Active Directory Cookbook

5.9. Delegating Control of an OU

Problem

You want to delegate administrative access of an OU to allow a group of users to manage objects in the OU.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Open the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.

2. If you need to change domains, right-click on “Active Directory Users and Computers” in the left pane, select Connect to Domain, enter the domain name, and click OK.

3. In the left pane, browse to the target OU, right-click on it, and select Delegate Control.

4. Select the users and/or groups to delegate control to by using the Add button and click Next.

5. Select the type of privilege to grant the users/groups and click Next.

6. Click Finish.

Using a command-line interface

ACLs can be set via a command-line with the dsacls utility from the Support Tools. See Recipe 14.10 for more information.

Discussion

Although you can delegate control of an OU to a particular user, it is generally a better practice to use a group instead. Even if there is only one user to delegate control to, you should create a group, add that user as a member, and use that group in the ACL. That way, in the future when you have to replace that user with someone else, you can make sure the new person is in the correct group instead of modifying ACLs again.

See Also

Recipe 14.10 for changing the ACL on an object