This section provides preinstallation information, along with information on this release of the centralized management for , that will help you plan your deployment. This section also outlines the main tasks that make up a centralized management deployment; steps for these tasks are provided in Build Centralized Management.

Centralized management provides essential services for manageability, scale, and capacity. All of the hosting scenarios discussed in the solution benefit from a centrally managed platform built around Active Directory.

See Solution Overview for more information about hosting solution scenarios.

The reference architecture uses fictitious company names when discussing example implementations of the Active Directory structure. These names correspond to the organizational units (OUs) as follows:

• Hoster - fabrikam is the example service provider.
  
• Reseller - consolidatedmessenger is the example reseller. consolidatedmessenger resells hosting capacity to customers.
  
• Customers - alpineskihouse, and northwindtraders are the example customers.