However, the domain admins group is automatically added to the local
administrators group on all domain members (upon joining), which means that
the domain admins account has full administrative control over all domain
member machines. The administrator account on the other hand, isn't as
powerful in this way (just being an administrator of the domain doesn't mean
you can install software on domain members); the administrator account is
much more powerful, as Cary already stated, from a domain administrative
stand point. That is, full control over the root domain -full control over
all objects and the ability to take ownership of any object. The domain
admins group doesn't have as many rights in this way.
So, the two are quite different. The domain admins group is for
domain-member administration; the administrator account is for domain
administration -the logical and physical structure of the AD itself.
Hope this helps,
--
Paul Williams
http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net
Domain Admins, which by default contains the Administrator Account, has a
lot of access to that Domain. Pretty much everything. But not entirely
everything.
The Administrator account, on the other hand, is a member of the Domain
Admins, Enterprise Admins and Schema Admins ( assuming that we are talking
about a single domain / tree / forest ). As you can see, it is much more
powerful through the group membership.
Does that answer your question.
--
Cary W. Shultz
Roanoke, VA 24014
Microsoft Active Directory MVP
http://www.activedirectory-win2000.com
http://www.grouppolicy-win2000.com