What is an Active Directory (AD) Forest?

An Active Directory forest is the largest logical container (An Active Directory container is also an Active Directory object that holds other Active Directory objects. Other Examples of Active Directory Container objects are Active Directory Domains and Organizational Units (OUs)) within Active Directory which holds all Active Directory domains together. All domains in an Active Directory forest are linked together via transitive trusts that are created automatically.

The main characteristics of an Active Directory forest are

• All domains within a forest share implicit two-way transitive trusts with the other domains within the forest.

• All domains within an Active Directory forest share a common Active Directory schema.

• Noncontiguous namespace and differing name structure.

• All domains share a common global catalog.

• Active Directory domains are independent. Cross-domain communication is enabled by the Active Directory forest.

A typical structure of an Active Directory forest is shown below.