7.1. An Overview of OUs

An organizational unit (OU) is a logical group of Active Directory objects, just as its name implies. OUs serve as containers within which other Active Directory objects can be created, but they do not form part of the DNS namespace. They are used solely to create organization within a domain.

OUs can contain the following types of Active Directory objects:

  • Users

  • Groups

  • Computers

  • Shared Folder objects

  • Contacts

  • Printers

  • InetOrgPerson objects

  • MSMQ Queue Aliases

  • Other OUs

Perhaps the most useful feature of OUs is that they can contain other OU objects. As a result, systems administrators can hierarchically group resources and other objects according to business practices. The OU structure is extremely flexible and, as you will see ...

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