The config partition holds all the knowledge about the sites, domains, other partitions etc within the forest... Run Forest Run!
----- Original Message ----- From: "Hague, Jeff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Exchange Discussions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2003 7:51 AM Subject: RE: Several questions on E2k and Active Directory Thanks Ed! Ill try to use more paragraphs in the future. Good point about DC functionality going down on the Exchange box. I found that if I put the GC role back on the box running Veritas that it was happy again even though Veritas said the GC should be the Exchange box. Hopefully this wont be an issue again when I retire that box because Ill be putting Veritas on another DC / GC. What is the purpose of the Config DC? Jeff -----Original Message----- From: Ed Crowley [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 6:57 PM To: Exchange Discussions Subject: RE: Several questions on E2k and Active Directory You really ought to learn about the concept of paragrpahs. Call Veritas and don't accept the answer that the Exchange server should also be a GC. Yes, installing Exchange on a DC requires you do to more to get it operating than if it were a member server. What happens if the DC function on your Exchange server fails and requires you to rebuild it? Your e-mail could be down for a while! If the DC is a separate box, and another is available, you can simply rebuild it and practically nobody will notice. There is never more than one Configuration domain controller. Exchange will select domain controllers in the same site. If there are no available domain controllers in the site, then after a delay of about 15 minutes (a guess based on observation) it will work from a list of some number of domain controllers (is it 20?) in the organization without regard to any proximity calculations. Just because you make your box a domain controller doesn't mean it will use itself for that purpose if there are other domain controllers in the same site. Ed Crowley MCSE+Internet MVP Freelance E-Mail Philosopher Protecting the world from PSTs and Bricked Backups!T -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hague, Jeff Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 9:19 AM To: Exchange Discussions Subject: Several questions on E2k and Active Directory Single Exch2K SP3, Win2K AD Domain, several DCs/GCs in place. I am replacing a Win2K DC which happens to be 1 of 2 GCs and holds all FSMO roles (among other things). Earlier this week, I set up the replacement server, installed AD and transferred all FSMO except PDC emulator. Yesterday I set the new DC as a GC and removed GC from the old one. Apparently this has caused Veritas Backup Exec (which also runs on the machine that used to be a GC) to fail when trying to connect to the E2K box for individual mailbox backups. Veritas suggests making sure that the E2K machine itself is a GC which of course means installing AD on it. They dont seem to offer any other suggestions... As I got to thinking about it I figured that would actually fit into my server layout pretty well. Anyway, I have searched the knowledge base articles, read the resource kit and searched back through a year of posts to this discussion list and it looks like the cons for this arrangement are performance and recovery. I dont have any performance issues - the E2K box CPU peaks at 5% occaisionally but is generally barely breathing and there is on average nearly a gig of available RAM. Drive performance is hardly utilized as well so that only leaves the recovery issue. Is this simply that it is more difficult to recover a server that does several things or is there something specific to E2K that makes recovery more difficult if it is also a DC? Also, When I view the DCs on the Directory Access Tab of my E2K servers properties, it list 1 machine as the Configuration Domain Controller. I noticed that changed when I removed GC from the original server. Does E2K pick that machine from the "closest" DC or what? Will that change to the E2K box itself if I make it a GC? Last question - Does anyone know of anything to look out for if I do decide to make my E2K box a DC? Thanks! Jeff Hague MCSE Network Manager Randolph-Macon College _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&text_mode=&lang =english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&text_mode=&lang=english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&text_mode=&lang=english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&text_mode=&lang=english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]