Installing Exchange Server 2007 : Implementing Active Directory from Scratch (part 3) - Configuring Active Directory Sites and Services, Configuring a Global Catalog Server

6/13/2013 7:46:22 PM

2.6 Configuring Active Directory Sites and Services

After the AD domain controller has been installed, it is necessary to configure Sites and Services to support the Exchange Server deployment. To configure AD Sites and Services to support Exchange Server 2007 residing in two sites, the site properties need to be changed. Changing site properties is covered in the next section.

Changing Site Properties

To change the AD Default-First-Site-Name, follow these steps:

1.	On the first domain controller, open AD Sites and Services, and then click Next.
2.	Click the plus sign (+) to expand the Sites tree.
3.	Right-click Default-First-Site-Name in the left pane of the console, and then click Rename.
4.	Enter a name, and then press Enter, which changes the default site name to your custom site name, as illustrated in Figure 6 where the site was renamed to Site01. Figure 6. Rename the first AD default site name.

Creating a New Active Directory Site

To create a new site in AD, follow these steps:

1.	On the first domain controller, open AD Sites and Services, and then click Next.
2.	Click the plus sign (+) to expand the Sites tree.
3.	Right-click Sites in the left pane of the console, and then click New Site.
4.	Enter the new site name in the New Object-Site dialog box. In this example, Site02 was used for the new site name, as shown in Figure 7. Figure 7. Create a new AD site.
5.	Click to highlight DEFAULTIPSITELINK, and then click OK.
6.	Review the AD message box information, and then click OK

Associating Subnets with Sites

In most cases, a separate instance of a site in AD physically resides in a separate subnet for other sites. This idea stems from the fact that the site topology most often mimics, or should mimic, the physical network infrastructure of an environment.

In AD, sites are associated with their respective subnets to allow for the intelligent assignment of users to their respective domain controllers.

To associate a subnet to the first site, follow these steps:

1.	Open AD Sites and Services.
2.	Click the plus sign (+) to expand the Sites tree.
3.	Right-click Subnets and choose New Subnet.
4.	Enter the network portion of the IP range that the site will encompass. The example uses the 192.168.115.0 subnet with a Class C (255.255.255.0) subnet mask.
5.	Select a site to associate with the subnet. In the example, Site01 was selected, as illustrated in Figure 8, and then click OK. Figure 8. Associate a subnet to a site.

To associate a subnet to the second site, follow these steps:

1.	Open AD Sites and Services.
2.	Click the plus sign (+) to expand the Sites tree.
3.	Right-click Subnets and choose New Subnet.
4.	Enter the network portion of the IP range that the site will encompass. The example uses the 192.168.116.0 subnet with a Class C (255.255.255.0) subnet mask.
5.	Select a site to associate with the subnet. In the example, Site02 was selected, and then click OK.

2.7 Configuring a Global Catalog Server

By default, the first domain controller in a domain is automatically configured as a global catalog server. Any additional domain controllers need to be configured manually.

To configure or verify that a domain controller is a global catalog server, follow these steps:

1.	Open AD Sites and Services.
2.	Click the plus sign (+) to expand the Sites tree.
3.	Expand the desired site name, the Servers folder, and then the server object.
4.	Right-click the NTDS Settings object, and then click Properties.
5.	On the General Tab, either select or clear the Global Catalog check box, as illustrated in Figure 9, and then click OK. Figure 9. Configuring a global catalog server.