AD DS Objects, Classes, and Attributes

What are objects, classes, and attributes?

Objects are created from classes, and classes have attributes

AD DS objects are created based on an object class. Attributes describe an object class. For example, Ed Meadows is an object created from the user class. Ed has all the attributes of the user class.

Each class has rules

Each class has rules that define which attributes are required and which are optional. For example, the user class consists of more than 400 possible attributes. This includes Common Name (cn), which is required, andManager, which is not required.

The schema rarely changes

Generally, the schema does not change very frequently. However, when some enterprise‑level applications (such as Microsoft Exchange Server) are introduced, some schema changes are required. These changes enable objects, including user objects, to have additional attributes. For example, email account information.