Active Directory Administrative Center 2008 R2 & 2012

In the Windows Server® 2003 and Windows Server 2008 operating systems, administrators could manage and publish information in their Active Directory® environments by using the Active Directory Users and Computers Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. Beginning in Windows Server 2008 R2, in addition to using Active Directory Users and Computers, administrators can manage their directory service objects by using the new Active Directory Administrative Center.

You can use Active Directory Administrative Center to perform the following Active Directory administrative tasks:

• Create new user accounts or manage existing user accounts
  
• Create new groups or manage existing groups
  
• Create new computer accounts or manage existing computer accounts
  
• Create new organizational units (OUs) and containers or manage existing OUs 
  
• Connect to one or several domains or domain controllers in the same instance of Active Directory Administrative Center, and view or manage the directory information for those domains or domain controllers
  
• Filter Active Directory data by using query-building search

Install Active Directory Administrative Center

You can install Active Directory Administrative Center any of the following ways:

• By default, when you install the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) server role through Server Manager 
  
• By default, when you make a Windows Server 2008 R2 server a domain controller by running Dcpromo.exe
  
• With Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT).

Special considerations for Active Directory Administrative Center

• Active Directory Administrative Center can be installed on computers running Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 or later. Active Directory Administrative Center cannot be installed on computers running Windows® 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Vista.
  
• You cannot use Active Directory Administrative Center to manage Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) instances and configuration sets.
  
• For Windows Server 2012, Active Directory Administrative Center can be run on any computer that can run Remote Server Administration Tools. 
  
• For Windows Server 2008 R2, Active Directory Administrative Center is available in the following editions:
  
  
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard 
    
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise 
    
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter 
    
• Active Directory Administrative Center is not available in the following editions of Windows Server 2008 R2:
  
  
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-Based Systems 
    
  • Windows Web Server 2008 R2 
    
  • The Server Core option of any edition of Windows Server 2008 R2

 

Manage Different Domains in Active Directory Administrative Center

To open Active Directory Administrative Center, in Server Manager, click Tools, and then click Active Directory Administrative Center.

"Another way to open Active Directory Administrative Center is to click Start, and then type dsac.exe." 

To open Add Navigation Nodes, click Manage, then click Add Navigation Nodes as shown in the following illustration. 

In Add Navigation Nodes, click Connect to other domains as shown in the following illustration.

• In Connect to, type the name of the foreign domain that you want to manage (for example, contoso.com), and then click OK.
• When you are successfully connected to the foreign domain, browse through the columns in the Add Navigation Nodes window, select the container or containers to add to your Active Directory Administrative Center navigation pane, and then click OK.

  Thanks

 

Regards

Blog Admin