Summary

Completed

In this module, you learned about the Active Directory database and SYSVOL. Specifically you learned:

• AD DS presents the logical directory and stores its hosted replicas in a local ESE database.
• SYSVOL is a domain-scoped file hierarchy replicated by DFSR.
• The stores use different client protocols, replication engines, evidence sources, and recovery procedures.
• DFSR configuration is stored in AD DS, so the engines are separate but not independent of directory configuration.
• NTDS.dit contains only the replicas hosted by one domain controller.
• ESE commits directory writes through write-ahead transaction logging.
• A dirty shutdown starts supported soft recovery and doesn't, by itself, prove corruption.
• Online maintenance reclaims internal space but doesn't normally shrink NTDS.dit.
• Writable domain controllers originate ordinary directory changes; read-only domain controllers normally receive them.
• Healthy AD DS replication doesn't prove healthy SYSVOL replication, and the reverse is also true.
• A GPO spans a GPC in AD DS and a GPT in SYSVOL.
• GPC and GPT versions can temporarily diverge because their changes follow separate replication paths.
• System-state backup protects AD DS and SYSVOL as coordinated system-state components.
• The Windows Server 2025 Database 32k pages optional feature is a forest-wide, irreversible backup and recovery decision.

Continue learning

• Troubleshoot Active Directory Domain Services replication
• Distributed File System Replication overview
• Group Policy overview for Windows Server
• Back up and restore an Active Directory server
• Active Directory forest recovery procedures
• Windows Server Inside Out (Microsoft Press)