Working with Groups

A group is a special type of account that represents a set of users who have common network access needs. Groups can dramatically simplify the task of assigning network access rights to users. Rather than assign access rights to each user individually, groups let you assign rights to the group. Those rights extend to any user that you add to the group.

Creating a group

To create a group, follow these steps:

1. Log on as an administrator.

   You must have administrator privileges to perform this procedure.

2. Choose Start Administrative Tools Active Directory Users and Computers.

   The Active Directory Users and Computers management console appears.

3. Right-click the domain to which you want to add the group and then choose New Group.

   The New Object-Group dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 16-8.

   
   Figure 16-8: Creating a new group.

4. Type the name for the new group.

   Enter the name in both text boxes.

5. Click OK.

   The group is created.

Adding a member to a group

Groups are collections of objects, called members. The members of a group can be user accounts or other groups. When you create a group, it has no members. As a result, the group isn't useful until you add a member. Follow these steps to add a member to a group:

1. Log on as an administrator.

   You must have administrator privileges to perform this procedure.

2. Choose Start Administrative Tools Active Directory Users and Computers.

   The Active Directory Users and Computers management console appears.

3. Open the folder that contains the group to which you want to add members and then double-click the group.

   The Group Properties dialog box appears.

4. Click the Members tab.

   The members of the group are displayed, as shown in Figure 16-9.

   
   Figure 16-9: Adding members to a group.

5. Type the name of a user or group that you want to add to this group, and then click Add.

6. Repeat Step 5 for each user or group that you want to add.

7. Click OK.

Tip 

The Group Properties dialog box also has a Member Of tab, which lists each group that the current group is a member of.

Adding members to a group is only half the process of making a group useful. The other half is adding access rights to the group so that the members of the group can do something, as shown in Chapter 22.