Activity 5.1: Defining OU Structures

In this activity you will read about an organization that is planning its Active Directory infrastructure. Your task is to analyze the organization's environment to define the OU structures needed in an Active Directory infrastructure. You will define the OU structures by creating a diagram.

Scenario: Arbor Shoes

You are an infrastructure planner on the Active Directory infrastructure design team for Arbor Shoes, a distributor of upscale non-leather shoes operating from three locations in San Francisco, Houston, and Boston. The business and technical environment analysis documents, the forest plan, and the domain plan have already been compiled, and copies have been distributed to everyone on the team. You are now in the process of defining the OU structures for the organization.

Arbor Shoes is a centralized organization, with major IT administration issues handled from its headquarters in Boston. Each of the three locations also has a small autonomous IT staff to handle support tasks. Your design team has created the domain hierarchy diagram shown in Figure 5.12.

Figure 5.12 Domain hierarchy diagram for Arbor Shoes

While reading through the business and technical environment analysis documents, you note the following:

• One administrative group at each location handles the administration of users.
• A second administrative group at each location handles the administration of computers.
• A third administrative group at each location handles the administration of resources.
• Arbor Shoes requires a specific logon and logoff script for all users at each location, except for users in the Finance department. The Finance department at each location requires a separate logon script but no logoff script.

1. Diagram the OU structures needed to delegate administration for the corp.a-100times.com domain. Explain your reasoning for defining each OU.
   
   
   
2. Diagram the OU structures needed to hide objects. Explain your reasoning for defining each OU.
   
   
   
3. Diagram the OU structures needed to administer group policy. Explain your reasoning for defining each OU.
   
   
   

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