Active Directory Cookbook

17.1. Creating and Deleting an Application Partition

Problem

You want to create or delete an application partition. Application partitions are useful if you need to replicate data to a subset of locations where you have domain controllers. Instead of replicating the application data to all domain controllers in a domain, you can use an application partition to only replicate the data to the domain controllers of your choosing.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

To create an application partition, do the following:

1. Open ADSI Edit.

2. Connect to the domain of which the new application partition will be a child.

3. In the left pane, right-click on the domain and select New → Object.

4. Select domainDNS and click Next.

5. For Value, enter the name of the application partition and click Next.

6. Click on More Attributes.

7. Select Both for which properties to view.

8. Select instanceType for property to view.

9. For the Edit Attribute field, enter 5.

10. Click the Set button.

11. Click OK.

12. Click Finish.

To delete an application, do the following:

1. Open ADSI Edit.

2. Connect to the configuration naming context of the forest the application partition is in, if it is not already present in the left pane.

3. Expand the configuration naming context and click on the Partitions container.

4. In the right pane, right-click on the crossRef object that represents the application partition and select Delete.

5. Click Yes to confirm.

Using a command-line interface

Use the following command to create an application partition on a domain controller:

> ntdsutil ...