Serves forest-wide searches and logons on port 3268 by holding a partial replica of every object. Where no global catalog exists at a site, universal group membership caching can fill in.
Also called global catalog.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains GC in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Azure AI Search replica
Additional copy of a search service's engine and indexes. Replicas spread queries for load balancing and improve availability, so adding them is the fix when queries are throttled with HTTP 503.
- WHERE
Limits a SELECT, UPDATE or DELETE to just the rows meeting a condition. Omit it, and the statement hits every row.
- LSDOU
The sequence in which Group Policy is processed: the local policy first, followed by site, domain and organisational unit policies. The nearest, last-processed setting takes effect unless Enforced or Block Inheritance alters that.
- Universal group membership caching
A per-site option for when no global catalog is present locally: DCs there keep a copy of each user's universal group memberships so sign-ins in a branch office carry on if the WAN link goes down.
Related terms
- Forest
The highest-level AD container and security boundary. Its domain trees, one or more, all use one schema, configuration and global catalog.
- Universal group
The scope for AD DS groups whose members, whether users or other groups, may come from any domain in the forest; the global catalog keeps the membership.