to forest trust relationships, such as domain information that is specific to that relationship.

For diagrams that illustrate the structure of these classes, see the Object Diagrams topic.

Partition

The top level partition-related classes in the System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory namespace are ActiveDirectoryPartition and ConfigurationSet.

Three additional classes based on the ActiveDirectoryPartition class provide information specific to different types of partitions. These classes are:

• Domain
• ApplicationPartition
• ActiveDirectorySchema

The ConfigurationSet class is related to management of AD LDS instances. For example, this class can be used to enumerate all AD LDS instances, get or set the replication security level of this AD LDS instance, and retrieve a collection of all application partitions that are defined in a particular configuration set.

For diagrams that illustrate the structure of these classes, see the Object Diagrams topic.

Schema

The schema element-related classes in the System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory namespace include ActiveDirectorySchema, ActiveDirectorySchemaClass and ActiveDirectorySchemaProperty.

These classes enable an application to explore the Active Directory Domain Services schema, to find a specific element such as a particular defunct property, or to enumerate all elements of a particular type, such as all classes that are defined in the schema. An application can also explore the structure of the schema by inspecting properties such as PossibleSuperiors or SubClassOf.

For diagrams that illustrate the structure of these classes, see the Object Diagrams topic.

Server and Replication

The top level server-related class in the System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory namespace is DirectoryServer. This area of the System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory namespace also includes two classes that are based on DirectoryServer that provide information that is specific to different types of directory servers. These classes are:

• AdamInstance
• DomainController

The AdamInstance class includes a variety of methods and properties, including methods to look up one or all available AD LDS instances, methods to inspect AD LDS server replication data, and properties such as the instance configuration set and the roles that apply to this server. The methods and properties that are defined by the DomainController class include methods to perform directory searches, methods to monitor this domain controller's replication status, and properties such as the forest to which the domain belongs, and the roles assigned to this server.

The GlobalCatalog class, based on the DomainController class, provides information about domain controllers that are also global catalog servers.

The replication-related classes include classes that are involved in the configuration of replication topology and classes that are involved in monitoring the status of replication. Classes that are used to configure replication topology include:

• ActiveDirectoryInterSiteTransport
• ActiveDirectorySite
• ActiveDirectorySiteLink
• ActiveDirectorySiteLinkBridge
• ActiveDirectorySubnet

Using these classes, an application can perform replication topology management functions such as inspecting or modifying the connections among replication sites and moving subnets from one site to another.

Classes used to monitor replication include:

• ReplicationConnection
• ReplicationCursor
• ReplicationFailure
• ReplicationNeighbor
• ReplicationOperation

An application can use these classes to perform functions such as retrieving the last successful synchronization time for a replication operation that is related to a particular partition and source machine, inspecting replication failure data, enabling or disabling a specific replication connection, and modifying replication connection-specific data such as the replication schedule.

For diagrams that illustrate the structure of these classes, see the Object Diagrams topic.

See Also

Concepts

Technology Summary for System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory

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