GC placement Question

[A. Chan]

If I have two sites each with 3 DCs and one of them is a GC . What will
happen if the GC is not configure as the Bridgehead server , will GC
replication still ocurs ?

A Chan

 

[Joe Richards [MVP]]

Well you don't specify how many domains you have to determine if this is an optimal configuration but to your original
question, yes, GC replication will work because if you have multiple domains, that GC *WILL BE* a bridgehead for those
additional partitions. If you specifically indicate that a specific DC can't be a bridgehead via mods to the defaults,
no your replication for the GC partitions will stop.

If you only have one domain, make all the DCs GCs. There is no additional overhead and clears confusion and gives you
better fault tolerance.

 

[A. Chan]

Joe,
I have two domains, one root and one child domain . The root is at one site
and the child domain is at the other . Both sites connected via T1 Wan.
It so happened that one of our Sys Admin made the DC which is not a GC at
each sites ( and each domain )the bridgehead server.
Do you think we shold also promote the bridgehead DC as GC as well in our
case ?

Thanks.
A Chan

Well you don't specify how many domains you have to determine if this is

an optimal configuration but to your original

question, yes, GC replication will work because if you have multiple

domains, that GC *WILL BE* a bridgehead for those

additional partitions. If you specifically indicate that a specific DC

can't be a bridgehead via mods to the defaults,

no your replication for the GC partitions will stop.

If you only have one domain, make all the DCs GCs. There is no additional

overhead and clears confusion and gives you

 

[Adam Wood]

I have two domains, one root and one child domain . The root is at one site
and the child domain is at the other . Both sites connected via T1 Wan.
It so happened that one of our Sys Admin made the DC which is not a GC at
each sites ( and each domain )the bridgehead server.
Do you think we shold also promote the bridgehead DC as GC as well in our
case ?

You could do. Actually, as GC data will only be replicated over the WAN
once there is no additional WAN load for having two or even three GCs at
each site.

 

[Joe Richards [MVP]]

When you say that your sysadmin set one to be the bridgehead, was this done with registry mods to set the preferred
bridgehead? If so, is there a reason for it? Generally it is best to let AD figure out what it wants to do on its own.
That way you won't have to worry about what servers are bridgeheads and which aren't. If you have a complicated or
convoluted network infrastructure then you have to set it up specially, but other than that avoid hard coding that
stuff.

You can quickly ascertain if the GC is bridgeheading the partitions that aren't already replicating to that site by
doing a repadmin /showreps and look at the partitions and where they are being replicated from.


--
Joe Richards
www.joeware.net