No, I wouldn't expect the client to favor the RR weighting. It's going to find a GC by talking to the Exchange server which is going to hand out which GC to use. That's been the problem all along IMHO. Additionally, there is VERY little value in letting Outlook use a different GC than one local to the Exchange servers except for the GAL download when in offline mode. Otherwise, very little savings in my experience.
Outlook behavior changes frequently and varies depending on the exact revision of Outlook that you're using. This was painfully evident in OL98 through OL2K versions. Utilization of the closest GC key is notoriously hard to use effectively especially for roaming users but it is used to predispose Outlook to the answer that it would otherwise get from Exchange servers. Does that help? The only two ways to control the GC site that Outlook uses is to either use that key else have Exchange hand out the GC you want it to. There were some improvements in that process in OL2K3 and Exchange 2K3 products, but you're not using those versions right? Al -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Graham Turner Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 11:05 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ActiveDir] global catalog discovery / Outlook XP Dear all, i have been away from the list for absolutely ages but i need to go over an issue of GC discovery with Outlook XP that need some help on. this may be regarded as OT to this list, but have posted on an MS Outlook newsgroup site with nothing back so i hope this post to be in order. i recall what ended up as a trilogy many months ago on a similar topic but need to get fairly specific information on the mechanisms used by Outlook XP to locate a GC server. there was much discussion on the configuration of Outlook to use local GC discovery (by way of the CLOSESTGC reg value) but on the basis of this configuration can anyone elaborate on the mechanism that Outlook configured as such uses to locate a GC. as i understand the MS documentation, this registry value disables the 'referral' that the client gets (presumably from DSACCESS / DSPROXY). as such it must then have its own mechanism - THIS IS WHAT WE ARE INTERESTED IN - we have attempted loading the SRV RR's (ldapsrvpriority) so the discovery process is loaded towards a particular GC, but this does not seem to prevail as always assistances gladly received. GT 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/
