Overview
As a collaboration grows in size, a common pattern is to create internal structure to allow for delegation of person management operations. COmanage Registry supports this through the concept of CO Units, or COUs. COUs have a hierarchical relationship within a CO, much in the same way LDAP OUs have a hierarchical relationship within an O.
If COUs are defined, they can be flat (no hierarchy, all are at the same level) or a COU can have a parent COU (in which case a hierarchy is implied).
In general, COU Administrators can manage CO Person records within the COU they are an administrator for (or any child COUs of that COU).
- Any CO Person can create a CO Group; only CO Administrators can create COUs.
- CO Group Memberships attach at the CO Person level, whereas COU memberships attach at the CO Person Role level.
- Management of CO Group Memberships is simple (e.g., manual management by the CO Group Owner, self-opt in for open CO Groups, etc.), whereas COU memberships can be managed using Enrollment Flows and Expiration Policies.
- COU memberships imply CO Group Memberships (in the Members:COU group).
- Email Addresses can be attached to CO Groups via CO Email Lists.