Windows Small Business Server 2011 : An Active Directory Primer (part 3) - Using AD DS Tools - Using ADSI Edit , Using Group Policy Management

6.2 Using ADSI Edit

For even more complete access to object attributes, you can use the Active Directory Services Interface Editor (ADSI Edit) Console, shown in Figure 8. This tool provides full access to all the attributes of every object in your AD DS domain, including a great many that the average administrator never has to use.

Figure 8. The ADSI Edit Console.

Opening the Properties sheet for an object in ADSI Edit displays an interface like that shown in Figure 9. Instead of the intuitive controls found in Active Directory Users and Computers, ADSI Edit provides direct access to the attributes and assumes that you are familiar with the correct syntax for the attributes that you intend to modify.

Figure 9. The Properties sheet for a user object in the ADSI Edit Console.

6.3 Using Group Policy Management

To manage Group Policy settings for your AD DS network, the primary tool is the Group Policy Management Console, shown in Figure 10. Group Policy Management, like Active Directory Users and Computers, is an MMC snap-in that displays your GPOs; the settings they contain; and the domain, site, and OU objects to which you can link them.

Figure 10. The Group Policy Management Console.

The basic functions of the Group Policy Management Console are to display information about GPOs and manage the links between GPOs and AD DS objects. To edit the GPOs, you use the Group Policy Management Editor Console, shown in Figure 11. Each GPO has two main sections, one containing settings that apply to computers and one that applies to users. When a computer on the network starts, it downloads all the GPOs linked to it and applies the Computer Configuration settings. Then, when a user logs on to the domain, the system applies the User Configuration settings.

Figure 11. The Group Policy Management Editor Console.

Within each of the two sections is a hierarchy of nodes and folders containing hundreds of individual policy settings, as shown in Figure 12. You can enable as many or as few policy settings as you want in a particular GPO.

Figure 12. Nodes and folders in the Group Policy Management Editor Console.

When you select a Group Policy setting, a Properties sheet appears, as shown in Figure 13, containing controls that you use to configure the setting.

Figure 13. The Properties sheet for a setting in the Group Policy Management Editor Console.