Thanks Brian and Guido, I really appreciate the help. A single domain under an empty root makes sense to me in my environment but I really like to get other opinions before I start a project of this size.
I have only been here 11 months and I haven't seen or heard of any company being divested. The most I've seen is companies being merged so I'm not sure the overhead and added complexity of a multi forest environment would be worth it but I'll definitely keep it in mind. Thanks again. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Grillenmeier, Guido Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 11:36 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Sites VS domains in a distributed global environment. Fully agreed - there is no benefit of giving all those companies a child-domain under your root. No Problem putting them in a single domain - the work involved to get there will pay off soon. If you were to say that besides aquiring approx. 1 company every 6 month you were also divesting maybe 1 per year, then it could be worth to think about a multi-forest deployment, as once the company/users are in the same forest (regardless of single domain or in a child-domain of the same forest), you can't easily take them out of the forest. Naturally, a multi-forest scenario involves some extra planning and other tools to manage the infrastructure as one - especially to make it work smoothly with your single Exchange Org. /Guido -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Desmond Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 5:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Sites VS domains in a distributed global environment. This sounds like a damn good candidate for a single domain & empty root (given your current arrangement). Having a domain for 20 to 250 people is really a waste of resources unless you have some political or technical requirement. You can easily have hundreds of thousands of users in a domain without much problem if managed properly, so you're not going to be in the danger zone for quite a while. Just my two cents. Thanks. � --Brian Desmond [EMAIL PROTECTED] Payton on the web! www.wpcp.org � v - 773.534.0034 x135 f - 773.534.8101 > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:ActiveDir- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike Newell > Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 10:21 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [ActiveDir] Sites VS domains in a distributed global environment. > > Hello, > I have inherited an environment where all of the companies acquired by > our parent company were migrated into the forest in their own domain > under an empty root 2003 domain. Right now there are about 20 > companies ranging from 20 to 250 employees needing to be migrated into > our forest and I'm looking at changing the way we migrate them in. > There are approximately 1200 employees total but we acquire a new > company about every six months to a year. > > I'm thinking of consolidating all of the existing domains into one > under the root and setting up sites. Then I would migrate the > remaining companies into that domain. There would be a DC/GC in each location. > Most will be accessing the Exchange 2003 server in the datacenter. > > Each company is subject to the same group policies and each has a high > speed connection with a permanent VPN to the datacenter. > > So my question is, aside from the amount of work involved, is there a > downside to having a large global corporation on a single domain with > sites set up with a DC/GC in each office? Are there benefits to having > multiple domains in a forest when all of the companies are subject to > the same group policies? > > Again, any advice is appreciated. > > Mike Newell > > List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx > List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx > List archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
