What does your AD look like?

๐——๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐—น๐˜ โ†’ ๐—›๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฑ

Real configs. Real fixes. Windows & AD security.

๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—”๐—— ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—ธ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ธ๐—ฒ?

On assessments I still see the โ€œleft sideโ€: an OU tree grown by device type or location, plus 10โ€“20 years of legacy clutter. Itโ€™s ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜† ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜€ ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† work.

If you mean security, design around Microsoftโ€™s ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐— ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น. Organize by tiers first (not by object type). A structure like the right side lets you actually work with tiering; inside each tierโ€™s OUs you can still add what you need (device type, site, etc.).

๐—ง๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐— ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ โ€” adjust per risk, Microsoft shows 3, in real world you can have less or more:

๐Ÿ”น ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐Ÿฌ: critical infra that can affect the whole domain (DCs, WSUS, CA, โ€ฆ)

๐Ÿ”น ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐Ÿญ: application servers used by users (File, Print, DHCP, โ€ฆ)

๐Ÿ”น ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐Ÿฎ: servers managed by an external provider (separate from internal admins)

๐Ÿ”น ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐Ÿฏ: user estate (endpoints, VDIs, terminal servers, โ€ฆ)

Still unsure? ๐—ฅ๐˜‚๐—ป ๐—•๐—น๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—›๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ in your environment and youโ€™ll see the paths.

๐—ช๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—น๐˜†?

Grab my free resources + courses on Tiering Model & AD hardening:

โžก๏ธ https://academy.horizon-secured.com/

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