Forests, Domains, and Organizational Units

Forest Design

Single Forest Benefits:

• Simplified administration and trust relationships

• Automatic trust between all domains

• Shared Global Catalog and schema

• Unified security boundaries

Multiple Forest Scenarios:

• Security Requirements: Different security policies or admin teams

• Political Boundaries: Separate business units or acquisitions

• Geographic Isolation: Different regulatory requirements

• Technical Constraints: Incompatible schema requirements

Domain Design Considerations

Single Domain Model:

• Pros: Simplified administration, no trust relationships, easier management

• Cons: Single point of failure, potential performance issues, limited delegation

Multiple Domain Model:

• Pros: Distributed administration, improved performance, political boundaries

• Cons: Complex trust relationships, increased overhead, replication complexity

Domain Design Factors:

• Administrative Autonomy: Need for separate admin teams

• Security Isolation: Different security requirements

• Replication Control: Network bandwidth limitations

• Political Requirements: Organizational boundaries

Organizational Units

OU Design Models:

Geographic Model:

Company.com
├── North-America
│   ├── USA
│   │   ├── New-York
│   │   └── California
│   └── Canada
│       └── Toronto
└── Europe
    ├── UK
    └── Germany

Functional Model:

Company.com
├── Sales
├── Marketing
├── IT
├── HR
└── Finance

Administrative Model:

Company.com
├── Users
│   ├── Executives
│   ├── Managers
│   └── Employees
├── Computers
│   ├── Workstations
│   ├── Servers
│   └── Laptops
└── Resources
    ├── Printers
    └── Shared-Folders

Hybrid Model:

Company.com
├── Corporate
│   ├── Users
│   ├── Computers
│   └── Groups
└── Divisions
    ├── Sales
    │   ├── Users
    │   └── Computers
    └── IT
        ├── Users
        └── Computers