2.5 What’s New or Changed in Domain Services for Windows (OES 2018)

In addition to bug fixes, Domain Services for Windows (DSfW) provides the following enhancements and changes in OES 2018.

Schema Update

DSfW on OES 2018 supports schema level and domain functional level equivalent to AD in Windows Server 2012. With updated schema level, the applications that integrates with the later releases of AD can work better in DSfW environment. This schema update is also being made available on OES 2018 SP2 in patches. For more information, see Section 11.0, Activities After Upgrade or Migration.

Fine-Grained Password Policy

A feature supported on AD 2012 schema, enables user level configuration of password policies. Multiple password policies can be specified for a particular user and different restrictions can be applied to different set of users using this feature. For more information, see Section 18.2, Configuring Fine-Grained Password Policy.

AES Encryption

AES based encryption is a more secured encryption for communication between workstations and domain controllers when compared with the existing ARCFOUR based encryption. For more information, see Section 16.0, Understanding AES Encryption for Communication.

NSS AD and DSfW

OES NSS AD server can now be configured as a member server to DSfW domain. DSfW domain users can access NSS AD file server using domain authentication.