Planning a Managed Environment
Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2
Many organizations are moving towards a highly managed computing environment based on a configuration management infrastructure that is designed to reduce the cost of managing a diverse set of organizational needs. The Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 operating system includes a set of configuration management technologies — collectively known as IntelliMirror® — that you can use to centrally manage configurations for users and computers.
IntelliMirror and Group Policy combine the advantages of centralized computing with the performance and flexibility of distributed computing. This book explains how to design and deploy a centrally managed distributed computing environment.
In This Chapter
Overview of Deploying a Managed Environment Process
Defining the Scope of Your Configuration Management Project
Assessing Your Current Environment
Determining Your Requirements for Configuration Management Technologies
Designing Managed Configurations
Designing Your Organizational Unit Structure
Testing Your Configuration Management Design
Staging and Deploying Your Design to the Production Environment
Additional Resources for Planning a Managed Environment
Related Information
For more information about designing and deploying your Active Directory® directory service infrastructure, see "Planning an Active Directory Deployment Project" and "Designing the Active Directory Logical Structure" in Designing and Deploying Directory and Security Services of this kit.
For more information about Group Policy, see the Windows Security Collection of the Windows Server 2003 Technical Reference.