HP CIFS Server 2.2i Administrator's Guide version A.01.11.01

Primary Domain Controller (PDC) Support
Introduction
Chapter 4 87
• Windows NT administrators may group workstations and servers
under the authority of a domain controller
• Domain members may be centrally administered by using domains
to group related machines. One of the benefits of this is the ability for
user accounts to be common for multiple systems. A user may now
make one password change which will affect multiple systems
accessed by that user. Another benefit is that IT administration work
is reduced, since there is no longer a need for individual accounts to
be administered on each system
Primary Domain Controllers
The Primary Domain Controller (PDC) is responsible for several tasks
within the domain. These include:
• Authenticating user logons for users and workstations that are
members of the domain
• Acting as a centralized point for managing user account and group
information for the domain
• A user logged on to the Primary Domain Controller (PDC) as the
domain administrator can add, remove or modify Windows domain
account information on any machine that is part of the domain
• It should be noted that the current version of the PDC does not
support having a BDC in the domain. Because of this, if the PDC
fails, there is no way for Windows Client users of the domain to be
authenticated. And, if a disk fails on the PDC, there is no backup on
the domain with the critical credential data. This means that it is
very important to make backups of users credential files. It also
means that there is no system that can be easily promoted to a PDC
to take the place of the existing PDC
Domain Members
• The following member servers are supported:
— Windows NT
— Windows 2000
— Windows XP
— HP CIFS