2 server domain split over a 256k VPN link

Hi there, I wonder if you could help me out as i'm all out of ideas.

One of the clients i've been tasked with looking after has just had the
following setup installed.

Site A:
Windows 2003 SBS server, running dns, dhcp etc
Draytek 2600 VPN router
512k down, 256k up ADSL connection.
Ip 128.12.13.0
Subnet 255.255.255.0
15 users

Site B:
Windows 2003 server, running dns, dhcp etc
Draytek 2600 VPN router
512k down, 256k up ADSL connection.
Ip 128.13.39.0
Subnet 255.255.255.0
10 users


The 2 sites are linked through a VPN tunnel created between the 2
routers. The SBS server was setup with AD and all of the users were
added. Site B's server was installed and then joined (over the vpn
link) to the SBS domain. The AD replicated to the server and all
appeared well. Site B's users then joined the domain and connected up
to their mail boxes held on the SBS server at site A. In terms of the
network working like a normal local network it does, all the dns works,
people can ping machines from the other side by name etc. However.....


Using a client at site A the internet is extremely slow, pinging
bbc.co.uk for example results in a range of pings between 2 and 4
SECOND (and about 10% loss), also pinging a machine or the router at
site B results in pings of the same speed.

Using a client at Site B results in pings to bbc.co.uk averaging about
30ms but pings to a site A take between 2 and 4 seconds.

If I unplug the SBS server at site a the pings taking place on the
client instantly improve, pings to bbc.co.uk and site b average 50ms.
As soon as the sbs server is plugged back in the pings revert to
between 2 and 4 seconds.

The local area connection status on the SBS server is constantly on,
both little pc windows are lit up all the time to show there is
traffic. Doing ctrl-alt-del and viewing the network tab under task
manager shows the link utilisation between 0.25% and 0.75%. The link
speed is 100mbs btw.

>From what I can tell the SBS server is saturating the available upload
bandwidth, however i've got no idea where to go from here to get the
network working at a reasonable speed. Another question would be is it
even possible to have 2 servers connecting like this over a link of
this speed?

Many thanks for any help.

Dan

Oh and sorry if this has been posted in the wrong group, if you could
tell me a better place to post it that would also be great.

It may be that replication traffic between the DCs is effectively reducing
available bandwidth on this connection. Try configuring Site links to
control this - See:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...960be4889.mspx

Doug Sherman
MCSE, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> Hi there, I wonder if you could help me out as i'm all out of ideas.
>
> One of the clients i've been tasked with looking after has just had the
> following setup installed.
>
> Site A:
> Windows 2003 SBS server, running dns, dhcp etc
> Draytek 2600 VPN router
> 512k down, 256k up ADSL connection.
> Ip 128.12.13.0
> Subnet 255.255.255.0
> 15 users
>
> Site B:
> Windows 2003 server, running dns, dhcp etc
> Draytek 2600 VPN router
> 512k down, 256k up ADSL connection.
> Ip 128.13.39.0
> Subnet 255.255.255.0
> 10 users
>
>
> The 2 sites are linked through a VPN tunnel created between the 2
> routers. The SBS server was setup with AD and all of the users were
> added. Site B's server was installed and then joined (over the vpn
> link) to the SBS domain. The AD replicated to the server and all
> appeared well. Site B's users then joined the domain and connected up
> to their mail boxes held on the SBS server at site A. In terms of the
> network working like a normal local network it does, all the dns works,
> people can ping machines from the other side by name etc. However.....
>
>
> Using a client at site A the internet is extremely slow, pinging
> bbc.co.uk for example results in a range of pings between 2 and 4
> SECOND (and about 10% loss), also pinging a machine or the router at
> site B results in pings of the same speed.
>
> Using a client at Site B results in pings to bbc.co.uk averaging about
> 30ms but pings to a site A take between 2 and 4 seconds.
>
> If I unplug the SBS server at site a the pings taking place on the
> client instantly improve, pings to bbc.co.uk and site b average 50ms.
> As soon as the sbs server is plugged back in the pings revert to
> between 2 and 4 seconds.
>
> The local area connection status on the SBS server is constantly on,
> both little pc windows are lit up all the time to show there is
> traffic. Doing ctrl-alt-del and viewing the network tab under task
> manager shows the link utilisation between 0.25% and 0.75%. The link
> speed is 100mbs btw.
>
> >From what I can tell the SBS server is saturating the available upload
> bandwidth, however i've got no idea where to go from here to get the
> network working at a reasonable speed. Another question would be is it
> even possible to have 2 servers connecting like this over a link of
> this speed?
>
> Many thanks for any help.
>
> Dan
>
> Oh and sorry if this has been posted in the wrong group, if you could
> tell me a better place to post it that would also be great.
>

