Specifications include, but are not limited to: The KETS Active Directory is a mixed mode Windows Server single forest with 180 domains, averaging 3,500 users per domain. All domain controllers are running Windows Server. The smallest domain has approximately 500 users while the largest has nearly 125,000. The forest consists of a root domain, one domain each for the Department of Education, KY School for the Deaf (KSD), KY School for the Blind (KSB), a research and development domain as well as one domain for each of our 171 school districts. There are also three additional domains that are used for piloting updates. Each domain has a minimum of three domain controllers with one acting as a global catalog server. One DC for each domain is located in Microsoft Azure ‘in the cloud’. This provides off-site redundancy from a district perspective. Generally, each district is also a single site within the directory structure. Replication within the forest is a hub and spoke model with replication hub servers hosted in Microsoft Azure and site links created between each domain and the hub site. AT&T’s Netbond VPN solution as well as Microsoft ExpressRoute allow for a reliable network connection between the KETS on premise network and the cloud subnet. Windows Server DNS provide naming services throughout the internal network. WINS is only enabled in a few districts. DHCP provides IP addresses to workstations while servers use static addressing. Organizational units have been created within each district, named ‘Students’, ‘Staff’, ‘Leadership’, ‘Workstations’, and ‘Local Servers’. These top-level organizational units cannot be deleted or have their permissions modified. Key district technical staff have been delegated permissions to create/modify child organizational units for each school in the district as prescribed in the KETS OU Naming Standards document (available upon request).
