adding a second DC 2

[bookouri]

My Win2K Active Directory Server has been running at 100% so I have added a second DC to the domain. How can I "load balance" or will the domain automatically share the load between the two logon servers? I installed the new server and dcpromo'd it and it is now running as a domain controller. Do I need to do anything else to take some of the load off my original DC.

thanks for any info...

 

[brontosaurus]

for the most part the load will be shared. If you want, you can transfer a couple of the FSMO roles to the new server, or even make it a GC, which would help even further. Also, be sure to add it in as a secondary DNS server (and WINS, if you're running it), assuming you're using 2K DNS for name resolution. There's other things as well, I'm sure some of the Pros here can chime in, but you're off to a good start...

 

[jasonhand]

You may want to consider adding a second NIC card to your DC's and use Load Balancing software to double the throughput of your network send/receive since that it primarily what takes place in a W2k DC.

A good one to look into is NIC Express from IP Metrics.

http://www.ipmetrics.com

Hope that helps. Everything else recommended will help also.

-Jason

 

[bookouri]

Is there any special configuration for DSN on the new server or will the two Domain Controllers "sync up" automatically. DNS is installed and configured and working on the original Domain Controller.

What software would you use for load balancing on the NIC cards?

thanks for the info...

 

[brontosaurus]

If you have AD integrated DNS on the first server, you just need to add the second server into the mix as AD integrated as well. If the original server is set up as a Standard Primary, you need to add the second server as Standard Secondary. In either case, once you activate them, they will synch up automatically. Oh yeah, if it's the latter situation, just double check that the first server is allowing zone transfers...

 

[GlenJohnson]

I have two nics on my dc, and there teamed. What this does is take the two nics, creates a third virtual nic. The real nics have no tcp/ip settings or anything. Everything is set up on the virtual nic. Sorry I can't help you set it up since it was done by a contractor, and I didn't see him do it, I just know it can be done. Good luck. Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
gjohn76351@msn.com

"You cannot create experience. You must undergo it."
Albert Camus (1913-1960); French writer and philosopher

 

[bookouri]

Yeah, it sounds like you have a compaq server. Ive set up teamed nic cards before, its been a long time, but I dont think it was that hard to do. We were doing it for redundancy if I remember right, I hadnt thought of it as doing load balancing too.

thanks again for all the replies

 

[bookouri]

I have run into a problem with my dns. I configured several workstations with my new server dns as the primary and the old one as the secondary. But, I have a forward lookup to another company dns server that handles some special intranet "web page" mappings. I set the new dns server up to do a forward lookup to the company dns server too. But if I have the new dns server set as primary on the workstation, the intranet "web pages" are not accessible. Does the DNS take a while to communicate with the company wide dns server and update its database, or have I missed a step..

thanks

 

[brontosaurus]

do those web pages contain the same domain suffix? That is, if your DNS server is authoritative for MYCOMPANY.COM , it will not forward queries to another server if you ask for a web site that ends with MYCOMPANY.COM ? In this case, you'll need to create a CNAME entry in your zone data file...

 

[GlenJohnson]

Yes, it's a compaq server and it works well with the teaming. Hope that helped.

Bookouri
DNS will take a bit of time for name resolution to be set into cache. What I've done is my users have only my local dns servers for dns, and my dns servers have themselves first, then my external dns servers. This way, once the name resolution has made it's way into cache, it's only going into the back room for the name resolution. I've had someone recommend not using the users pc's use the external dns at all, since if it doesn't get name resolution on the internals, once it does find it on the externals, the externals will move up, and that will be the first place it looks. Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
gjohn76351@msn.com

"By attempting the impossible, the possible is achieved."
Henri Barbusse (1873-1935); French writer.