Frame Relay Site Link Design

[Guest]

I have read through deployment guides and the Reskit, but am still confused
as to how to configure my AD replication strategy in my multi-site WAN. Here
are the specs:

There is a Frame Relay cloud connecting all locations using private circuits:
1 central location with a T3
3 Remote locations with T1's
3 Remote locations with fractional T1's (mostly 256K links)

It is a single Windows 2000 native mode domain. Right now, we have a site
set up for each of our physical locations. Each location has 1 DC, except
for the main location, which has 2.

Our current configuration has the frame-relay intersite transport set under
the IP container. There are no SMTP connectors. All sites are configured
under the one Frame Relay link in that IP container. In addition, under each
site's NTDS settings, there is a link back to the DC that is the PDC emulator
in our main location. What has been happening lately, though, is that the
KCC is automatically generating links from one of our remote locations that
has a 256 link to all the other locations. This leads me to believe that
something is misconfigured.

My question is this: Do I need to create a separate link for each
connection to the main location, or does putting all the sites into that
Frame Relay site link create the best configuration? I am confused as to the
difference between the links under each individual site's NTDS settings, and
the main link under the IP transport container. Please help sort me out!

 

[Guest]

Also, if anyone cares to suggest a better strategy for my Sites and Services
configuration, all ideas are welcome!

 

[C Hall]

A lot of it depends on how your actual network is setup. AD uses sites, site
links and subnets to 'tell' it what the physical network looks like. In my
case, we have a central office (co) with many remote locations in a
hub/spoke configuration. All of our frame relay circuits are set to run from
the co to the branch, so in our case it would be appropriate to create a
site link between each location. I'm assuming that the t3 is your link to
the internet, correct? Each physical location should be configured with a
site and a subnet (which would be associated with the site), then add the
appropriate DC. It would be recommended to create a site link between each
of the remote locations to the co...but that depends on how your actual
phyiscal network is setup.

HTH,
Chris


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[Guest]

Thanks for the response! So the way it WAS configured was to have only ONE
site link, with all locations added. What YOU are saying is to create a
separate link for each connection between hub and spoke (our frame ties
everything into the main location just as at your company), that associates a
lower cost number for the higher speed links, right?

Also, once that is done, and I delete all the manually created AD
connections, the KCC should automatically create new connections based on the
new site links, correct?

 

[C Hall]

INLINE>>

Thanks for the response! So the way it WAS configured was to have only ONE
site link, with all locations added. What YOU are saying is to create a
separate link for each connection between hub and spoke (our frame ties
everything into the main location just as at your company), that associates a
lower cost number for the higher speed links, right?

Correct. Again, we're trying to paint a picture for AD as to how the
phyisical network actually looks. As for cost, yes, lower costs for higher
speed.

Also, once that is done, and I delete all the manually created AD
connections, the KCC should automatically create new connections based on the
new site links, correct?

Yes, delete the manually created connection objects, as KCC will not; it
will recreate connection objects based on the info give (sites/subnets/site
lins).

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

This seems to have worked perfectly. Each spoke has a single site link to
the hub, with the full T1's set to a cost of 100 and the partial T1's set to
a cost of 500. The system then generated the connections automatically just
as I would have created them manually. Thanks very much for your help!!!

Gabriel

 

[C Hall]

Glad that has worked out for you.

RE Cost on site links: as I understand it, the most useful purpose of site
link costs are when you have multiple site links defined between two
locations. Setting one as a higher cost would provide fault tolerance in
case the other link went down. Setting the cost lower on the preferred link
would tell KCC to use it first and if it's not available, to use the next
link.