Active Directory Domain Controller redundancy 2

[sudip00]

Hi,
I have a domain with 2 dc's (Dc1 and Dc2 ** both run DNS services). Whenever Dc1 is off-line, users cannot be authenticted or the nerwork cnnot be browsed. Although replicaiton between those 2 servers works just fine. I need to find out out how if Dc1 goes down, Dc2 can kick in to authenticate users abd brose network.
Thanks in advance.

 

[rye8261]

To do this you have to set up the other DC as a Global Catalog. To do this, open up Active Directoy Sites and Services, go into default first site->servers->COMPUTER NAME->NTDS Settings. Open up the properties of NTDS Settings and check the Global Catalog tick box. Now users will be able to log in when the other DC is down.

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[buddafish]

do the client machines know BOTH dns server addresses?

 

[enbw]

I would follow Buddafish...

It depends on what you want to achieve when your dc1 is down. Do you simply want network authentication, or do you want to replicate all the services/applications which dc1 provides?

 

[sudip00]

I would like to do both, authenticate and replicate dns.

 

[Jpoandl]

1) Install the DNS service on your second DC
2) Point all clients to both DC1 and DC2 for thier local TCP/IP properties. This way when one server goes down, the clients can use the alternative DNS server. AD requires that DNS is working for clients to be able to talk to AD properly.
3) Make sure that you have an additional Global Catalog server. Each DC can be a global catalog

Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2003

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