Nesting Strategy of Riordan Manufacturing Directory - Essay Example

The Nesting Strategy of Microsoft Windows Active Directory essentially requires creating a design strategy whereby:
- Users and Groups are created.
- Users are assigned to appropriate Universal or Global groups.
- Universal or Global Groups are assigned to Domain Local Groups.

The Windows Active Directory “group scoping” comprises the following groups:

- Universal Groups – These are formed in the forest comprising of multiple trees (that is, multiple domains). The users assigned in universal groups can get privileges on any domain within the forest. Universal groups can also incorporate other universal groups and global groups within the same forest.

- Global Groups – These are formed within the same domain in a tree. These can incorporate users from the same domain and can also incorporate the other global groups within the same domain.

- Domain Local Groups – These are formed within the same domain in a tree. These can incorporate users from any domain within the forest (provided trust relationships are in place) and can also incorporate the other universal groups, global groups, and local groups of the same domain.

The difference between groups in organizational units (OUs) is that the groups comprise users & groups while the OUs comprise users and computers. The purpose of groups is to assign privileges to users about networked resources while the purpose of OUs is to use Group Policy Organization (GPO) to apply security & other configuration settings.

All groups proposed herewith are security groups. The business framework of Riordan Manufacturing has two locations having corporate functions – Corporate HQ and China. The Corporate HQ has Finance, HR, Marketing, and Corporate groups and China has Finance QA and corporate groups. The corporate functions will need access to resources of all locations and department functions as appropriate. In this context the following policies are proposed:
- The corporate HQ governance functions shall have access rights everywhere on the active directory.
- The China governance functions shall have access rights in China and Corporate business areas.
- The QA function in China would govern quality control activities across the group and hence shall have access right everywhere on the AD.
- All other users shall have access rights within their respective departments/locations.

To support the above policies, the following Nesting Strategy has been proposed for Riordan Manufacturing:

Primary Domain: Riordan.com.

Domain Local Groups: Corporate, Corporate R&D, Pontiac, and Albany.

Child Domain: China.Riordan.com.

Domain Local Groups: China Corporate, China MFG, and China MTLS.

The Local groups are proposed to be assigned rights within their respective business areas as is evident by their names.