WD Lesson - 20

Configuring Intersite Replication

Intersite replication

Replication among sites is known as intersite replication. The tasks involved in an intersite replication are as given below:

Compulsory Task

(i)                 Creating site links.

(ii)               Configuring site link attributes.

Optional Task

(i)                 Designate a preferred bridgehead server

(ii)               Creating site link bridge

(iii)             Configuring connection objects

Compulsory Task

(i)Creating Site Links

1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Sites And Services.

2. Open the Inter-Site Transports folder and right-click either the IP or SMTP folder, depending on which protocol you want the site to use. Select New Site Link.

3. In the New Object–Site Link dialog box, type the name to be given to the site link in the Name field.

4. Click two or more sites to connect, and then click Add. Click OK.

(ii)Configuring Site Link Attributes

The site link attributes must be configured with the following guidelines:

a)      Site Link Cost: Higher costs are used for slow links, and lower costs are used for fast links.

b)      Replication Frequency: interval must be at least 15 and no more than 10,080 minutes (equal to one week).

Designing a Bridgehead Server

• Bridgehead servers are the contact point for exchange of directory information between sites. Replication occurs between bridgehead servers in different sites.
• We must specify a preferred bridgehead server if our deployment uses a firewall to protect a site. We should establish our firewall proxy server as the preferred bridgehead server making it the contact point for exchanging information with servers outside the firewall.

Creating Site Link Bridges

1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Sites And Services.

2. Open the Inter-Site Transports folder and right-click either the IP or SMTP folder,

and then click New Site Link Bridge.

3. In the New Object–Site Link Bridge dialog box, type a name for the site link bridge in the Name box.

4. In the Site Links Not In This Site Link Bridge box, click two or more sites to connect, and then click Add. Click OK.

Configuring Connection Objects

A connection object is an Active Directory object that represents an inbound-only connection to a domain controller.

            Although we can create or configure connection objects manually to force replication over a particular connection, normally we should allow replication to be automatically optimized.