simple question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zulfikar Fanuswala
  • Start date Start date
Z

Zulfikar Fanuswala

Hi Guys,

I am a little confused about the roles here for AD server. The three things
I want to know are.

What is an Operations master?
What is a Primary Domain Controller ?

are the above two one and the same ?


Is that the same as one of the five AD roles , i.e are the above two the
Domain tree operations or the domain naming masters ? Which I know for sure
are one and the same.

basically I have 2 servers and both are GC's. I need to find my Operations
master. One of the server in the AD replication Monitor says is it the
Primary Domain contoller for the domain . So is this guy my Operations
master.


I hate this mess up of terminology.Can someone help me out here?


ZJ
 
-----Original Message-----
Hi Guys,

I am a little confused about the roles here for AD server. The three things
I want to know are.

What is an Operations master?
What is a Primary Domain Controller ?

are the above two one and the same ?


Is that the same as one of the five AD roles , i.e are the above two the
Domain tree operations or the domain naming masters ? Which I know for sure
are one and the same.

basically I have 2 servers and both are GC's. I need to find my Operations
master. One of the server in the AD replication Monitor says is it the
Primary Domain contoller for the domain . So is this guy my Operations
master.


I hate this mess up of terminology.Can someone help me out here?


ZJ



.
Click to expand...
Howdy ZJ!

Yeah! I am with you. There is a whole bunch or
terminology that is really hard to grasp at first.
However, it is really quite easy once you sit down and
draw it all out!

In WIN2000 there are no more Primary Domain Controllers or
Backup Domain Controllers ( like in WINNT 4.0 ). All DCs
are simply that: Domain Controllers.

Now, there are indeed five FSMO Roles in an Active
Directory environment. There are two that are Forest-wide
and then there are three that are Domain-wide.

The two Forest-wide Roles are the Schema Master and the
Domain Naming Master. In each WIN2000 Forest there can be
one and only one DC that holds the role of Schema Master
and of Domain Naming Master. By default, the first DC in
the first Domain in the First Domain Tree in the Forest
holds these two roles. You can transfer the roles to
another DC but that is *usually* not necessary.

The three Domain-wide Roles are the PDC Emulator Master,
the RID Master and the Infrastructure Master. In each
WIN2000 Domain in the Forest there can be one and only one
DC that hold these roles. Again, they can be transfered
to another DC and again, by default, the first DC in the
first Domain in the first Domain tree in the Forest holds
these three roles.

The PDC Emulator is essentially for backward
compatibility. It "emulates" a WINNT 4.0 PDC in the case
that you are running in WIN2000 Mixed Mode and have WINNT
4.0 BDC still in your environment. It also does a few
other things ( like act as the "time clock" ).

Each of these five roles is an "Operations Master".

Does this clarify things?

Cary
 
Cary,

Thanks for your help. It makes sense now.
I have two DC with all the roles pretty much divided between them , not in
the ideal order though. But that is fine since I have just one forest which
has just one domain ?

On one of the server in the properties of the AD replication Monitor , the
"Server is the Primary Controller for the Domain" is checked and its not
checked for the other server.

So I guess "Server is the Primary DOmain Controller for the DOmain" means
the PDC emulator.

Thanks again.

ZJ
 
-----Original Message-----
Cary,

Thanks for your help. It makes sense now.
I have two DC with all the roles pretty much divided between them , not in
the ideal order though. But that is fine since I have just one forest which
has just one domain ?

On one of the server in the properties of the AD replication Monitor , the
"Server is the Primary Controller for the Domain" is checked and its not
checked for the other server.

So I guess "Server is the Primary DOmain Controller for the DOmain" means
the PDC emulator.

Thanks again.

ZJ








.
Click to expand...
ZF,

You are welcome. But, what does "not in the ideal order"
mean? Please note that you should generally have it set
up so that the DC that holds the role of PDC Emulator
also holds the role of RID Master.

Since you are - at this time - a single domain
environment it really should not matter *too much*.
However, let's get things corrct so that things are
correct. It really does not matter that you are a single
domain. Things should still be correct! ;-)

Now, as to being a single domain - if what I am reading
into that is what you mean then you are correct.
However, again, let's set things up correctly so that
there will not be any problems when you add a chlid
domain or grandchild domain.

The DC that holds the role of Infrastructure Master
should *generally* not be a Global Catalog Server.
However, you can get around this if you make all DCs in
that particular domain a Global Catalog Server.

Also, you will have problems adding a "grandchild domain"
if the DC that holds the role of Domain Naming Master is
not a Global Catalog Server. I doubt that this would
ever apply to you - but I do not know this to be true or
to remain true!

Does this help?

Cary
 
Yeah totally.

I am right now a single domain and dont know if I will ever add another
child or granchild domain. Both my servers are GC's and

server 1 is Scheme , PDC Emulator and RID
server 2 is Infra and Domain Naming master

I hear that the "ideal" config is to have your Scheme and Domain Naming
master be one server
and the RID , PDC and Infra be another server.

I may change it just to be correct but its not a priority I guess.

Thanks for your time.
ZJ
 
-----Original Message-----
Yeah totally.

I am right now a single domain and dont know if I will ever add another
child or granchild domain. Both my servers are GC's and

server 1 is Scheme , PDC Emulator and RID
server 2 is Infra and Domain Naming master

I hear that the "ideal" config is to have your Scheme and Domain Naming
master be one server
and the RID , PDC and Infra be another server.

I may change it just to be correct but its not a priority I guess.

Thanks for your time.
ZJ




.
Click to expand...
You could, but sometimes the old addage "If it ain't
broke, don't fix it" really does apply ( usually not,
though ).

Do you have the documentation for that? I have always
*heard* that the PDC and RID roles should be held by the
same DC yet I have never found any documentation for that.

Glad that things are more clear for you now.

Cary
 
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