Active Directory Schema

Overview

The Active Directory schema is the definition of all object classes and attributes in an instance of Active Directory. The schema of the Austin Active Directory is managed by the Active Directory team and consists of the classes and attributes required by Active Directory Domain Services as well as schema extensions that update the schema to support other applications and services. A condensed history of the schema extensions applied to the Austin Active Directory is available on the following page:

Schema History

Objects

The following are the most commonly referenced object classes by both end-users and department IT staff:

user class - user objects that are either EID accounts created with information from the EID system or department accounts created via the Department User Tools
group class - groups of objects that are either distribution lists for e-mail which are created via the Microsoft 365 Management Tools or security groups for defining access to resources which are created via the Department Group Tools or directly by department IT staff
computer class - devices connected to the Austin Active Directory and can be optionally managed via Group Policy
organizationalUnit class - containers for objects which can be used by department IT staff to create hierarchy for objects in the Austin Active Directory

Auxiliary Classes

The Austin Active Directory has also been extended with the utexasEduAustinAuxClass and utexasEduAzureAuxClass auxiliary classes. These classes define a set of attributes that allow additional information to be stored on existing objects. Please see the following page for more information:

Schema - Custom attributes and classes

Attributes

The Active Directory team manages the assignment of attributes and assigns attributes on a per-class-per-attribute basis. For example: the assignment of the utexasEduAustinSingle1 attribute for use on computer objects does not preclude the assignment of the same attribute for a different use on group objects. The attribute assignments are defined in the attribute maps detailed below: