Membership in Account Operators, Domain Admins, or Enterprise Admins, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at
Moving an organizational unit
 | To move an organizational unit using the Windows interface |
To open Active Directory Users and Computers, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Active Directory Users and Computers.
In the console tree, right-click the organizational unit (OU) that you want to move.
Where?
-
Active Directory Users and Computers\domain node\organizational unit
-
Active Directory Users and Computers\domain node\organizational unit
Click Move, and then click the folder to which you want to move the OU.
Additional considerations
-
To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Account Operators group, Domain Admins group, or Enterprise Admins group in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.
-
Another way to open Active Directory Users and Computers is to click Start, click Run, and then type dsa.msc.
-
Active Directory Users and Computers can only move OUs within the same domain. To move OUs between domains, use the Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT). For more information, see ADMT v3.1 Guide: Migrating and Restructuring Active Directory Domains (
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=82740 ).
- You can also perform the task in this procedure by using the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell. To open the Active Directory module, click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell. For more information, see Move an Organizational Unit (
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=138392 ). For more information about Windows PowerShell, see Windows PowerShell (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=102372 ).
Additional references
| To move an organizational unit using a command line |
To open a command prompt, click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
dsmove <OuDN> [-newparent <ParentDN>] -pwd {<Password>|*}
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
|
<OuDN> |
Specifies the distinguished name of the OU object to be moved. |
|
<ParentDN> |
Specifies the new location to which you want to move the OU object. The new location is specified as the distinguished name of the new parent node. |
|
-newparent |
Sets <ParentDN> value. |
|
-pwd |
Specifies to use either a password or a * to log on to a remote server. If you type *, you are prompted for a password. |
|
<Password> |
Specifies the Domain Administrator password. |
To view the complete syntax for this command, and for information about entering user account information, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
dsmov /?
Additional considerations
-
To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Account Operators group, Domain Admins group, or the Enterprise Admins group in AD DS, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.
-
Active Directory Users and Computers can move OUs only within the same domain. To move OUs between domains, use ADMT. For more information, see ADMT v3.1 Guide: Migrating and Restructuring Active Directory Domains (
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=82740 ).
- You can also perform the task in this procedure by using the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell. To open the Active Directory module, click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell. For more information, see Move an Organizational Unit (
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=138392 ). For more information about Windows PowerShell, see Windows PowerShell (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=102372 ).