Thursday, May 22, 2008

Windows Server 2008 Active Directory - Sites

Sites are great ways to manage the use of bandwidth for AD DS replication across WAN links. All domain controllers in an AD DS domain must stay in contact with one another at regular intervals to acquire and transmit the changes that have occurred to their databases since the last update. Otherwise, information becomes "stale" and the directory is no good to anyone. However, this replication traffic can be costly if you have domain controllers in different countries and you use slow WAN links to keep in contact with your various offices.

By designating different sites with AD DS, a process we'll cover later in the replication section of this chapter, you can tell AD DS to compress the replication traffic to allow it to be transmitted more quickly, and you can give preferences to certain WAN links over others by using the "cost" feature, specifying a higher value for a connection you want to use less often and a lower value for a connection you'd like to use the most often. It's a great way to manage your telecommunications expenses while still taking advantage of the better management features of AD DS.

In a domain environment, the Distributed File System, also uses AD DS's site structure to control file replication traffic.

*.* Source of Information : O'Reilly Windows Server 2008: The Definitive Guide


No comments: