I.T. HERO 101: Organizational Units (Part 2)

Freshening Up

Clean Up Admin Console–Restructuring Old OUs

Maybe you’re already knee deep in OUs and don’t have the luxury of working with a fresh canvas on Google Admin Console. If your school is working with a pre-existing OU structure and it’s just not working it may be because:

• Your existing OU structure is too simple. The categories within your Admin Console are too broad, limiting the amount of control you have over certain bodies of students and staff. Remember “You should create as many organizational units as necessary but as few as possible.”
• It’s overly organized. Your structure is meticulously broken down into segments of students and staff, even though there is no policy difference between some groups. This gives you more work when it’s time to assign new policies.
• It’s just a downright mess. A good structure should follow a logical path, descending from broadest categories (Students and Staff) into smaller and smaller sub-categories (Schools and Grades). See an example of good and bad structures below:

Thinking it might be time to clean up Admin Console with a better OU structure? While it’s always easier to build a clean and simple structure from the ground up than it is to simplify an existing one, it can be done! If you want to restructure an existing OU structure:

1. We recommend you do it when students are on break since it can be a messy process. Grab a pot of coffee and buckle up!
2. Define your desired structure by making a clear structure map. Then store information on where each device in your district (labelled with asset tag #s) should be relocated in a well-organized spreadsheet.
3. Move all devices to placeholder OUs.
4. Create new structure
5. Delete old structure
6. Move everything into new OUs manually (yikes), using third party software (highly recommended)

<< Back to PART 1

Keep reading PART 3 >>