Automating Active Directory® Administration with Windows PowerShell® 2.0

Manage Objects

Objects are very generic. The term object describes a grouping of attributes or properties that have some structure around them. Users or groups, for example, are just objects with different sets of attributes. The schema is the thing that defines what the object is. If you look at the user object class in the AD schema, you'll see the attributes that user objects can contain. Figure 7.1 shows the attribute definitions for the user object class.

You'll notice that two fields define attributes: Mandatory and Optional. The Optional field is full of different attributes a user can have, but the Mandatory field is empty! Does this mean the user object isn't required to have any attributes? On the contrary, user objects are required ...