Do i require a second site?

skip · Guest

Hi all

I am about to connect a remote office that has around 20 users in it to the
main office. The connection will be a VPN site to site connection. We are
running Exchange 2003 sp2 at the main office. I was planning on isntalling a
DC/GC at the remote office, because of the Exchange server i think the remote
office would be better serverd bu a local GC server at there site, but its
not clear to me if i need to create a second site in AD and then connect the
defaultfirtssite to the remotesite with a site link? Is this necessary to do?
the remote sites network ID is 192.168.0.0/24 and the main office network ID
is 192.168.1.0/24

Also when i setup the secodn DC/GC i was planning on doing that at the main
site and then ship the server to the remote site. Is this a good way to go
about this?

Many thanks

Jorge Silva · Guest

Hi

If you only have 2 Sites just stay with the defaults.

Make sure that each site has a different subnet associated, make sure that
you have a GC per site this is especially important if you're running
exchange on that site.

You can setup the DC/GC on site and then move it to the remote site.

If you're going to do this on "SITE1" and then move the DC to "SITE2", it
would be better if you could configure the DC/GC with the new ipaddress
(Address of the Site2), this would avoid invalid DNS entries. Then after
configuration just move the box to the new site and setup the new default
gateway.

You can also run Dcpromo /adv on Site2 using IFM (assuming server will be an
additional DC for the domain), this option prevents from large amounts of
replication traffic through the line.

Check:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=311078

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889101

I hop that helps

Good Luck
Jorge Silva
MCSA
Systems Administrator

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chriss3 [MVP] · Guest

Hello,
Have a look at the Windows Server 2003 Deployment Guide, Site Design.
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/d9a82c36-8e7f-491a-81ec-532f73ea70e71033.mspx?mfr=true

Decide which locations to create sites for as follows:

. Create sites for all locations in which you plan to place domain
controllers. Refer to the information documented in the Domain Controller
Placement worksheet to identify locations that include domain controllers.

. Create sites for those locations that include servers that are
running applications that require a site to be created. Certain
applications, such as DFS, use site objects to locate the closest servers to
clients.

. If a site is not required for a location, add the subnet of the
location to a site for which the location has the maximum WAN speed and
available bandwidth.

--
Regards
Christoffer Andersson
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services

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