4 Sites! Should Each Have a DC or Member Servers

[mrwalsh1]

I need to setup a Win2k AD with four sites, each with their own OU. I had originally thought that the main site would have a DC and the remaining sites would have Member Servers. However, I am reading now, that each site should have it's own DC. What is the proper and most efficient setup.

 

[brontosaurus]

Actually, although you can create a site without specifying a DC, it won't do you any good if you don't add one. The primary purpose for creating a site is to allow local authentication for users on their different subnets (and usually different locations), which would allow for local processing of Group Policy, scripts, etc....
So, the question you need to ask yourself is, do you need this functionality? If so, you've got to have the DC's...

 

[AlexIT]

Each site needs DC for local authentication, anything else will consume too much bandwidth as each users attempts to log on.

Alex

 

[GlenJohnson]

Bronto and alexit are correct. What happens is if you don't want people hollering at you because the networking is to slow, put a dc on each. If everybody is trying to authenticate to one dc, and the local sites have only member servers, everybody is hitting it at once. By installing 4 dc's that replicate with each other, you've divided the authentication by 4 so the users speed is much faster. Make sense? Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com

"A single stone can cause a building to collapse."
Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645); Spanish writer.