Information Technology

State Government Enterprise IT Standards

Standard S-002-002 - Suspended

This Standard was suspended on September 25, 2003
A new standard has been proposed by the CIO Council.
The new standard for directory standard is being considered for adoption.

Technology:	Platform Architecture - Software
Category:	Enterprise Windows 2000 Active Directory Infrastructure
Purpose:	To establish the ITD Windows 2000 Active Directory forest service as the standard for Enterprise Directory Services.
Effective Date:	November 30, 2001

Introduction:

The State of Iowa Information Technology Department (ITD) has implemented the core Enterprise Windows 2000 Active Directory Infrastructure. The first phase of this initiative was the creation of a single forest model. A single Active Directory forest provides the state the opportunity to implement a network designed on an enterprise level. This network will provide greater opportunities to share information and implement enterprise-wide applications. Access to any resource in the forest can be granted to any user in the forest without additional accounts being created or security measures taken. At the same time, access to a resource is strictly controlled by the agency that owns the resource.
If an agency chooses to implement Windows 2000 Active Directory within their environment, the Enterprise Windows 2000 Active Directory Infrastructure will serve as the enterprise forest directory to those agencies.

This standard does not address a requirement for an agency to implement Active Directory within their agency environment nor does it indicate a timeframe for when agencies might perform an Active Directory implementation within their environment. The standard does address membership in the Enterprise Windows 2000 Active Directory forest in the event an agency Windows 2000 Active Directory infrastructure is deployed.

Standard:

The Microsoft Windows 2000 Active Directory forest implemented by the Information Technology Department is the established Active Directory forest standard for the State enterprise. This Active Directory forest serves as an enterprise directory to support all agencies. If an agency implements a new Windows 2000 Active Directory environment, or migrates their current Windows NT environment to a Windows 2000 Active Directory environment, that agency will be required to join the ITD Enterprise Windows 2000 Active Directory forest.

Terms:

Windows 2000
Microsoft's next generation of network operating system after Windows NT4.

Active Directory
Active Directory in Windows 2000 is a network directory service that is used to define, arrange, and manage objects, such as user data, printers, and servers, in a hierarchical arrangement so that they are available to users and applications throughout the organization. This hierarchical arrangement is called a Forest.

Single Forest
In a single forest design, state Agencies choosing to implement Active Directory would be added to the State of Iowa's existing Active Directory forest as a separate entity called a domain. The agency domains will connect to a common forest root domain, GOV.STATE.IA.US, that is managed by the Information Technology Department. The agency domains will be managed by the respective agencies.