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Learn how to design and implement group policies to control user and computer environments. Understand the application and deployment strategies to effectively manage settings.
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Goals • Design Group Policies to control the user environment • Design Group Policies to control the computer environment • Understand Group Policy application • Design a Group Policy administration strategy • Design a Group Policy deployment strategy
(Skill 1) Designing Group Policies to Control the User Environment • Group Policy • Can be used to define a user’s desktop environment by managing various components • Contains two primary nodes • User Configuration: Affects environment associated with user accounts • Computer Configuration: Responsible for defining configuration changes to computer accounts (see Skill 2)
(Skill 2) Designing Group Policies to Control the Computer Environment • Computer Configuration node • Responsible for defining configuration changes to computer accounts • Changes apply to the computer account regardless of the user that is logged in • Settings take precedence over user configuration settings if there is a conflict • Use same process to design computer configuration policies as used for designing user configuration policies
(Skill 3) Understanding Group Policy Application • Role of Group Policy begins when a computer starts up and user logs on (see Figure 11-1 for description of process of computer startup and user logon) • Group Policies are inherited from parent containers to child containers • Possible to set a separate Group Policy for a child container to override settings it inherits from its parent container • Group Policies do not flow between domains • Exception: A Group Policy applied to a site affects all users and/or computers in the site, regardless of domain
(Skill 3) Understanding Group Policy Application (2) • Processing sequence • If no conflicts within policies, all settings from all policies apply • If a conflict occurs, the policy to apply last wins • Sequence in which Group Policy settings are applied • Local GPO • Site GPO • Domain GPO • OU GPOs
(Skill 3) Understanding Group Policy Application (3) • If more than one GPO is linked to a site, domain, or OU, policies are processed in reverse order (bottom to top) for each container • Exceptions to order in which GPOs are processed • If a computer belongs to a workgroup, it processes only local GPOs • If the No Override option is set for a GPO, no configured policy settings in the GPO can be overridden • In case of multiple GPOs set to No Override, the GPO that is highest in the Active Directory hierarchy gets highest priority; if multiple GPOs in a single container, the one at the bottom of the list wins
(Skill 3) Understanding Group Policy Application (4) • If Block Policy Inheritance is set for a domain or OU, the GPOs above that point in the structure are blocked • If there is a conflict between No Override and Block Inheritance, No Override always wins • If Loopback settings are applied to a GPO list, the default GPO processing order is not maintained • Group Policies are never applied to Windows NT, 95, 98 or Windows Me computers
(Skill 3) Figure 11-1 The sequence in which computer configuration and user configuration settings are applied
(Skill 3) Figure 11-2 The GPO list
(Skill 4) Figure 11-3 The components of GPO administration
(Skill 5) Designing a Group Policy Deployment Strategy • Factors to consider when implementing Group Policy • Location of GPOs • Delegation of authority • Organization structure
(Skill 5) Designing a Group Policy Deployment Strategy (2) • Major types of Group Policy implementation strategies • Centralized vs. decentralized GPO design • Functional role or team design • Delegation with central control design or distributed control design
(Skill 5) Designing a Group Policy Deployment Strategy (3) • Centralized vs. decentralized GPO design • Centralized approach suggests organization network should be maintained by a small number of large GPOs • Decentralized approach uses separate GPOs for specific policy settings
(Skill 5) Designing a Group Policy Deployment Strategy (4) • Functional role or team design • Uses functional roles of users in the organization to apply Group Policy • Create an OU structure that corresponds to the team structure of the organization • Create a GPO for each OU • Minimizes the number of GPOs to be used as each GPO caters to the needs of a group
(Skill 5) Designing a Group Policy Deployment Strategy (5) • Delegation with central control design or distributed control design • Central control is based on delegating the administrative control of OUs to various administrators of an organization • As an example, create a GPO with specific desktop settings at the domain level • Settings would apply on all child containers, thus maintaining centralized control on the entire domain
(Skill 5) Designing a Group Policy Deployment Strategy (6) • Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) • Useful tool for troubleshooting Group Policies • Shows the effective Group Policy settings applied to a user, and the GPOs from which those settings are inherited • New feature in Windows Server 2003 • Similar to gpresult.exe, which is included in Windows 2000 Resource Kit for Windows 2000 domains