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How you configured active directory availability if something goes wrong with server?

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Question added by Muhammad Anzar , DevOps/DevSecOps Architect , Confidential
Date Posted: 2013/09/21
Adeel Ilyas Hinjrah
by Adeel Ilyas Hinjrah , Sr. Infrastructure Engineer , Malomatia

To ensure the availability of active directory over the network you can add additional domain controllers. You can add adc in the same site as well other sites.

Additional DC will help be until the main server become ready ,

The Roles

There are five FSMO roles, two per forest, three in every Domain. A brief summary of the role is below.

The Roles

There are five FSMO roles, two per forest, three in every Domain. A brief summary of the role is below.

Forest Wide Roles:

  • Schema Master

The schema is shared between every Tree and Domain in a forest and must be consistent between all objects. The schema master controls all updates and modifications to the schema.

  • Domain Naming

When a new Domain is added to a forest the name must be unique within the forest. The Domain naming master must be available when adding or removing a Domain in a forest.

Domain Wide Roles:

  • Relative ID (RID) Master

Allocates RIDs to DCs within a Domain. When an object such as a user, group or computer is created in AD it is given a SID. The SID consists of a Domain SID (which is the same for all SIDs created in the domain) and a RID which is unique to the Domain.

When moving objects between domains you must start the move on the DC which is the RID master of the domain that currently holds the object.

  • PDC Emulator

The PDC emulator acts as a Windows NT PDC for backwards compaitbility, it can process updates to a BDC.

It is also responsible for time syncronising within a domain.

It is also the password master (for want of a better term) for a domain. Any password change is replicated to the PDC emulator as soon as is practical. If a logon request fails due to a bad password the logon request is passed to the PDC emulator to check the password before rejecting the login request.

  • Infrastructure Master

The infrastructure master is responsible for updating references from objects in its domain to objects in other domains. The global catalog is used to compare data as it recieves regular updates for all objects in all domains.

Any change to user-group references are updated by the infrastructure master. For example if you rename or move a group member and the member is in a different domain from the group the group will temporarily appear not to contain that member.

Important Note :

Unless there is only one DC in a domain the Infrastructure role should not be on the DC that is hosting the global catalog. If they are on the same server the infrastructure master will not function, it will never find data that is out of date and so will never replicate changes to other DCs in a domain.

If all DCs in a domain also host a global catalog then it does not matter which DC has the infrastrucure master role as all DCs will be up to date due to the global catalog.

Muhammad Tahir Masood
by Muhammad Tahir Masood , IT Project Manager (Infrastructure Support and IS Security) , Solution Founder Technology Company

Good answer but Brother Adeel and Ahmed dont forget to transfer the roles. you should remember important5 FSMO roles.

The Roles

There are five FSMO roles, two per forest, three in every Domain. A brief summary of the role is below.

Forest Wide Roles:

  • Schema Master

The schema is shared between every Tree and Domain in a forest and must be consistent between all objects. The schema master controls all updates and modifications to the schema.

  • Domain Naming

When a new Domain is added to a forest the name must be unique within the forest. The Domain naming master must be available when adding or removing a Domain in a forest.

Domain Wide Roles:

  • Relative ID (RID) Master

Allocates RIDs to DCs within a Domain. When an object such as a user, group or computer is created in AD it is given a SID. The SID consists of a Domain SID (which is the same for all SIDs created in the domain) and a RID which is unique to the Domain.

When moving objects between domains you must start the move on the DC which is the RID master of the domain that currently holds the object.

  • PDC Emulator

The PDC emulator acts as a Windows NT PDC for backwards compaitbility, it can process updates to a BDC.

It is also responsible for time syncronising within a domain.

It is also the password master (for want of a better term) for a domain. Any password change is replicated to the PDC emulator as soon as is practical. If a logon request fails due to a bad password the logon request is passed to the PDC emulator to check the password before rejecting the login request.

  • Infrastructure Master

The infrastructure master is responsible for updating references from objects in its domain to objects in other domains. The global catalog is used to compare data as it recieves regular updates for all objects in all domains.

Any change to user-group references are updated by the infrastructure master. For example if you rename or move a group member and the member is in a different domain from the group the group will temporarily appear not to contain that member.

Important Note :

Unless there is only one DC in a domain the Infrastructure role should not be on the DC that is hosting the global catalog. If they are on the same server the infrastructure master will not function, it will never find data that is out of date and so will never replicate changes to other DCs in a domain.

If all DCs in a domain also host a global catalog then it does not matter which DC has the infrastrucure master role as all DCs will be up to date due to the global catalog.

 

Many Thanks. Muhammad Tahir 

Tanweer Akhtar
by Tanweer Akhtar , Associate Consultant , HCL Technologies Ltd

Additional DC will not help until your planning is not good to keep the FSMO roles, because by default ADC will not hold any FSMO roles.

Ahmed Mostafa sorour
by Ahmed Mostafa sorour , IT System Administrator Manager , Attijariwafa Bank Egypt

Additional DC will help be until the main server become ready 

 

Syed Asgar Mahmood Zaidi
by Syed Asgar Mahmood Zaidi , Senior System Engineer , Royal Hospital

Create First DC  in your domain and than create another ADC for fault tolerance and high Availability. if one DC goes down another one with work for your organization. 

Mostafa Khamies Dakam
by Mostafa Khamies Dakam , Network Specialist , Libyan Fertilizer Company

You can configure Secondry DC for relaiablity, but you should configure the first DC first.

 

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