2.5 Environment

Because domain interactions are distributed among many computers for different, but related purposes, enumerating the dependencies of the Active Directory protocols is complex. The following rough diagram serves as a very high-level illustration of how the dependencies among components can be visualized.

Figure 5:  Dependencies among domain components

In this diagram, the dependencies of the system are symmetrical between the domain client and the domain controller server. Both the domain client and the domain controller server rely upon infrastructure servers, such as DNS, and leverage those servers for locating each other (rendezvous). During this rendezvous process, the domain controller server publishes its name and the domain client locates the domain controller server through DNS. The details of this rendezvous process are described in section 2.7.7.3.1.

In addition to service location, the rendezvous process between a domain client and a domain controller server relies upon authentication and authorization information. The domain controller server, for example, leverages the authorization information that it contains for controlling access to its resources. For more detailed information about authentication and authorization, see [MS-AUTHSOD] and related documents.