Home Learn Active Directory Management What Is Active Directory Management? Effective AD management streamlines user identity and lifecycle management while strengthening security and compliance. Request demo Active Directory Management Overview Definition AD Management Benefits Backup & Recovery Related Terms Resources Overview Discover the essentials of Active Directory management, backup, and recovery As the standard directory service for Windows domain networks, Active Directory (AD) is the foundation of user identity management for countless enterprises and organizations. This role makes AD a prime target for threat actors – and makes effective AD management a top priority not only from an IT standpoint, but for cybersecurity risk reduction as well. By following best practices for managing AD, complemented with comprehensive AD backup and recovery, you can: • Enhance security and compliance • Unify identities across hybrid environments • Streamline user lifecycle management• Improve system performance Here’s what you need to know about AD and how best to manage it. definition What Is AD, and What Does it Do? Provided by Microsoft for organizations using Windows Server, AD is the user identity database an overwhelming majority of enterprises rely on to manage access and permissions for network resources. Its policy management tools, automated identity workflows, authentication and authorization mechanisms, reporting tools, and other features help IT teams manage and govern identities and accounts across networks and systems. Modern enterprises rely on AD to authenticate users, manage permissions, and maintain security across complex IT environments. The hierarchical structure of AD facilitates efficient management of resources through domains, organizational units, and forests. The role of AD in network infrastructure includes: • Centralized authentication – When users log into a Windows domain network, AD verifies their credentials and determines their access rights for network resources. • Resource access control – AD manages and enforces security policies across the network, controlling access to files, applications, and services based on user roles and permissions. • Hierarchical structure – To allow efficient management of large-scale networks, AD organizes network elements into a structure of trees, forests, domains, and organizational units. • Group policy management – Administrators can use AD to implement and manage group-specific policies for security settings and computer configurations across the network. These functions are enabled through a set of logical components, physical components, and services and protocols. Understanding these core components helps administrators manage and use AD effectively to organize network resources, control access, and maintain security in Windows-based environments. Ranked from smallest to largest, the logical components of AD include: • Objects – The smallest units in AD, objects represent entities like user accounts, computers, and groups. • Organizational units – OUs are containers used to group related objects, such as employees within the same business unit, resources in a given location, users with similar access privileges, or similar types of devices. They help in assigning administrative duties and enforcing group policies. • Domains – The primary organizational units in AD, domains define administrative boundaries within a network and contain users, computers, groups, and other objects. Each domain has its own security policies and user accounts. • Trees – A tree is a hierarchical structure of one or more domains that are connected through trust relationships or share a contiguous namespace. • Forests – The highest level of AD structure, a forest is a collection of one or more domain trees that share a common schema, configuration, and global catalog. An organization’s AD forest serves as its main security boundary. Physical components of AD include: • Domain Services – The core component of AD, Domain Services are responsible for managing authentication and authorization of users and computers in the network. • Domain controllers – Domain controller servers host Domain Services and are used to store user account information, manage authentication and authorization requests, and replicate changes to other domain controllers in the domain. • Global catalog servers – Global catalog servers enable searches for objects across domains by storing partial copies of all AD objects. They also play a key role in authentication by helping locate user accounts during login. Services and protocols of AD include: • Lightweight Directory Access Protocol – LDAP, the protocol AD uses to access and manage directory information, provides a standardized way for other services to interact with its directory service. • Group Policy – Administrators use Group Policy to define, manage, and enforce policies, security settings, and other configurations for users and computers within the AD forest. AD Management Basic Tasks of AD Management AD management includes a variety of tasks, but the most important are: • User and group management – A fundamental aspect of AD management, this includes creating and maintaining user accounts, organizing them into logical groups, assigning permissions and access rights, and managing user authentication and authorization. • Group Policy management – Admins use Group Policy to create and configure Group Policy Objects to apply and enforce consistent security, user settings, and configurations for users, computers, and OUs across the network. • Domain controller management – To maintain a secure, reliable, and efficient network infrastructure, admins can add or remove domain controllers; assign individual domain controllers to be in charge of specific operations; and monitor replication between domain controllers. • Security and access control – Maintaining security in AD includes implementing and managing authentication