Organizing Replication Objects

In Active Directory, you can use organizational units to group information. Organizational units are logical containers in which you categorize objects. For maximum scalability and reduced administration, you can organize your Exchange directory objects, such as mailboxes and Distribution Lists, into recipient containers that mirror the organizational unit structure you create in Windows.

For example, in Windows you configure four organizational units: internal users, guests, groups, and computers. Then in Exchange, you create only three recipient containers: internal users, guests, and groups, intentionally not creating a recipient container to correspond with the Windows organizational unit that contains computers. Next, you place all of your regular internal users in the internal users container. Finally, you place your custom recipients in the guests containers and your Distribution Lists in the groups container.

With this infrastructure in place, you can set up three Connection Agreements between the corresponding Windows and Exchange organizational units. If you configure your Connection Agreement to replicate from Windows to Exchange, new internal users created in Windows automatically replicate to the correct Exchange recipient container.

Note   Windows 2000 has many group membership restrictions; for example, domain local groups cannot be members of global groups. If you do not respect these Windows 2000 limitations in Exchange 5.5, the membership cannot replicate to Windows 2000.

For information on organizational units and organizational unit structure, see the Windows 2000 Server documentation.

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