Chapter 11. Active Directory topology
This chapter covers
- Discovering and managing domain controllers and global catalogs
- Working with Active Directory sites and subnets
- Administering Active Directory site links and replication schedules
This chapter discusses how we can automate the administration of our Active Directory topology. The topology is composed of the physical aspects of Active Directory:
- Domain controllers
- Sites
- Subnets
- Site links
These are the aspects that control the Active Directory service, as opposed to the Active Directory data we looked at in chapters 5 and 10. In terms of figure 10.1, this chapter is all about those objects at the bottom of the diagram—low volatility but potentially a huge impact if mistakes are made.
Production Forest
Replication latency must be taken into account when working at this level in Active Directory. The changes must have time to replicate to the required domain controllers before they become effective and usable. If the wait for replication becomes too long, we can always force it to happen. This is explained in technique 119. It’s all right if you want to peek before we get there.