Active Directory is a Microsoft directory service that provides the University community with a highly secure and redundant authentication and access control source. This service can be leveraged by application owners looking for a centralized place to manage access to their applications. Active Directory interfaces natively with Microsoft products as well as non-Microsoft technologies via LDAP and Kerberos protocols.

Active Directory Upgrade

As a foundational technology that supports identity and access management at UConn, ITS strives to keep it, and all of our technologies, up-to-date as this generally provides a more robust and secure environment.  We assessed the current design of our AD infrastructure in preparation for an AD version upgrade and have elected to transition from a physical/virtual hybrid to a purely virtual environment.  The upgrade will be divided into four phases with a projected completion date of June 29. We do not anticipate service interruptions.

• Phase 1 (completed 28 June 2018)
  Update the Schema version by adding new 2016 Domain Controllers.
• Phase 2 (29 June 2018)
  Add the remaining 2016 Domain Controllers across three physical sites (MSB, HBL and Microsoft Azure) over a two-week period.  This configuration will provide maximum load balancing for performance and security.
• Phase 3 (10 July 2018)
  Remove 2012 Domain Controllers.  Each of the 2012 Domain Controllers will be taken offline.  Domain connections will be automatically redirected to the new 2016 Domain Controllers.
• Phase 4 (16 July 2018)
  Once all the 2012 Domain Controllers are taken offline, ITS will run the final FFL/DFL (forest functional level/domain functional level) update.

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Proposed upgraded configuration (login required)