At this stage, the only supported integration between the Domino Directory and the Windows 2000 Active Directory is via LDAP referral. That is, configuring Directory Assistance within Domino to perform an LDAP lookup of Windows 2000's Active Directory. You can also use the LDIF file format for the Domino Upgrade Services to perform a one-off bulk import from Active Directory into Domino.

Optional networking components
You should be careful when selecting the optional networking components to install in Windows 2000 Server. The Windows 2000 default installation selects IIS 5.0. You should be aware that this includes its own SMTP server as well. This could mean contention with the TCP/IP ports 80 with Domino's own HTTP task and 25 for SMTP listening and forwarding since these services will be set to autostart each time Windows 2000 boots. You probably shouldn't install IIS 5.0 anyway, unless you really need it, but keep this warning in mind if you use either HTTP or SMTP mail to or from Domino.

The future
This is where things are looking very interesting. What I am outlining here is taken from Lotus' white paper entitled "Lotus Notes and Domino Strategy for Windows 2000 Integration" and also from Fiona Carr's presentation at Lotusphere (ID126) called "Domino, Notes, and Windows 2000."

The next feature release of Domino will be certified (as opposed to being merely supported) on the Windows 2000 platform, and Domino should also be a Windows 2000 logo application. The distinction between being certified and supported is a measure of Lotus' confidence and the amount of testing done on Domino with Windows 2000. Being supported means that Lotus will work with customers who experience problems and work to resolve them, but there exists the possibility that Lotus may have to advise the customer to revert to a previous certified version (meaning Windows NT 4.0).

With Domino being a Windows 2000 logo application, this means that Domino will integrate with and use a number of key features of Windows 2000. These include an MMC snap-in for Domino Administration, utilizing Windows Installer, and synchronization/replication between the Domino Directory and Active Directory. Exactly how this will work has yet to be announced.

Windows 2000 Active Directory has API called ADSI (Active Directory Services Interface) that allows scripting languages (VBScript, JScript, PerlScript, and others) to read and update Active Directory objects. Domino will provide an ADSI Service Provider that will extend this scripting ability to include Domino Directory objects.

My personal belief is that the MMC snap-in will not be as useful or extensive as the current Domino Administrator product, but it may be of some use when working on a Domino server if no Administrator client is readily available. Future non-Windows server platforms will use a Java-based installer.

Other planned features include support for Unicode, improved support for Microsoft Cluster Server, and "side-by-side" support to resolve problems with shared DLLs on Windows 2000. In case you're wondering, I too would like to know how this feature will work.