Chapter 6: DesigningOrganizational Units for Group Policy

MICROSOFT EXAM OBJECTIVES COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER

• Design an OU structure.

  • Identify the Group Policy requirements for the OU structure.

• Design a strategy for Group Policy implementation.

  • Design the administration of Group Policy objects (GPOs).

  • Design the deployment strategy of GPOs.

  • Create a strategy for configuring the user environment with Group Policy.

  • Create a strategy for configuring the computer environment with Group Policy.

Organizational unit (OU) design should always start with the administrative requirements for the organization. In Chapter 5, Designing an Organizational Unit Structure for Administrative Purposes, we discussed how to designate who will have control of the OUs based on the requirements for maintaining the objects within Active Directory. By making administrative control the highest design priority, you make administration easier for those who need to maintain objects and reduce the cost of administrative overhead.

After the requirements for administration have been addressed, the design team will need to identify how Group Policy Objects (GPOs) will be applied within the infrastructure. Because group policies can be applied in many different ways, the administrative structure that has been decided upon should not be affected by the application of Group Policy. However, you may encounter instances when the OU design will be enhanced due to the GPOs that need to be applied.

In this chapter, we are going to concentrate on the different ways that GPOs can be applied and the design decisions that you will need to consider when you are identifying the settings and restrictions that you want to have enforced on users, groups, and computers. Because the designer has several options available when they are using GPOs, including security settings, user restrictions, and software deployment, they will have to make decisions in order to guarantee that the design is the most efficient possible.