Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Note that Group Policy changes may not take effect until the next user logs
in (some settings may even require that the machine be rebooted). That is,
users who are currently working on the system will not see the effects of
the changes until they log off and log in again. GPOs are reapplied every
90 minutes with a 30-minute offset. In other words, users who are logged
in will have their policies reapplied every 60 to 120 minutes. Not all set-
tings are reapplied (for example, software settings and password policies).
Linking Existing GPOs to Active Directory
Creating a GPO is the first step in assigning group policies. The second step is to link the
GPO to a specific Active Directory object. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, GPOs can
be linked to sites, domains, and OUs.
Exercise 6.2 walks you through the steps that you must take to assign an existing GPO to
an OU within the local domain. In this exercise, you will link the Test Domain Policy GPO
to an OU. To complete the steps in this exercise, you must have completed Exercise 6.1.
exercise 6.2
linking existing GPOs to active directory
1.
Open the Group Policy Management Console.
2.
Expand the Forest and Domain containers and right-click the Africa OU.
3.
Choose Link An Existing GPO.
4.
The Select GPO dialog box appears. Click Unlinked Test GPO and click OK.
5.
Close the Group Policy Management Console.
Note that the GPMC tool offers a lot of flexibility in assigning GPOs. You can create
new GPOs, add multiple GPOs, edit them directly, change priority settings, remove links,
and delete GPOs all from within this interface. In general, creating new GPOs using the
GPMC tool is the quickest and easiest way to create the settings you need.
To test the Group Policy settings, you can simply create a user account within the Africa
OU that you used in Exercise 6.2. Then, using another computer that is a member of the
same domain, you can log on as the newly created user.
Managing Group Policy
Now that you have implemented GPOs and applied them to sites, domains, and OUs within
Active Directory, it's time to look at some ways to manage them. In the following sections,
you'll look at how multiple GPOs can interact with one another and ways that you can
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