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Apply Group Policy Objects to SMB servers overview

Contributors netapp-ahibbard netapp-thomi

Your SMB server supports Group Policy Objects (GPOs), a set of rules known as group policy attributes that apply to computers in an Active Directory environment. You can use GPOs to centrally manage settings for all storage virtual machines (SVMs) on the cluster belonging to the same Active Directory domain.

When GPOs are enabled on your SMB server, ONTAP sends LDAP queries to the Active Directory server requesting GPO information. If there are GPO definitions that are applicable to your SMB server, the Active Directory server returns the following GPO information:

  • GPO name

  • Current GPO version

  • Location of the GPO definition

  • Lists of UUIDs (universally unique identifiers) for GPO policy sets