Murray, I like to follow the KISS principle. I would go with one AD site. At my core site, I would place two DCs and make them both GCs. I would pick at least one additional site where I would place a DC/GC. This machine will server as the disaster recover for my core site. If I have any sites where the 10MB link is close to being saturated, I would install a DC/GC there as well. (Assuming I can keep the machine physically secured.) I think you can support this configuration with 2 DCs. The additional machines I would add would be for disaster recovery and increased reliability.
Do you have the option on upgrading to Outlook 2003? If so this will greatly decrease the amount of MAPI traffic across your network. Denny -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Murray Wall Sent: Monday, June 07, 2004 10:40 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [ActiveDir] AD Design on a Highspeed Network considerations We are doing an AD site design and I wanted to know some thoughts of the group here. Assumptions 1) Single forest, Single Domain 2) Highspeed Network links to sites, 10mb, 100mb and 1GB Available for AD/exchange 3) Centralized service provider/organization 4) Exchange 2003 SP1 5) 16000 users in 16 sites with above network speeds Design Questions 1) Do you centralize into 1 centralized site and back haul all network logon and exchange traffic to 1 site? 2) What are the base numbers of DC's / GC's you would need support this config (what are the metrics of dc gc logons/server/processor) 3) what is the typical traffic usage used during an xp network logon session? (DHCP, DNS, Kerberos TGT, and outlook 2002 mapi logon) Thoughts on pulling this off? Murray Wall, MCSE, B.Ed CCNA/DA Master ASE Messaging [EMAIL PROTECTED] List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/mail_list.htm List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/list_faq.htm List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
