DC at branch office

[maya14]

I'm new to this setup. Used to managed servers at HO level only.
How does replication works if i make changes to AD at branch office DC?
Exchange is at HO.Is this normal practice? I dont see any Exchange properties in user tabs in AD.
We have about 60 users at branch office.
What else happens on DC at branch office?

 

[Stevehewitt]

It's not really any different - just the connection speed that's the issue. If you setup your sites and links properly within AD you can specify that replication should happen on a schedule rather than near-instant.
Things like a password reset are generally instant regardless, however new user accounts and other objects would depend on the schedule you setup.

Exchange at your HQ is normal. You won't see any Exchange tabs in AD U&C as the Exchange management tools haven't been installed. If you want to do Exchange management tasks you will need to install the administrator tools onto the DC. (Or your workstation along with the AD admin tools)

Key thing to is ensure that you have your subnets, routing, sites and replication all setup. Your users at the branch office should be using the local DC for authentication - however should anything happen you will still want your clients to authenticate even over the WAN.
Hence why you like subnets to sites and sites with DC's. You then set a "cost" for going over a link. As such AD goes to the DC with the lowest cost in the same site/subnet. If that DC is down it goes to the next one until it's out of DC's for the site/subnet then goes to another site e.g HQ)



Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[maya14]

Where do i find these administrator tools for Exchange which i install on the local DC. Are you talking about the adminpack?
All sites are on a different domains.

 

[TechyMcSe2k]

You need to install the Exchange Management Tools from the Exchange CD. It is not like adminpack.msi, you actually have to run setup and then choose to only install the MGMT tools. I believe you will need IIS installed for this to work.

Cliff, MCSE/MCSA/MCTS/CCNA/VCP/CCA

http://www.samtechconsulting.com

 

[58sniper]

Correct - you have to install all of the pre-reqs for Exchange on the machine, including IIS, SMTP, NNTP and asp.net. Then, you can install the management tools from the Exchange CD. Then you MUST install all Exchange service packs to the same level as the Exchange server.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/