Caro said:
Thanks, Herb, for your help. Just a few comments and please understand that I
am not trying to be contentious, just that your posts are somewhat confusing
to me. Please bear with me.
[Doesn't bother me, unless someone disagree's without
providing any evidence AND without a desire to learn.]
Technical issues have technical answers, and personalities
are unimportant in such (to me.)
[Joe's is correct, so read that also.]
Okay, just don't understand what he is driving at. The comment made
regarding Unattended DCPROMO did not help as I could not find the
documentation. A little more clarification would be very helpful.
Ok, I didn't really understand that either <grin>, but presumed it
would HELP you find the correct documention, i.e., by giving
you that search word to plug into Google:
[ unattended dcpromo site:microsoft.com ]
The above gets hits all over the subject and we are happy to
help you with anything specific or guide you to the key points....
Also make sure you set the DNS correctly (see below).
Do we build the remote server at Corporate HQ as a
DC, then physically move it to the remote office?
That is a viable option but unnecessarily tedious unless
you now have the hardware at HQ and plan to drive to
the branch office, or ship it, anyway.
Or do we attempt to DCPROMO across a WAN link?
That is viable if you WAN will support it.
No choice now as the server is at the remote office now.
Then building it at HQ is not a real choice -- and it isn't necessary.
What is the requirement for DCPROMO across the WAN link?
Same as local:
a routable network connection (IP)
error free enough to support RPCs
no restrictive firewall filters that interfere with the process
BUT MAINLY: DNS working correctly
If we attempt to DCPROMO across a WAN link, how will we
tell it to go to the correct DC within Corporate HQ during the promo
process?
Sites and Services, Joe mentioned that.
Actually, I do not see where he mentioned that at all. Furthermore, how do
you access Sites and Services without the remote server being a DC?
Sorry, he presumed that when he said "set up your
subnetting info for that site" that you would understand
that Sites and Services does that, and when I mentioned
Sites and Services I wasn't looking at his message any
longer and didn't notice that the two ideas were not tied
together.
AD Sites and Services sets the configution for all your
EXISTING DCs (for an entire forest actually) so that
when a new DC is being promoted it will find a working
DC (DNS again) and be told where/how to get the other
stuff.
So, in Sites and Services you create:
Sites
Subnets
Site Links
And on Site Links you configure:
Schedule
Frequency
Cost
This is a
member server only at this point and I cannot get it to DCPROMO across the
WAN link. This does not make sense or am I missing something?
Sure it makes "sense" because it is what you is happening.
And yes, you are missing something: Most likely DNS issues.
But possibly simple routing, or firewall restriction issues.
Can you ping by name and number?
Do all the DCs you have now pass a DCDiag?
Does the "new" DC-to-be use the SAME DNS server set
and no other that the existing DCs use?
(and other DNS stuff.)
Also, the third (and fourth) method is to do a System
State backup and then restore to the "new to-be DC"
(for Win2000) or the procedure that was added to Win2003
to "promote from media" where the DCPromo actually
understands using such backups.
Once we set it up at the remote office, how to insure that replication
takes
place across the WAN link? Just need a little help here understanding
remote
setups.
Besides the status (and error) messages you see during
DC promo you use same methods you do for any other DC....
Check the Event Logs (AD, DNS, and System especially).
Use these tools (from Support Tools):
DCDiag.exe
RepAdmin.exe
ReplMon.exe
Okay, understood.
Notice that these tools are for checking a DC or replication
AFTER you get it DCpromo'd -- or for checking the existing
DCs before adding a new one.
C-ServerNameGoesHere