WAN networking

[Mike Inglis]

G'Day all,

I have a question about setting up a wan network between several
offices.

The current config is this: There are 3 offices, each has it's own
domain running SBS 2000, using Exchange, ISA Server etc. The sites are
located around the world (1. Australia 2. New Zealand 3. Malaysia).

We want to link the three sites together, my question is what is the
best strategy given their current use of SBS at each site?

Some options I have considered:

1. Do away with SBS and upgrade them to Back Office at each site, then
setup trusts across the wan link. Keep each separate domain.

2. Do away with SBS and Merge the 3 domains into one and setup DC's at
each site.

3. Provide one SBS server at one site for all three sites to use.

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly welcomed.

- Mike

 

[Alan Wood [MSFT]]

Hi Mike,
I would really need more information to give a the best results but I
have included some comments. One of my main questions would be, how many
users are each site, and is there a local admin at each site.
Is it nessecary for that site to have their own admin, or is one admin for
a single domain at one site going to be sufficient? Is there a Need to
have seperate administration of each location?

1. Do away with SBS and upgrade them to Back Office at each site, then
setup trusts across the wan link. Keep each separate domain.
Not a bad idea, but this goes back to my first question. It would much
easier for ONE domain, centralized administration than managing 3 seperate
domains. ALso, when you say Keep each a seperate domain, do you mean
different domains, in different forests with manually created trusts. If
these are completley 3 different companies just for B2B that would not be a
bad idea, but if this is one company, then see answer 2.

2. Do away with SBS and Merge the 3 domains into one and setup DC's at
each site.
I like this option the best if the ties are strong betwee the branch
offices. Meaning this is one company and centralized main office in one of
the locations. This is more fexible. If each office needs to manage there
own resources, you would have 2 chioces.
A. Create OU's for the branch offices and delgate rights the OU's for
administration.
B. You could have Seperate Domains in the Same Forest, this would allow
them more administration but you don't have the administrative overhead of
managing Transitive Trusts, as the kerberos trusts are less to manage and
more flexible in administrative use with the Universal Groups and other
Apps such as Exchange could be shared. (You could share exchange but still
much more admin)

3. Provide one SBS server at one site for all three sites to use.
Not recommended.. The offices that do not have a domain controller are
going to experience slow connectivity and slow logon. This also depends on
the amount of users at each site, I'm sure they would be more productive
with an DC at the locations.

Again, this is completley depend on numerous circumstances, but I think
OPTION 2 is the best IMHO.

Thank you,

Alan Wood[MSFT]

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