Exchange and GC's (Directory Access tab)

[bdoub1eu]

1 domain, 3 sites.

Site A: 1 Exchange server/2 DC's - GC's
Site B: 1 Exchange sever/1 DC-GC
Site C: 1 Exchange server/1 DC-GC

In the exchange servers at site b and c in the directory access tab, I only see the local DC/GC. If for any reason the lone DC's/GC's at site b and c were to go down, would exchange also go down at site b and c?

Is there a way to add the DC's/GC's from site a into site b and c's directory access for redundancy?

Thanks in advance!

 

[adcfaq]

u can maunally add DC/GC entries, or use automatic dsaccess.

basically, dsaccess uses some DS discovery mechnism to pull the DC/GC info from local site in the domain. if one DC/GC is not reachable, it will try to find another one. in my expereince, i will manually configure this, instead let Exchange pick up for you, that's more efficicy.

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Sr. Directory Services/Exchange Consultant

http://adcfaq.8m.com/

 

[bdoub1eu]

I can't manually add another DC/GC into the DSaccess because it is all grayed out. Only 1 DC/GC is showing up for sites B and C. I'm afraid that if that server fails for some reason, since another DC/GC is not listed and I can't seem to add it, that exchange would also cease to work correctly.

I guess I wanted to know if I could add another GC/DC from another location for redundancy...

 

[adcfaq]

u need to uncheck the "automatic " detect box and then add the entries.

---------------------------------------
Sr. Directory Services/Exchange Consultant

http://adcfaq.8m.com/

 

[bdoub1eu]

Can't...Option to uncheck is grayed out...

 

[adcfaq]

do u have the exchange full admin permission?

---------------------------------------
Sr. Directory Services/Exchange Consultant

http://adcfaq.8m.com/

 

[bdoub1eu]

Yes, logging in as domain admin that has full exchange permissions...

 

[bdoub1eu]

Does anybody know why the DSaccess page is grayed out? I can't manually add another GC/DC because of this...

Thanks in advance!

 

[xmsre]

Is there any firewall or router ACLs between sites? You usually see this behavior when the directory access ping is failing for wLDAP.

 

[bdoub1eu]

We do have netscreen firewalls between sites with connections over VPN but I don't think we have anything certain protocol/port being blocked between both trusted sites. Any way to test for this?

Thanks!

 

[xmsre]

Windows LDAP uses ICMP to test connectivity. Ping.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320529