AD RMS Deployment Components
Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2
This section will review the various components that make up an AD RMS deployment. The following diagram shows the components of an AD RMS deployment.
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AD RMS Certification Server Cluster. The primary server in an AD RMS deployment is used for running administration, account certification, licensing, and publishing services. There can only be one certification cluster per Active Directory forest, which means that for each Windows Active Directory Forest.
AD RMS Licensing-only Cluster These are optional servers and are most often deployed to address specific licensing requirements, such as the following:
To support unique rights-management requirements of a department. For instance, a group within your organization may have a different set of rights policy templates that should not be shared with the rest of the organization. Because only one root cluster is allowed in a forest, setting up a separate root cluster is not possible unless a new forest is created. In this case, you could set up a licensing-only cluster that is dedicated to this group’s needs, and then set up rights policy templates separately for that licensing-only cluster.
To support rights management for external business partners as part of an extranet that requires strong separation and tracking of resources for specific business partners.
SQL Database. This is the component that stores AD RMS-critical information and log data, comprising of configuration, directory services, and logging databases.
Active Directory Domain Services. AD RMS relies on this directory service to identify users and groups. The AD RMS service is registered in the directory to allow clients to discover the URL of the certification cluster.
Active Directory Rights Management Services Client. This will consist of the AD RMS Client software, working together with AD RMS-enabled applications such as Microsoft Office 2007.
The above covers the basic requirements for an AD RMS solution. For additional information, see the related topics section.