Sample Planning Worksheets

Management Infrastructure Services

The management infrastructure services in Windows 2000 Server provide IT departments with tools that enable you to provide the highest levels of service available and reduce ownership costs. Table A.2 describes the Windows 2000 Server management infrastructure services and their benefits.

Table A.2 Management Infrastructure Services

Feature	Role of this feature within my organization
Directory services Microsoft® Active Directory™ stores information about all objects on the network, making this information easy to find. It provides a flexible directory hierarchy, granular security delegation, efficient delegation of permissions, integrated DNS, high-level programming interfaces, and an extensible object store.
Administration services Microsoft® Management Console (MMC) provides system administrators with a common console for monitoring network functions and using administrative tools. MMC is completely customizable for the tasks performed by individual members of the IT support and management staff.
Group Policy Group Policy allows an administrator to define and control the state of computers and users. Group Policy can be set at any level of the directory service, including sites, domains, and organizational units. Group Policy can also be filtered based on Security Group memberships.
Instrumentation services With Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), administrators can correlate data and events from multiple sources on a local or organization-wide basis.
Scripting services Windows Script Host (WSH) supports direct execution of Microsoft® Visual Basic® Script, Java, and other scripts from the user interface or command line.

For more information about designing and deploying Windows 2000 directory services and Group Policy, see "Designing the Active Directory Structure," "Planning Distributed Security,"" Defining Client Administration and Configuration Standards," and "Applying Change and Configuration Management" in this book.