When you select the option of creating an object at the OU level using NetWare Administrator, you will see a slightly different menu of objects. The country and organisation objects you previously saw from the root will not be in the Available Objects list. Instead, you'll see a whole slew of new ones. These are the leaf objects that reside within the container and describe each resource that has rights in the network. NDS contains too many leaf objects to go into each one in detail in this article. The number of leaf objects you see will also depend on the version of NetWare that you are running, the service pack currently installed on the server, and which server-based applications are installed on the network. Every time you add a program, such as GroupWise or BorderManager, that extends the NDS schema, you'll see new available leaf objects. Some of the more useful and common leaf objects in your NDS tree are:
- Computer: This object represents a networked computer. It's really only for informational purposes and has no rights on the network.
- Directory Map: This object represents a directory on the server. Directory Map objects are useful in login scripts to point to directories containing applications or data files.
- Group: The Group object is used to manage a group of users with similar needs.
- IPrint: The iPrint object works with iPrint-enabled printers.
- NDPS Broker: The NDPS Broker oversees the NDPS system.
- NDPS Manager: The NDPS Manager handles the communication between the workstations and the printers.
- NDPS Printer: The NDPS Printer object handles the printers.
- Print Queue: This object represents a non-NDPS print queue.
- Print Server: This object represents a non-NDPS print server.
- Printer: This object represents a non-NDPS printer.
- Server: The Server object is automatically created when you install NDS on the server. This identifies the server in NDS so that clients can find it.
- Template: The Template object can save you some time in creating users.
- Volume: The Volume object is created for each drive or volume that is on the server when NDS is installed on it or when the volume is installed at a later time.
As you can see, NDS is a very flexible and versatile network directory service. You aren't limited to using NDS on just NetWare; there are versions of it that can be installed on NT, Win2K, and several flavors of Unix/Linux. One suggestion that will serve you well: Don't worry about trying to use all the objects at once when setting up an NDS network. Go with the basics, and when you are comfortable, you can see which other objects will make your life easier.
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