It is also worth checking how the second site is accessing the Internet.
It seems that it is sending all traffic across the VPN link. It should only
be sending traffic for the other site across the VPN link, and sending all
other traffic directly to the ADSL link. (That is, it should have a default
route to the ADSL link and only a subnet route to site A).

How is DNS configured? Are all users using the sbs server for DNS?

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Hi there, I wonder if you could help me out as i'm all out of ideas.
>
> One of the clients i've been tasked with looking after has just had
> the following setup installed.
>
> Site A:
> Windows 2003 SBS server, running dns, dhcp etc
> Draytek 2600 VPN router
> 512k down, 256k up ADSL connection.
> Ip 128.12.13.0
> Subnet 255.255.255.0
> 15 users
>
> Site B:
> Windows 2003 server, running dns, dhcp etc
> Draytek 2600 VPN router
> 512k down, 256k up ADSL connection.
> Ip 128.13.39.0
> Subnet 255.255.255.0
> 10 users
>
>
> The 2 sites are linked through a VPN tunnel created between the 2
> routers. The SBS server was setup with AD and all of the users were
> added. Site B's server was installed and then joined (over the vpn
> link) to the SBS domain. The AD replicated to the server and all
> appeared well. Site B's users then joined the domain and connected up
> to their mail boxes held on the SBS server at site A. In terms of the
> network working like a normal local network it does, all the dns
> works, people can ping machines from the other side by name etc.
> However.....
>
>
> Using a client at site A the internet is extremely slow, pinging
> bbc.co.uk for example results in a range of pings between 2 and 4
> SECOND (and about 10% loss), also pinging a machine or the router at
> site B results in pings of the same speed.
>
> Using a client at Site B results in pings to bbc.co.uk averaging about
> 30ms but pings to a site A take between 2 and 4 seconds.
>
> If I unplug the SBS server at site a the pings taking place on the
> client instantly improve, pings to bbc.co.uk and site b average 50ms.
> As soon as the sbs server is plugged back in the pings revert to
> between 2 and 4 seconds.
>
> The local area connection status on the SBS server is constantly on,
> both little pc windows are lit up all the time to show there is
> traffic. Doing ctrl-alt-del and viewing the network tab under task
> manager shows the link utilisation between 0.25% and 0.75%. The link
> speed is 100mbs btw.
>
>> From what I can tell the SBS server is saturating the available
>> upload
> bandwidth, however i've got no idea where to go from here to get the
> network working at a reasonable speed. Another question would be is
> it even possible to have 2 servers connecting like this over a link of
> this speed?
>
> Many thanks for any help.
>
> Dan
>
> Oh and sorry if this has been posted in the wrong group, if you could
> tell me a better place to post it that would also be great.

Hi Bill

Both servers are running DNS servers. Site A using A's and Site B is
using B's. If I disable the VPN link both sites can still surf the net
and resolve names etc.

Many Thanks

Dan

Are the two locations configured as sites in AD (as Doug suggested)?

It looks to me as if there is something wrong with the sbs server,
rather than the problem being in AD or routing. It shouldn't be overloaded
in a setup like yours. What does it do apart from being a DC? Anything to
explain all the network activity?

I am also surprised that you say Internet ping times improve if you
unplug the sbs server. I would expect Internet access to fail when you
unplugged it. Isn't it the DNS server for the site?

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Hi Bill
>
> Both servers are running DNS servers. Site A using A's and Site B is
> using B's. If I disable the VPN link both sites can still surf the
> net and resolve names etc.
>
> Many Thanks
>
> Dan

The sbs server isnt doing much else. Just dns and dhcp. I'm pinging
by ip address rather than by name so unplugging the dns server has no
effect.

I'm going to setup the AD today into 2 different sites as Doug
suggested.

Many Thanks

Dan