Network design 1

[madrino]

Hello,

I am currently in the process of redesigning my companies server infrastructure. I am hoping you guys can give me some ideas to think about as far as design. I have only been in this position for less than a month so I am looking for a little help. I want to have no single point of failure.

Current Setup
1 PDC running W2K server Running our (File Server,Active Directory,DNS)

Future Setup
1 PDC running W2003 Server running (Active Directory, DNS, WINS, DHCP)
1 SUS server to control MS updates
The file server will be located on a NAS device.
We have a co-location so I would think that would be the best place to put the BDC.

I need to prepare for major growth. We currently have around 75 users. We are expecting to double that within the next year.

I hope this is enough info.

Thank you for your help in advance.

Madrino

 

[buddafish]

Madrino,

There are no PDC /BCD's with 2k - server. The server is either a Domain Controller or Member Server.

Best case for each Site is to have no less than 2 Domain Controllers per Site. 2 DC's will work fine with your user load. These should have Active Directory Integrated DNS Servers for redundency. WINS and DHCP Servers can run on these boxes, but for best performance, File Serving, Exchange, SUS, Database Servers should be on other boxes. (as you have specified above)

Think about your connection between sites. AD replicates lots between Domain Controllers, so you will want to learn how to control when this happens.

With only 1 month experience managing a network, digesting some books on network design, network engineering could help out. There are lots of titles out there as well as Google...

Good Luck
Scottie

 

[mwiner]

I agree with Madrino. I would put 2 DC's at each site. If you only had one DC per site that also ran all of your DNS, DHCP, and WINS you would be dead in the water if that machine went out. For starters you would lose DHCP unless you put DHCP forwarders in from your one site to your other (probably not a good idea at all) If lets say you had static IP's your clients would not know how to contact the other domain controller because DNS and WINS would be down.

Good luck,
Matt

 

[madrino]

Thank you both for your help.

I have heard that windows 2003 server has network Access Quarantine. Have any of you used this feature?

Thank you again ,

Madrino

 

[penauroth]

See this link for information:

http://securityfocus.org/infocus/1799

Paul

Work on Windows, play on Linux.