Remote AD domain design

Thorny · Guest

Hi Guys,

I have an Australian client upgrading from an NT4 domain to a 2003 domain.
We need to join an existing 2003 domain/forest which their parent company in
the UK is currently running. We need to be able to log onto our local domain
controllers and configure Australian users, gpos etc without the ability to
affect other parts of the domain or forest. We also need to connect to the
existing UK exchange domain (Australian office will be migrating from Lotus
Notes) as there will be only one email domain for the entire forest.

I had thought of a child domain joined to the UK forest, which I have tested
in a vmware environment and it appears to allow us to have control over our
own domain and to connect to the existing exchange domain. I have since been
told that having a single domain is now best practice. I don't belive that
we would be able to log into our own domain controllers unless we were domain
admins. While I agree a centrally managed single domain would be
preferrable, we don't want to rely on tech support from a completely
different time zone to us.

Could anyone shed some light on a way of designing the Australian AD domain
or point me in the direction of where I could find some more information on
similar AD designs?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.