One domain, three PDCs, WAN -- ??

[jonathanv1]

I'm kind of new at this . . . Our company has three offices; one main office with an NT 4.0 server and 6 Win98 machines, and two branches with NT 4.0 PDCs and three Win98 machines. We would like all three offices to be able to see each other over an ISDN WAN. We occasionally share large files (6-8 MB), but mostly it will be used to share smaller files (typical MS Office stuff). <br>
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We've just installed NT servers in the two branch offices in the past month, and I set them up as PDCS with the same domain name. The server in the branch office, which a consultant set up for us last year when we moved from a home office, is set up as a stand-alone server. A consultant in the most distant branch office wants me to re-install NT in the main office to set it up as a PDC so we can use DHCP, and then set up trust relationships with the other servers. <br>
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Among my many questions is this: Is this the best way to go about this? We use Netopia ISDN routers to handle DHCP duties right now, so I'm not sure I understand why they can't continue handle those duties. I'm probably going to go ahead and reinstall this weekend, but I wanted to see if I could get some feedback on this and other issues to consider. Many thanks.

 

[SRG]

Unfortunately I would say not. I think your best solution would be to setup the PDCs in your head office ( or wherever you best support personell are) and setup BDC's as part of that domain. The most fault tolernat way to do DHCp would be to put it on one server in each site with enough IP addresses to cover your machines. Then create another scope at your head office with another scope in the same range. this will allow the clients to get an IP address even if their server is down. Dhcp traffic is not really large enough to be a concern unless you are already using all your bandwidth. plus I would avoid using the same domain name on multiple domains you want to link. I think you will run into problems later. If they have the same admin account and password and domain name you might get away with it. This is not really an ideal system if you can it might be a good idea to step back and plan this out before you go ahead.

 

[jonathanv1]

Thanks for your comments, SRG. The reinstallation went fine, so I now have a PDC here in our main office. I'm also re-taking one of the MCSE courses this week to refresh my memory, and it's all becoming a bit clearer now. Unfortunately, the consultant from the distant office hasn't bothered to respond to any of the six or eight phone calls I've made to him over the past two weeks, so this is the most feedback I've had.<br>
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Anyway, if I read your comment correctly your suggesting I make our server here in the main office the PDC, and the other two servers BDCs, right? That's what I came up with last night while sitting in class. Then I could make it part of my daily routine to manually synchronize the domain until we get the faster DSL connection later this summer. It's not like we're adding users every day (or week or month, for that matter). <br>
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One part of your comment that I didn't follow was this: <br>
"Then create another scope at your head office with another scope in the same range." Maybe this will become more clear once I install DHCP manager, but I didn't follow it the first time.<br>
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My instructor's suggestion was that I keep all the offices in the same domain if we have any intent of moving to NT5.0. I'm not sure I do, and I have to follow up with him on that tonight as to why. Thanks again.

 

[SRG]

for sure keep it to one domain if possible. I dont think the replication traffic would cause you any trouble even at its default level. <br>
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As for DHCP you create a scpoe on a server to give out addresses. for Example <br>
A = 204.239.50.0<br>
B = 204.239.51.0<br>
C = 204.239.52.0<br>
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A is head office<br>
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in each site create a scopes as follows<br>
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Site A<br>
204.239.50.50 - 204.239.50.100<br>
204.239.51.101 - 204.239.51.150<br>
204.239.52.101 - 204.239.52.150<br>
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Site B<br>
204.239.51.50 - 204.239.51-100<br>
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Site C<br>
204.239.52.50 - 204.239.52.100<br>
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On site B or C you might want to create <br>
204.239.50.101 - 204.239.50.150<br>
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This way any one server can fail and still everybody can get an Ip address. I am sure it will all become clear as you go over DHCP again.<br>