The Active Directory offers system administrators consolidated management of all objects in a network. This is through the administrative user interface, which is based on the Microsoft Management Console and its snap-in applications. The MMC is visible only to system administrators, not to the end user. The four primary MMC snap-ins associated with the Active Directory (Figure 5.15) are:
Active Directory Domains and Trusts Manager
Active Directory Sites and Services
Active Directory Users and Computers
Active Directory Schema Manager (available from the adminpak on the Windows Server 2003 CD under the I386 folder)
Specific use of these managers is discussed in other chapters of this book.