One user One account

[Guest]

We currently have two forests and the main problem is that Exchange 2000 does
not link the Global Address lists. We have to maintain a public folders
contacts with the other companies in it.

If we place all the companies into the same forest but each of them a
different tree,
A: Does the user account info replicate between all trees?
B: Will exchange, on the other trees, be able to join the site of the
"First" created forest that already is running exchange 2000 and create orgs?
C: Will everyone be able to see the global address lists of all the trees.

 

[Simon Geary]

As well as merging the forests, you also have the option of using IIFP to
synchronise the GALs. It won't be the best solution for everyone but you
should check it out.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/iifp.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...10-c04d-41c4-b7ea-6f56819769d5&displaylang=en

 

[Joe Richards [MVP]]

Exchange is forest based, one forest, one org. So every Exchange enabled domain
in a forest will all be part of the same Exchange Org and the GAL will be
available to all in that org.

However, you really don't want to use separate trees in a forest. From what I
have seen separate trees tend to be a source of massive confusion in companies
during troubleshooting processes and many scripts and some apps also have
trouble with it due to being improperly written assuming a single tree
structure. All of this can be overcome, but again, it adds a layer of confusion
for a lot of people.

Also, Exchange has several issues in multidomain environments, be sure you
understand them prior to moving to am multidomain Exchange forest setup. You
have possible issues with any outlook updatable email attributes such as public
delegates, certs, and DLs.

One option is to work on syncing the GAL as mentioned by Simon with IIFP or MIIS
or HP's LDSU or some other syncing tool. Another option is to use an Exchange
Resource Forest which is a single domain forest which has all of the Exchange
information and resources. If you have a centralized deployment this is often a
good choice. Then you link the IDs from the other forests to the Exchange
mailboxes in the Exchange Resource Forest. Depending on what kind of info you
want in the directories this could also require syncing of data between the
forests but at a minimum you simply need to make sure that you create and link
mailboxes in the Resource forest to the appropriate user forests.

joe