Active Directory® for Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 Technical Reference

Designing the Organizational Unit Structure

Once the domain-level design is complete, the next step is to create an OU design for each domain. As described in Chapter 2, OUs are used to create a hierarchical structure within a domain. This hierarchy can then be used to delegate administrative tasks or to apply a set of Group Policies to a collection of objects.

Organizational Units and Active Directory Design

Windows NT domains use a flat namespace, that is, all of the objects in the domain are at the same level. There is no way to assign administrative control of one object in the domain without giving the same level of administrative control over all other objects in the directory. OUs in Active Directory change this by creating a hierarchy of ...