Active Directory, 5th Edition

Chapter 14. Creating a Site Topology

As we mentioned in Chapter 6, there are two aspects to replication:

• How data gets replicated around an existing network of links between domain controllers

• How the Knowledge Consistency Checker generates and maintains the replication links between domain controllers, both intrasite and intersite

We covered the former in Chapter 6, and we’ll cover the latter here, leading to an explanation of how to properly design a representation of your organization’s network infrastructure within Active Directory.

14.1. Intrasite and Intersite Topologies

Two distinct types of replication connections exist with Active Directory sites: intrasite (within sites) and intersite (between sites). An Active Directory service known as the Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC) is responsible for automatically generating the replication connections between intrasite DCs. The KCC will create intersite connections automatically for you as well, but only when an administrator has specified that two sites should be connected via a site link. Every aspect of the KCC and the connection objects that are created is configurable, so you can control what has been automatically created and what will be automatically created via manipulation of the various options.

Note that there is a large distinction between the KCC (the process that runs every 15 minutes and creates the replication topology) and the replication process itself. The KCC is not involved in the regular work of replicating ...