Forest & Child Domain Setup

[MMS]

Hi,

Please advise on how to go about setting this up:

Background:
Company A (coma.local) has operations in 2 locations: HQ (75 users) & Plant
(15 users).
Plant connects via HQ for Web & Internet access only.
Plant connects to HQ via a 128K leased line. Its awfully slow so minimising
network congestion is mandatory.
Future Plans: The 128K leased line will be replaced with a 512K ADSL in the
coming quarter.

Requirements:
1x File Sharing Server (Win 2003 Server Std) at each site
1x MX 2003 at HQ (DMZ with a Public IP)

Questions:
1. Should I make Plant a member DC of HQ, so that the users from both sites
will be replicated in the MX2003? If I were to do this, I know the 4x per
hr replication will adversely slow down the network. I could change the
replication timing to after hours, coz' other than the OUs there's nothing
else to replicate.
HQ server - hq.coma.local (DC)
MX server - mx.coma.local
Plant server - plant.coma.local (DC member server)

2. Or should I make Plant a DC in its own forest.
HQ server - hq.coma.local (DC)
MX server - mx.coma.local
Plant server - dc.plant.coma.local (DC)
FQDN for Plant is merely for identification, its not a child. There will be
no replication done. Usernames at Plant will be keyed in the HQ AD for MX
mailboxes. Any new users will be created manually. Its double work but Plant
has low staff turnover, or should I do a two-way transitive trust to reduce
admin time?

There is another issue here - since the local domain is different at Plant,
everytime they launch their Outlook they will get a box that asks for this
info:
Username:
Domain:
Password:
And there is no checkbox for remember password. This is rather annoying.

Or someone can suggest something else entirely ?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Paul Bergson]

Stick your dc and exchange server at hq. No dc at the plant just your file
server. There will be no replication going on at all. All users should be
able to authenticate to the HQ and yes you need more bandwidth (I would
forget about gpo's until you update your bandwidth). There will be
replication going on between the two so no worries about that. You should
consider having two dc's at hq, for fault tolerance.

--


Paul Bergson MCT, MCSE, MCSA, CNE, CNA, CCA

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[MMS]

Hi Paul,

So the File Server at Plant should be setup as a DC in an existing forest?

 

[Paul Bergson]

Don't create a dc at the plant, do all authentication back at HQ. Just make
the file server at the plant a member server in the domain.

--


Paul Bergson MCT, MCSE, MCSA, CNE, CNA, CCA

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Guest]

I agree. 15 users is not enough to justify adding a domain controller at the
Plant. DC replication may actually end up using more bandwidth than just
having the plant users authenticate to the domain across the wire to HQ. Keep
a file server at plant. 2 DC's at HQ is a must though.

 

[Paul Bergson]

Yes. You got it.

--


Paul Bergson MCT, MCSE, MCSA, CNE, CNA, CCA

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.