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RenamedCompute, Security & InfraAzure

Azure Active Directory Domain Services Microsoft Entra Domain Services

Legacy names Azure Active Directory Domain Services, Azure AD Domain Services

Managed domain service providing Active Directory-compatible domain join, Group Policy, LDAP, and Kerberos/NTLM authentication without deploying domain controllers.

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Naming timeline

  1. Azure Active Directory Domain Services

    · General Availability

    Reached general availability as managed domain services integrated with Azure Active Directory.

  2. Microsoft Entra Domain ServicesCurrent name

    · Microsoft Entra Rebrand

    Renamed to Microsoft Entra Domain Services in the Microsoft Entra admin center, Azure portal, and official documentation.

What is Azure Active Directory Domain Services called now?

Azure Active Directory Domain Services is now called Microsoft Entra Domain Services, with the latest change in October 2023 (Microsoft Entra Rebrand). Earlier names covered by this entry also include Azure AD Domain Services. Managed domain service providing Active Directory-compatible domain join, Group Policy, LDAP, and Kerberos/NTLM authentication without deploying domain controllers. Only the customer-facing name changed; the underlying technical identifiers remain backward compatible.

Also known as

  • Azure AD DS
  • AAD DS

Technical identifiers

Technical identifiers unchanged. Only the customer-facing product name changed; the APIs, CLI commands, IAM roles and Terraform resources below keep their legacy identifiers for backward compatibility.

ARM Resource Providers (Microsoft.*)Microsoft.AAD/domainServices
Azure CLI (az) / PowerShellaz ad ds New-AzADDomainService
Entra ID / Azure RBAC RolesDomain Services Contributor Application Administrator Groups Administrator
Terraform Resources (azurerm_*)azurerm_active_directory_domain_service azurerm_active_directory_domain_service_replica_set azurerm_active_directory_domain_service_trust

ARM Resource Provider (Microsoft.AAD/domainServices), Azure CLI (az ad ds), and Terraform (azurerm_active_directory_domain_service) retain their legacy AAD identifiers.

Notes & disambiguation

  • Renamed from Azure Active Directory Domain Services (Azure AD DS) to Microsoft Entra Domain Services in July–October 2023 as part of the Microsoft Entra ID product family rebrand.
  • Enables lift-and-shift cloud workloads that rely on legacy Active Directory Domain Services protocols (LDAP, LDAPS, Kerberos, NTLM, Group Policy) to authenticate against a managed domain synchronized with Microsoft Entra ID.
  • All underlying technical identifiers—including the ARM Resource Provider (Microsoft.AAD/domainServices), Azure CLI command group (az ad ds), Azure RBAC role (Domain Services Contributor), and Terraform resource (azurerm_active_directory_domain_service)—retain their legacy AAD and active_directory naming.

Sources & official documentation

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