A.0 Schema

In Domain Services for Windows (DSfW), the schema is stored in its own partition (the schema partition) in the directory. The attributes and classes are stored in the schema partition as directory objects that are called schema objects. The schema partition is represented by an object that is an instance of the Directory Management Domain (DMD) class. The distinguished name of the schema partition can be expressed as cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=ForestRoot DomainName. By default, every first domain controller in the forest holds a replica of the schema partition. The attributes of rootDSE identify, among other things, the directory partitions such as domain, schema, configuration directory partitions, and the forest root domain directory partition. The schemaNamingContext attribute provides the location of the schema so that applications that connect to any domain controller can find and read the schema.

eDirectory administration tools and applications locate the schema by using the distinguished name. However, the NDS schema still exists and is the real internal representation of the schema from the Directory System Agent (DSA) perspective.

All applications can continue to use the subschemaSubentry attribute from the rootDSE. The distinguished name of the subschema subentry container looks like cn=aggregate,cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=ForestRootDomainName.

Ensure that you replicate the configuration and schema partitions to all the domain controllers of a domain to improve the response time and performance of the server.