Preferred Domain Controller Without Sites 2

[tekinfmgr]

Is there a way to set preferred server configuration without using sites and subnets? I would like to keep 20 domain controllers responding in case of any failures but would like to have file servers and terminal servers preferring to select the one on the same subnet first before going across miles to authenticate users.

 

[pagy]

What's the reasoning for not wanting to use sites?? What you want is exactly what sites and subnets are for.

Paul
MCSE 2003
MCSA 2003
MCITP Enterprise Administrator

If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?
Scott Adams

 

[tekinfmgr]

'insanity' what else, but i still ask to see if it can be done.

Thanks

 

[tekinfmgr]

Ok, I give in. Here is a question, is there any risk to breaking into sites and defining subnets this late in the game? Call me chicken, I just do not want 500 people mad at me if jumped into this. It seems too easy, that is why it must be caveats expected. 20 domain controllers, 20 subnets are on all the Default First Site. It seems that I would just create the new sites, then create the subnets and attach to the relevant site for the subnet, then move a DC into the site.

Is it really just this easy? Your expert opinions are appreciated.

 

[58sniper]

When you start moving things to the correct sites, with the correctly configured subnets, your users will notice greatly reduced login times, resource availability, etc.

Yes - it really is that easy.

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/

 

[58sniper]

Whoops - the one thing I want to mention is setting up the replication. You need to think about that.

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/

 

[tekinfmgr]

What should I consider about replication? Do static or will the automatic replication partners still continue to work without intervention?

I also have one main terminal licensing server at the datacenter. 5 of the domain controllers are global catalog servers as well. This is for DR purposes.

 

[pagy]

Yo will need to create site links so that the KCC can correctly create your replication topology.

More info here;

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...ologies/activedirectory/stepbystep/adsrv.mspx

Paul
MCSE 2003
MCSA 2003
MCITP Enterprise Administrator

If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?
Scott Adams

 

[58sniper]

Only 5 of the DCs are GCs? You might get better results if you increase that.

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/

 

[tekinfmgr]

Looks like when I tried to setup one site for a test that it starts messing with topology. Over a few hours, I started getting warnings and errors on exchange and the main dc.

With adding another site and creating one subnet, it looks like it influences IP and topology for the whole domain. I was getting IP mapping issues to the our main dc and the exchange server reported that it could not verify topology. These servers still belonged to the Default First Site.

My conclusion is that I have to go all in when I turn on subnets when I create multiple sites. Am I correct?