Active Directory, Second Edition

Examples

Having considered the 10 steps, let’s take another brief look at the 3 examples from the previous chapter and see what they will need in terms of sites.

TwoSiteCorp

TwoSiteCorp has two locations split by a 128 Kbps link. This means creation of two sites separated by a single site link, with DCs for domain authentication in each site. The site link cost is not an issue, as only one route exists between the two sites. Here the only issue is scheduling the replication, which depends on the existing traffic levels of the link. Schedule replication during the least busy times for a slow link like this. If replication has to take place all the time, as changes need to be propagated rapidly, it is time to consider increasing the capacity of the link.

RetailCorp

RetailCorp has a large centralized retail organization with 600 shops connected via 64 Kbps links to a large centralized 10/100 Mbps interconnected headquarters in London. In this situation, you have one site for HQ and 600 sites for the stores. RetailCorp also uses a DC in each store. They then have to create 600 high-cost site links, each with the same cost. RetailCorp decides this is one very good reason to use ADSI (discussed in Part III) and writes a script to automate the creation of the site link objects in the configuration. The only aspect of the site links that is important here is the schedule. Can central HQ cope with all of the servers replicating intersite at the same time? Does the replication have to be ...