Global Catalog Server

[joh]

Hi All,

Just a quick question; I have one domain, one site, 3 DCs
and one Global Catalog server. Should I have more than one
global catalog server? If that server fails, will it be
difficult to recover. I know you can seize fsmo roles, but
what about global catalog?

Thanks,
j

 

[Paul Bergson]

I would always at a minimum have two GC's. A gc is basically a subset of
certain AD objects so you would never have to seize that role. But if you
lose the only gc then you will have to make an additional GC available
before most users would be able to signon. Personally we have the gc
selection on all of our DC but we only have four and they are all at unique
sites.

 

[Herb Martin]

I would always at a minimum have two GC's. A gc is basically a subset of
certain AD objects so you would never have to seize that role. But if you
lose the only gc then you will have to make an additional GC available
before most users would be able to signon. Personally we have the gc
selection on all of our DC but we only have four and they are all at unique
sites.

Paul is right; always have at least two GCs, two
GCs per site if you can.

And there is nothing wrong with single domains
or even small forests having ALL DCs be GCs.

The reason that all DCs are not GCs to start is
that in large (or even Giant) forests the DCs would
all have to hold a reference to every object in the
entire forest which could be quite large and quite
a replication burden.

For a few hundred, or a few thousand users even,
this not likely to matter unless you have really
poor WAN lines.

Single domain, all GCs.

Small multi-domain forest, probably all GCs.

 

[Doug Frisk]

Hi All,

Just a quick question; I have one domain, one site, 3 DCs
and one Global Catalog server. Should I have more than one
global catalog server? If that server fails, will it be
difficult to recover. I know you can seize fsmo roles, but
what about global catalog?

You can turn on and off the GC functionality at any time.

That said, if you only have one domain, you might as well make all DCs GCs.
All of the DCs already contain the all the data needed to be a GC so there
would be no extra replication.

 

[sirdoug69]

What about this article that states that the Global Catalog should no
be placed on the same server as infrastructure master. I've also hear
the same from Microsoft instructors. Please advise.

Thanks,
Doug

http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/147710


-
sirdoug6

 

[Herb Martin]

What about this article that states that the Global Catalog should not
be placed on the same server as infrastructure master. I've also heard
the same from Microsoft instructors. Please advise.

Infrastructure master roles are only
relevant in multi-domain forests.

The resolve cross-domain renaming
issues (a user from one domain is in
a group of another domain and is renamed.)