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Windows Server 2008 provides several categories of events that you can audit, as described in the following list:

■ Account Logon Events:  Track user logon and logoff via a user account.

■ Account Management:  Track when a user account or group is created, changed, or

deleted; a user account is renamed, enabled, or disabled; or a password is set or changed.

■ Directory Service Access:  Track access to Active Directory.

■ Logon Events:  Track nonlocal authentication events such as network use of a resource or a remote

service that is logging on by using the local system account.

■ Object Access:  Track when objects are accessed and the type of access performed—for example,

track use of a folder, file, or printer. Configure auditing of specific events through the object’s

properties (such as the Security tab for a folder or file).

■ Policy Change:  Track changes to user rights or audit policies.

■ Privilege Use:  Track when a user exercises a right other than those associated with logon and

logoff.

■ Process Tracking:  Track events related to process execution, such as program execution.

■ System Events:  Track system events such as restart, startup, shutdown, or events that affect

system security or the security log.

Smart card logon is supported for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. To implement smart cards, you must deploy an enterprise certification authority rather than a stand-alone or third-party certification authority to support smart card logon to Windows Server 2003 domains. Windows Server 2003 supports industry standard Personal Computer/Smart Card (PC/SC)–compliant smart cards and readers and provides drivers for commercially available plug and play smart card readers. Windows Server 2003 does not support non-PC/SC-compliant or non–plug and play smart card readers. Some manufacturers might provide drivers for non–plug and play smart card readers that work with Windows Server 2003; however, it is recommended that you purchase only plug and play PC/SC-compliant smart card readers.

The cost of administering a smart card program depends on several factors, including:

■ The number of users enrolled in the smart card program and their location.

■ Your organization’s practices for issuing smart cards to users, including the requirements for verifying user identities. For example, will you require users to simply present a valid personal identification card or will you require a back-ground investigation? Your policies affect the level of security provided as well as the actual cost.

■ Your organization’s practices for users who lose or misplace their smart cards. For example, will you issue temporary smart cards, authorize temporary alternate logon to the network, or make users go home to retrieve their smart cards? Your policies affect how much worker time is lost and how much help desk support is needed.

Your smart card authentication strategy must describe the network logon and authentication methods you use, including:

■ Identify network logon and authentication strategies you want to deploy.

■ Describe smart card deployment considerations and issues.

■ Describe PKI certificate services required to support smart cards.

In addition to smart cards, third-party vendors offer a variety of security products to provide two-factor authentication, such as “security tokens” and biometric accessories. These accessories use extensible features of the Windows Server 2003 graphical logon user interface to provide alternate methods of user authentication.

Active Directory is Microsoft’s implementation of a directory service. A directory service holds information about resources within the domain. Resources are stored as objects and include users, computers, groups, printers, and more.

In Windows Server 2008, five different server roles support Active Directory:

>Active Directory Domain Services

>Active Directory Certificate Services

>Active Directory Federation Services

>Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services

>Active Directory Rights Management Services

The primary role is Active Directory Domain Services. The other roles add to the capabilities of Active Directory. Objects include users, computers, groups, and more. The Active Directory database is stored only on servers holding the role of domain controllers.

A significant benefit of using Active Directory Domain Services is that it enables you as an administrator to manage desktops, network servers, and applications all from a centralized location.

A read-only domain controller (RODC) hosts a read-only copy of the Active Directory database. This is somewhat of an untrue, because changes can be made to the database. However, the changes can come only from other domain controllers, and the entire database isn’t replicated; instead, only a few select objects are replicated.

Usually, domain controllers are considered peers where they are all equal (with a few exceptions). Any objects can be added or modified such as adding a user or a user changing their password on any domain controller. These changes are then replicated to other domain controllers. However, with RODCs, changes to the domain controller can come only from other domain controllers. Moreover, the changes are severely restricted to only a few select objects.

The huge benefit of the RODC is that credentials of all users and computers in Active Directory are not replicated to the RODC. This significantly improves the security of domain controllers that are placed at remote locations.