Windows Server® 2012 Unleashed

Overuse of OUs in Domain Design

Administrators have heard conflicting reports for years about the use of OUs in AD DS. Books and resource guides and pure conjecture have fueled the confusion and befuddled many administrators over best practice for their OU structure.

The basic truth about OUs, however, is that you likely do not need as many as you think you need. Add an OU to a domain if a completely separate group needs special administrative access to a segment of users. If this condition does not exist, and a single group of people administers the entire environment, there is often no need to create more than one OU.

This is not to say that there might be other reasons to create OUs. Application of Group Policy, for example, is a potential ...