Active Directory federation Services - wikipedia Active Directory federation Services Active Directory Federation Services ( AD FS ), a software component developed by Microsoft, can run on Windows Server operating systems to provide users with single sign - on access to systems and applications located across organizational boundaries. It uses a claims - based access - control authorization model to maintain application security and to implement federated identity. Claims - based authentication involves authenticating a user based on a set of claims about that user 's identity contained in a trusted token. Such a token is often issued and signed by an entity that is able to authenticate the user by other means, and that is trusted by the entity doing the claims - based authentication. It is part of the Active Directory Services. In AD FS, identity federation is established between two organizations by establishing trust between two security realms. A federation server on one side ( the Accounts side ) authenticates the user through the standard means in Active Directory Domain Services and then issues a token containing a series of claims about the user, including its identity. On the other side, the Resources side, another federation server validates the token and issues another token for the local servers to accept the claimed identity. This allows a system to provide controlled access to its resources or services to a user that belongs to another security realm without requiring the user to authenticate directly to the system and without the two systems sharing a database of user identities or passwords. In practice a user might typically perceive this approach as follows : The user logs into their local PC ( as they typically would when commencing work in the morning ). The user needs to obtain information from a partner company 's extranet website, for example to obtain pricing or product details. The user navigates to the partner - company extranet site, for example : http://example.com. The partner website now does not require any password to be typed in ; instead, the user credentials are passed to the partner extranet site using AD FS. The user is now logged into the partner website and can interact with the website as if logged in. AD FS integrates with Active Directory Domain Services, using it as an identity provider. AD FS can interact with other WS - * and SAML 2.0 - compliant federation services as federation partners. Contents 1 Versions 2 See also 3 References 4 External links Versions ADFS 1.0 - Windows Server 2003 R2 ( additional download ) ADFS 1.1 - Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 ADFS 2.0 - Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 ( download from Microsoft.com ) ADFS 2.1 - Windows Server 2012 ADFS 3.0 - Windows Server 2012 R2 ADFS 4.0 - Windows Server 2016 See also Claims - based identity Digital identity Information Card LDAP SAML Windows CardSpace Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2008 WS - Federation Office 365 References Jump up ^ `` Introducing AD FS 2.0 ''. Microsoft TechNet. May 2, 2010. Retrieved March 2, 2017. Jump up ^ `` An Introduction to Claims ''. MSDN. 2016. Retrieved May 26, 2016. Jump up ^ `` What is Federated Identity Management ? ''. Technopedia. 2016. Retrieved May 26, 2016. Jump up ^ `` ADFS Deep Dive ''. MSDN. November 2, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2016. External links AD FS 2.0 Content Map AD FS TechNet Library AD FS MSDN Library AD FS in Server 2016 What 's new Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Active_Directory_Federation_Services&oldid=822559467 '' Categories : 2008 software Windows Server Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Français Polski Edit links This page was last edited on 27 January 2018, at 02 : 24. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what is the use of active directory federation services
Answer: to provide users with single sign-on access to systems and applications located across organizational boundaries