Configuring Active Directory Server Roles : Administering Active Directory - Creating OUs

Now that you have looked at several different ways in which OUs can be used to bring organization to the objects within Active Directory, it's time to look at how you can create and manage them.

Through the use of the Active Directory Users And Computers administrative tool, also called the MMC (Microsoft Management Console), you can quickly and easily add, move, and change OUs. This graphical tool makes it easy to visualize and create the various levels of hierarchy an organization requires.

Figure 1 shows a geographically based OU structure that a multinational company might use. Note that the organization is based in North America and it has a corporate office located there. In general, the other offices are much smaller than the corporate office located in North America.

Figure 1. A geographically based OU structure

It's important to note that this OU structure could have been designed in several different ways. For example, we could have chosen to group all of the offices located in the United States within an OU named "U.S." However, due to the large size of these offices, we chose to place these objects at the same level as the Canada and Mexico OUs. This prevents an unnecessarily deep OU hierarchy while still logically grouping the offices.

Exercise 1 walks you through the process of creating several OUs for a multinational business.

Exercise 1: Creating an OU Structure

1. Open the Active Directory Users And Computers administrative tool.

2. Right-click the name of the local domain, and choose New => Organizational Unit. You will see the dialog box shown in the following graphic. Notice that this box shows you the current context within which the OU will be created. In this case, you're creating a top-level OU, so the full path is simply the name of the domain.

   
   
   

3. Type North America for the name of the first OU. Uncheck the box that states Protect Container From Accidental Deletion and click OK to create this object.

4. Create the following top-level OUs by right-clicking the name of the domain and choosing New => Organizational Unit. Also make sure to uncheck Protect Container From Accidental Deletion for all OUs in these labs, because you'll be deleting some of these OUs in later exercises.

   Africa

   Asia

   Europe

   South America

   Note that the order in which you create the OUs is not important. In this exercise, you are simply using a method that emphasizes the hierarchical relationship.

5. Create the following second-level OUs within the North America OU by right-clicking the North America OU and selecting New => Organizational Unit:

   Austin

   Boston

   Canada

   Chicago

   Corporate

   Los Angeles

   Mexico

   New York

   San Francisco

6. Create the following OUs under the Asia OU:

   China

   India

   Malaysia

   Vietnam

7. Create the following OUs under the Europe OU:

   France

   Germany

   Spain

   UK

8. Create the following OUs under the South America OU:

   Argentina

   Brazil

   Chile

   Peru

9. Create the following third-level OUs Under the India OU by right-clicking India within the Asia OU, and selecting New => Organizational Unit:

   Bombay

   New Delhi

10. Within the North America Corporate OU, create the following OUs:

    Engineering

    HR

    Marketing

    Research

    Sales

11. When you have completed the creation of the OUs, you should have a structure that looks similar to the one in the following graphic.