Organizational Units

Organizational units (OUs) are objects that exist within Active Directory as containers, meaning they can contain other objects, such as users, computers, or even other OUs. They serve to help administrators organize and administer the directory. When Active Directory is first installed, only one OU exists by default—Domain Controllers. Figure 26.1 shows the default view of a fresh Active Directory installation.

Tip

If you upgrade your network from NT to Windows 2000 Active Directory, all your users will, by default, end up in the Users Container. In addition, your computers will be in the Computers Container. To reap the benefit of the hierarchical Active Directory, you must move the users and computers to organizational ...

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