Active Directory Tier Model Documentation

Welcome to the Active Directory Tier Model documentation.

Contributing

• Contributing & Change Process - How to propose changes: open an issue first, agree on scope, then submit a focused pull request. Please read this before opening a PR.

Getting Started

• Quick Deployment Guide - Fast-track deployment instructions for experienced administrators
• Detailed Deployment Guide - Comprehensive step-by-step deployment walkthrough

Core Documentation

• Deployment Methodology - Deployment strategy, validation framework, and idempotency principles
• Drift Detection - Detecting configuration drift and compliance auditing
• Cmdlet Architecture - Modular cmdlet design for testing and maintainability
• Conditional Principals - Managing conditional principals and dynamic group resolution

Component Management

• GPO Management Strategy - Group Policy Object configuration and deployment
• GPO Management Guidance - Best practices, baseline selection, the SOE override model, firewall lockdown, and upgrade lifecycle
• ADMX Management - Managing ADMX templates and administrative templates

Operations & Testing

• Tier Model Logging - Logging configuration and usage for deployment operations
• Test Tag Matrix - Test organization, tagging, and execution strategies
• Test Coverage - Comprehensive test coverage analysis and roadmap
• CI/CD Integration - Continuous Integration and Deployment pipelines

Monitoring

• Sentinel Monitoring - Out-of-the-box Microsoft Sentinel monitoring for a deployed Tier Model (Content Hub solution)

Reference

• Language Support - Supported languages (English only today), the 18 fully-localized Windows Server languages, and the roadmap and challenges for community localization