ADUC MMC and connecting to Domain Controller

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cst112

I have 4 domain controllers connected via WAN (DSL connection).
When I open up my Active Directory Users and Computers, it seems to
pick a domain controller that is across the WAN (in another city).
this makes if very slow. I can manually change the connection to the
local domain controller for that session but I am wondering why it does
this?

I am having similar problem with File Replication Services and DFS.
When I map a drive to \\mydomain\mydfsshare\mydir it uses the
replicated file system across the wan instead of the local domain
controller. Even when you logon to your computer, it will randomly pick
a server to logon to. Is there a way to set it up so it always tries
to use the local domain controller first and then try a different
server if it isn't available??

Thanks,

Kevin
 
You would do that by setting up sites within the domain structure.
Search Active Directory Sites on microsoft.com for info on configuring
your netowkr this way.
The basic concept is that sites is set up by IP addresses. You will
always pick/login to the site your IP is associated with. This is also
the best method of setting up a domain structure in a WAN environment.
 
I have setup the sites and the subnets they belong to.
The logons seem to use the local domain controllers now.

The DFS directory I am replicating (general share) still seems to be
randomly picking a replica from differents sites and not the local
site. Does setting up the sites as mentioned above fix suppose to fix
this issue? I read about a dfsutil.exe that can be specified to use
the local site. I have a dfs setup that uses directorys from all
servers in all different sites. I have one directory that I replicate
on all the domain controllers that I want users to only use the local
copy. What should I be looking into? The dfsutil.exe??

Thanks for your response,

Kevin
 
I have 4 domain controllers connected via WAN (DSL
connection).
When I open up my Active Directory Users and Computers, it
seems to
pick a domain controller that is across the WAN (in another
city).
this makes if very slow. I can manually change the connection
to the
local domain controller for that session but I am wondering
why it does
this?

I am having similar problem with File Replication Services and
DFS.
When I map a drive to \mydomainmydfssharemydir it uses the
replicated file system across the wan instead of the local
domain
controller. Even when you logon to your computer, it will
randomly pick
a server to logon to. Is there a way to set it up so it
always tries
to use the local domain controller first and then try a
different
server if it isn't available??

Thanks,

Kevin
Click to expand...

for that to work correct to need to create sites that represent fast
connected locations (at least LAN speed), then you need to define all
the physical subnets in AD and then you need to assign the subnet
definitions to the site that corresponds with the physical location
where that subnet is located. Make also sure the DCs are placed in the
correct site.

clients/servers will first ask for DCs servicing the site the clients
is in (these may be local or may be service by a hub location if the
site has no DCs) and if no DC answers it will ask for DCs serviving
the domain and that can be all DCs in the domain that are available.

You can find mote info at:
http://download.microsoft.com/downl.../06_CHAPTER_3_Designing_the_Site_Topology.doc

You might also wanna take a look at:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=823362
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/38119/38119.html
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/dfsfaq.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...Ref/87b2da50-f5d4-471d-a103-6efde69580cd.mspx
(look for SiteCostedReferrals)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...SP1/06c72a24-5d25-4f6c-a005-deea51fd4709.mspx
 
I have made the changes to the sites as mentioned in previous post.
(each domain controller in a different location is associated with a
subnet). The logons happen locally now. Just the DFS share is still
random for some reason. Mostly it is connecting to the local DFS share
but sometimes it will connect to on in another location.

The DFS File System is created on my main domain controller.
I have a link in the DFS file system that points to a shared directory
on that domain controller. I replicate that domain controller to 3
other domain controllers.


I then map the drive like this.
net use g: \\mydomain.com\myshares\myreplicatedshare

and

net use w: \\mydomain.com\myshares

When I check which replica myreplicatedshare is connect to with the two
different mappings, they are sometimes different. One could be
connecting to the local domain controller and the other to domain
controller that is across the slow dsl wan. (Note, I was only mapping
both drives to troubleshoot why they are connecting to different
resources).
 
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