mechanisms, configuring and monitoring access controls, managing security certificates, implementing security best practices, and monitoring for potential threats. Benefits Benefits of Effective AD Management By following best practices for the four key elements of AD management, you can help enable a secure, efficient, and well-organized network infrastructure. This enables benefits such as: • Enhanced security and compliance – A well-organized network infrastructure makes it possible to implement strong authentication mechanisms, enforce access controls, and maintain appropriate and up-to-date security policies for users, groups, and devices across the network. Standardized, automated access approval processes and AD reporting capabilities aid compliance and facilitate audits. • Unified identities across hybrid environments – AD lets you consolidate identity and permissions management across environments, including AD, Azure AD, UNIX/Linux and Mac OS environments, and cloud-based resources. This makes it simpler to maintain consistent centralized control of user access to applications, databases, and SaaS resources of all types. • Streamlined user lifecycle management – Effective AD management enables automated user lifecycle processes, including provisioning, modifying, and deprovisioning user accounts. This improves operational efficiency while helping you maintain the principle of least privilege, a key element of modern security. • Improved system performance – A clean and well-organized AD environment reduces the load on servers to improve response times for queries and overall system performance. This leads to a better user experience and more efficient network operations. The Risk of AD as A Cyberattack Target The Risk of AD as A Cyberattack Target AD organizes network responsibilities through a hierarchical structure of domains, organizational units (OUs), and forests. Domains function as administrative boundaries that group and manage related objects, while OUs provide further subdivision within domains for more granular control.Forests represent the highest level of the hierarchy, containing multiple domains that share a common schema and global catalog, allowing for centralized resource management across large organizations.This critical infrastructure has become a prime target for sophisticated threat actors due to its central role in authentication and access control. The statistics paint a concerning picture: An estimated 9 out of 10 cyberattacks involve attempts to compromise AD. 88% of security incidents analyzed by Microsoft Digital Defense involved insecure AD configurations. AD outages can result in financial losses of up to $730K per hour. These numbers highlight why protecting AD should be a top priority for security teams. The centralized nature of AD makes it an ideal target: Compromising it often grants attackers broad access to critical systems and data. Active directory management tools and software are important to help mitigate this risk. AD Security Threats and Mitigation Framework AD Security Threats and Mitigation Framework This table outlines common security threats to AD and corresponding mitigation strategies to help organizations address these vulnerabilities: Security ThreatDescriptionMitigation StrategyPrivilege escalationAttackers gain higher-level permissions than authorized.Implement least privilege principles; regularly audit and review permissions.KerberoastingExploitation of Kerberos authentication to crack service account passwords.Use strong, complex passwords for service accounts; implement credential rotation.Pass-the-hash attacksReusing password hashes to authenticate without knowing the actual password.Deploy multifactor authentication; segment networks; monitor for suspicious authentication attempts.Domain controller vulnerabilitiesUnpatched systems allowing unauthorized access.Maintain regular patching schedule; harden domain controllers.Insecure group policy objectsMisconfigured GPOs that create security gaps.Audit GPO settings regularly; implement change management.Directory service restoration mode (DSRM) abuseUnauthorized use of recovery mode to gain control.Secure DSRM passwords; monitor for unauthorized recovery attempts.Excessive administrative rightsToo many users with domain admin privileges.Implement tiered administration model; reduce number of privileged accounts.Stale user accountsInactive accounts that remain enabled.Implement automated deprovisioning; conduct regular account reviews. Importance of Automation and Resilience in AD Management Importance of Automation and Resilience in AD Management Poorly configured AD environments create substantial security risks that extend throughout an organization’s network infrastructure. Configuration drift, outdated group policies, and excessive permissions accumulate over time, expanding the attack surface for potential intruders. Without proper management, these vulnerabilities remain undetected until exploited by threat actors.User provisioning and deprovisioning play a critical role in risk management within AD environments. Inefficient provisioning processes lead to inconsistent access rights, while delayed deprovisioning of departing employees creates dangerous security gaps through orphaned accounts. Automated workflows for user lifecycle management help maintain consistent security controls and reduce human error in these critical processes.Rigorous oversight of AD configurations provides essential protection against evolving cyber threats. Regular auditing of group memberships, permission assignments, and security settings helps identify potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. This proactive approach to AD management reduces the risk of successful attacks and maintains the integrity of authentication systems. Backup and Recovery AD Backup and Recovery The central role of AD in both user identity management and security, as well as its desirability as a target for cyberattack, make AD backup and recovery absolutely critical. By following consistent practices to back up AD, including the user accounts, permissions, and network resource configurations stored in its database, you can help enable recovery of this vital data in case of corruption, accidental deletion, or system failure. The importance of AD backup can be seen in contexts including: • Disaster recovery – If AD is unavailable, related users can’t log in and systems cannot function properly. A full AD backup helps you restore operations more quickly following a catastrophic failure like a hardware malfunction, cyberattack, or natural disaster. • Cyber threat mitigation – As ransomware and other cyberattacks targeting AD increase, having backups can help you avoid the security vulnerabilities introduced by a compromised AD database and the need to pay ransom to recover its data. • Regulatory compliance – Regulations requiring data protection and retention often include a requirement to back up AD. Active Directory Management Best PracticesMany of the best practices for AD backup are similar to those for other forms of enterprise data – and their implementation is just as essential.• Perform regular, full AD backups – Most organizations back up AD fully every 24 hours. Avoid relying solely on incremental backups, as they can complicate the recovery process. For larger systems with frequent changes, consider backing up twice a day. • Backup multiple domain controllers – Back up at least two domain controllers per domain in your AD forest. This provides redundancy and increases the chances of successful recovery in case of failure. • Use consistent AD backup methods – Back up AD using software that provides data consistency, such as those compatible with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service. This preserves the integrity of the AD database during the backup process. • Secure AD backup storage – Store AD backups securely, ideally following the 3-2-1 backup rule, with multiple copies stored on different media in different locations. This protects backups from unauthorized access and potential data breaches. • Decouple AD backups from OS and data backups – Separating AD backups from OS and data backups helps prevent potential malware infections and helps enable a clean recovery of AD. • Regularly test AD backup and recovery processes – Include AD backup and recovery testing in your disaster recovery plan. Regularly verify that your backups are functional and that you successfully can restore AD when needed. As with backup and recovery in general, the key to an effective AD backup practice is consistency. By adhering to best practices, you can keep your enterprise directory available to support continuous business operations. Facilitating AD Management with Commvault Facilitating AD Management with Commvault Commvault protects and restores AD data to maintain continuous access to critical network resources. Commvault Cloud, works as an Active Directory management software with comprehensive backup capabilities to create secure, point-in-time copies of AD components, including domain controllers, allowing for rapid recovery from both accidental changes and malicious attacks without extended downtime.Commvault’s integration of backup, recovery, and administrative workflows maintains AD integrity throughout its lifecycle. This unified approach helps eliminate gaps between data protection and operational management, providing administrators with the Active Directory management tools to recover granular AD objects like user accounts and group policies or perform complete forest recoveries when needed.The platform supports proactive compliance and business continuity through automated policy enforcement and testing capabilities. Regular validation of AD backups helps verify recoverability before an incident occurs, while detailed reporting provides documentation for compliance requirements and security audits.Commvault’s solution delivers consistent AD management across hybrid environments, spanning on-premises infrastructure and cloud platforms. This flexibility allows organizations to maintain coherent security and recovery capabilities regardless of where their AD resources reside, supporting modern distributed architectures. Best Practices Best Practices for AD Management with Commvault AD management requires a strategic approach that combines robust security practices with reliable backup and recovery capabilities. Organizations must protect their AD infrastructure against both accidental changes and malicious attacks through comprehensive AD monitoring, proper access controls, and automated lifecycle management. A resilient AD environment supported by proper backup and recovery tools forms the foundation of a strong security posture and operational continuity. Related Terms What is Active Directory? Active Directory is a directory service that stores information about objects on the network and makes this information easily accessible to administrators and users. Learn more What is Cyber Deception? Cyber deception is a proactive security and defense tactic which hinges on deceiving bad actors and malicious attacks. Learn more What is Data Protection? Data protection refers to the practices, technologies, and policies that are used to safeguard data against unauthorized access, loss, corruption, and other threats. Learn more related resources Explore related resources View all resources Solution Brief Active Directory Protection Safeguard Microsoft AD and Entra ID data from a single solution. Video Backup & Recovery for Active Directory Demo It is essential to protect both Active Directory and related systems, such as Entra ID, from potential disasters. eBook EXPOSED The Truth About Active Directory, Identity Resilience, and Rapid Recovery Active Directory is central to secure authentication and services, making it crucial for businesses to protect and secure this data.