Setting up 3 office site need advise on Active Directory Planning

[Moe Mustafa]

Hello,

I am working with a client has 2 active locations and 1 upcoming
location. I have some questions on active directory planning. The
3sites will be connected via full 1.54 Frame Lines. IN the past, when
i connected win2k domains togheter, i would just create trusts between
them. This one i want to do a little better. here is the setup.

CHI office:

1 PDC server domain: ABCcompany.com

about 30 workstations


DENVER OFFICE

1 PDC server / domain: ABCDenver.com

about 30 workstaions

CALI OFFICE (YET TO BE SETUP!!!)

PLAN on having 2 PDC servers.
and having 1 MS Exchange server 2000(serving emails for all 3
offices.)

estimated about 120 workstations.


My question is, should I just for CALI office domain : ABCCALI.com and
make a Trust between the 3 domains using the "domains and trusts".
OR*** I am trying to research in creating CALI(corp office) the
primary server and create sub-domains (chil-domains/forests??) i'm a
little lost in that area. and redo the other 2 sites to become sub-of
the CaLI office. .

Also, if i decide to just keep each site as its own forest. how would
hte 2 offices in denver and chicago work off hte exchange box? when i
create a new users in AD in chicago. . will it add the mailbox in the
exchange or will it have to be done manully? . .

THanks,
MOe

 

[Matjaz Ladava [MVP]]

I don't think, that setting up different domains/forest is a great idea.
This was a NT model. Depending on your security requirements you can build
one forest with one tree with tree domains (abccompany.com,
denver.abccompany.com, cali.abcdomain.com), or better create one domain,
spanning 3 sites. Create separate OU's in Ad for each location and delegate
administration to specific site administrators. Domains in the same forest
in AD automatically have two-way transitive trust, so you don't have to
create one separately. I would suggest you to get a good book on AD planning
(Inside Active Directory from Sakari Kouti and Mika Seitsonen is a good one)
before you start with this task.

--
Regards

Matjaz Ladava, MCSE (NT4 & 2000), MVP
(e-mail address removed)
http://ladava.com