Question

What is involved in active directory monitoring?

Answer
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Active directory monitoring involves looking at the active directory service created by Microsoft for use in Windows networks.

Part of this monitoring looks at domain controllers and the assignment of authentications and workloads to various parts of the network. In general, active directory monitoring helps to provide consistent results for logons, account management, command control, application running and more. Administrators may set a "baseline" or determine thresholds for alerts, or otherwise look at network traffic to make sure that authentication is working the way it is supposed to. These attempts utilize Lightweight Directory Access Protocol queries, and enforce data consistency.

Some practical examples of active directory monitoring include looking at certain "lockout" issues or other miscalibrations that could result in loss of services, lagging server performance, time-outs and other obstacles to user access. With active directory monitoring resources, administrators can catch these kinds of issues before they become headaches for users, bypassing floods of service ticket requests or help desk requests. Active directory monitoring helps to "debug" systems and increase the efficiency of operations in high-traffic networks.

Justin Stoltzfus
Contributor
Justin Stoltzfus
Contributor

Justin Stoltzfus is an independent blogger and business consultant assisting a range of businesses in developing media solutions for new campaigns and ongoing operations. He is a graduate of James Madison University.Stoltzfus spent several years as a staffer at the Intelligencer Journal in Lancaster, Penn., before the merger of the city’s two daily newspapers in 2007. He also reported for the twin weekly newspapers in the area, the Ephrata Review and the Lititz Record.More recently, he has cultivated connections with various companies as an independent consultant, writer and trainer, collecting bylines in print and Web publications, and establishing a reputation…