Chapter 7. Designing the Windows 2000 Domain Structure

A motorcycle has two wheels, a motor, a fuel tank, user controls, and all the components necessary for a motorcycle to be a motorcycle. Active Directory is like the drive train of Windows 2000. It links the components that provide power to the machine with the components that make the machine move or useful. How well your motorcycle runs and distance between unplanned overhauls is determined by the quality of your drive train. Nobody wants a motorcycle that only has one gear, or one whose chain breaks in the middle of a mountain pass.

Active Directory is a domain structure built upon one or more namespaces that are within an Active Directory Forest. How you define this domain structure, and the organizational units (OUs) within, determines to what extent your Windows 2000 and Active Directory implementation meets the business requirements defined at the beginning of the project.