Maximum recommended number of objects (OUs) under one OU

[ilkin]

Is there a recommended maximum number of objects that should be under one OU.
AD functional level is Win2003 Forest. I have 2 DC's both GC's in one root
domain and hardware is HP BL20's with 2GB ram. with 109,000 OU's under one
OU. GPMC is very slow when clicking on any group policy object, so is AD
users and computers if opening that parent OU and view set to a large value.
This is a system test rig. any help would be welcome.

[Paul Williams [MVP]]

Probably, but it's much larger than 110,000. We're talking millions.
Although some of the GUI tools might struggle with these numbers.
Generally, in large deployments a lot of the tasks will be automated
(scripted) and lots of other manual tasks will be done with command line and
bespoke tools designed to work with this environment.

Do you actually need an enormous number of OUs under an OU or are you just
sizing and testing?

[Joe Richards [MVP]]

Agreed, don't confuse the GUI having issues because it has to pull everything at
once to properly display it with AD having issues. In large environments I don't
recommend the GUI at all and that is one of the reasons. Of course, it takes a
heck of a lot more knowledge to do things if you don't use the GUI.

--
Joe Richards Microsoft MVP Windows Server Directory Services
www.joeware.net

Post by Paul Williams [MVP]
Probably, but it's much larger than 110,000. We're talking millions.
Although some of the GUI tools might struggle with these numbers.
Generally, in large deployments a lot of the tasks will be automated
(scripted) and lots of other manual tasks will be done with command line and
bespoke tools designed to work with this environment.
Do you actually need an enormous number of OUs under an OU or are you just
sizing and testing?

[ilkin]

IT is the Gui Apps that I have problem with, I am sure AD itself has no
problem. I could look at using DSmod / DSxxx command line tools for ADUC Gui
replacement. GPMC also very slow when clicking on Group Policy objects, not
sure what else can be used for its functionality. thanks for your inputs.

Post by Joe Richards [MVP]
Agreed, don't confuse the GUI having issues because it has to pull everything at
once to properly display it with AD having issues. In large environments I don't
recommend the GUI at all and that is one of the reasons. Of course, it takes a
heck of a lot more knowledge to do things if you don't use the GUI.
--
Joe Richards Microsoft MVP Windows Server Directory Services
www.joeware.net

Post by Paul Williams [MVP]
Probably, but it's much larger than 110,000. We're talking millions.
Although some of the GUI tools might struggle with these numbers.
Generally, in large deployments a lot of the tasks will be automated
(scripted) and lots of other manual tasks will be done with command line and
bespoke tools designed to work with this environment.
Do you actually need an enormous number of OUs under an OU or are you just
sizing and testing?

[Paul Williams [MVP]]

The DS* tools are good (although lacking in one or two areas). Joe's ADFIND
and ADMOD are excellent tools. And you can't beat your own scripts for
doing things the way you want...

I'm tending to favour my own little scripts more and more than arsing around
with the GUI. And I find myself firing up ADFIND to quickly lookup a
property, etc. more and more these days...

Although I do still like LDP and ADSIEdit.msc (but ADSIEdit has similar
issues to DSA.MSC with loads of objects ;-( )