Active Directory Schema
Active Directory Schema |
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In Active Directory, the schema contains definitions for the universe of objects that can be stored in the directory, and it enforces the rules that govern both the structure and the content of the directory. The schema consists of a set of classes, attributes, and syntaxes that represent an instance of one or more classes in the schema. A class is a category of objects that share a set of common characteristics. It is a formal description of a discrete, identifiable type of object that can be stored in the directory. Each object in the directory is an instance of one or more classes in the schema. An attribute describes the characteristics of some aspect of an object. Attributes define the types of information that an object can hold. For each class, the schema specifies the mandatory attributes and optional attributes that constitute the set of shared characteristics of the class. The values assigned to attributes define specific characteristics. A syntax is the data type of a particular attribute. Syntaxes determine what data type an attribute can have. Active Directory uses a set of standard syntaxes. The predefined syntaxes do not actually appear in the directory, and you cannot add new syntaxes. An everyday example of an object is a vehicle, which can belong to the class of trucks, the class of motorcycles, or the class of cars, and so forth. A car can be described by its make, model, and color. These are some of the attributes of the car. In the example of the car, the possible values for the color of the car might be red, blue, or gray. The syntax for color might be the nomenclature (such as 2B1R2Y) that denotes specific combinations of primary colors that comprise what one sees as the colors of automotive paints.
The schema specifies the relationships between classes of objects. Each object stored in the directory is an instance of one or more classes in the schema. User, Computer, and printQueue are examples of classes in Active Directory. For example, if the schema contains a class called User, the user accounts, Sue and Mary, are two objects in the directory that are instances of the class User. The object Mary might contain an optional attribute defined for this class called phoneNumber. This attribute for the object Mary of the class User might have the value 555-0100.
For example, the attribute phoneNumber can be defined to take values of the syntax String(numeric), which means that the value can contain only the digits 0 through 9.
The base schema that ships in Microsoft Windows 2000 contains all of the class and attribute definitions that are used by Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 components.
The schema itself is represented in Active Directory by a set of objects known as "schema objects." For each class in the schema, there is a schema object that defines the class. This object is called a classSchema object. For each attribute in the schema, there is also a schema object that defines the attribute. This object is called an attributeSchema object. Therefore, every class is actually an instance of the classSchema class, and every attribute is an instance of the attributeSchema class. Storing the schema in the directory has many advantages. One example is that when user applications locate the schema in the directory, they can read the schema to discover what types of objects and properties are available.
Administrators and applications can extend the schema by adding new attributes and classes or by modifying existing ones. Schema definitions are required by applications that need to create or modify objects in Active Directory. Applications that are "directory-enabled" are programmed to recognize the attributes and syntaxes that are required to interact with the directory.