AD and a Branch office

I will be configuring my new location starting tomorrow with a Cisco
Specialist coming in Thursday to program the routers to connect the networks.

Should I setup any users tommorow in my test enviroment before we actually
connect over the Pt to Pt T1? As Lanwench (Thanks so much) has been helping
me (He/She?) knows some detail comments would be appreciated.

I will be setting up test accounts (not any users that are actually moving
and in AD at the main office) but was wondering if I did setup the same user
in both locations, how is that reconciled ?

Any other tips so I'm ready for the Cisco person?

As I said MANY thanks to Lanwench for helping me limp along...after starting
to get my IT skills back up and joining Technet, I find that I like what I
see in the people I've had contact with! I realize the online world does have
it's "characters" but, this group seems great!

You should wait until the two places have a connection between them. Then
when you run dcpromo to make the remote server a DC the user info will
replicate from the existing DC to the new DC. You *really* do NOT want to
bring up the remote DC without it having contact with the existing DC. This
will create a NEW domain, which is totally not necessary.

hth
DDS

"ecavedude" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:64439C6F-DB8B-4E3D-B5CA-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I will be configuring my new location starting tomorrow with a Cisco
> Specialist coming in Thursday to program the routers to connect the
> networks.
>
> Should I setup any users tommorow in my test enviroment before we actually
> connect over the Pt to Pt T1? As Lanwench (Thanks so much) has been
> helping
> me (He/She?) knows some detail comments would be appreciated.
>
> I will be setting up test accounts (not any users that are actually moving
> and in AD at the main office) but was wondering if I did setup the same
> user
> in both locations, how is that reconciled ?
>
> Any other tips so I'm ready for the Cisco person?
>
> As I said MANY thanks to Lanwench for helping me limp along...after
> starting
> to get my IT skills back up and joining Technet, I find that I like what I
> see in the people I've had contact with! I realize the online world does
> have
> it's "characters" but, this group seems great!
>
>

ecavedude <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I will be configuring my new location starting tomorrow with a Cisco
> Specialist coming in Thursday to program the routers to connect the
> networks.
>
> Should I setup any users tommorow in my test enviroment before we
> actually connect over the Pt to Pt T1? As Lanwench (Thanks so much)
> has been helping me (He/She?)

I'm a chick

> knows some detail comments would be
> appreciated.
>
> I will be setting up test accounts (not any users that are actually
> moving and in AD at the main office) but was wondering if I did setup
> the same user in both locations, how is that reconciled ?

It won't be. As Danny wrote, you need to establish the WAN link first.

Basics:

Use a different private IP address scheme on each side of the connection.
If your main office uses 192.168.0.0/24, use 192.168.1.0/24 in the branch
office.

Preconfigure a new site/subnet in AD Sites & Services on your existing DC in
the main office...name it logically (such as, after the city it's in, etc).
Rename the default site/subnet to "HQ" or whatever makes sense.

Don't enable DHCP on the remote Cisco, if they offer.

When the site connection is established and working, you can bring up the
new server there....you'll want to use the appropriate static IP, but
temporarily give it the DNS server IP of your DC on the other side of the
WAN link. Join the domain, and run DCPROMO to bring it up as a domain
controller ...install AD-integrated DNS, install DHCP (and I still use WINS,
but you might not).

[Another option is to bring up the server in the main office, then ship it
over to the other office, change its IP address & move it into the correct
AD site/subnet. It's often faster to do it this way, but I don't know how
far the offices are]

The only other thing you didn't discuss was your data. Don't expect that
users will enjoy opening files across the WAN link. If you're not going to
use DFS (distributed file system) to replicate data from your file server in
the main office to the branch office, you will end up with another office
with its own backup needs. What your company might consider doing is
installing a Terminal Services box in the main office and have your branch
office users access it securely across the WAN link, so all your data stays
in the main office. It's still advantageous to have their computers belong
to the domain (and have a remote DC) as you can do remote management &
lockdown/admin stuff that way.






> Any other tips so I'm ready for the Cisco person?
>
> As I said MANY thanks to Lanwench for helping me limp along...after
> starting to get my IT skills back up and joining Technet, I find that
> I like what I see in the people I've had contact with! I realize the
> online world does have it's "characters" but, this group seems great!

You're welcome, but I take offense at the suggestion that I am not a
character.