Sites
A
Group of Domain
Controllers (DCs) that are well connected by speed and cost.
DCs in site replicate
by means of notification.
Replication between
sites happens by schedule
Site is a set
of one or more IP subnets
When installing
AD, the DC will become part of the site which matches its IP subnet (or
the Default-First-Site-Name if no other exists)
Site
Links
For replication
to happen between two sites a link must be established.
When AD installed
on first DC in site then link called DefaultSiteLink created, this can be
renamed.
Replication information
between sites can use IP (normal) or SMTP (rare).
Site Links have
cost and interval configured (Default values 100 and 180)
Subnets
Subnets must be
defined to tell AD where the IP networks are located
A subnet must
be associated with a Site
Site
Link Bridges
All site links
using a particular protocol, eg IP, for replication are bridged
Bridged means
they can all replicate to each other, even though there may not be an explicit
site link
Bridgehead
servers
In a site you
can configure one DC to be the Bridgehead server
The Bridgehead
server is the preferred server to for inter-site replication
The bridgehead
server receives all replication information from other sites and then replicates
it to all other DCs in its own site
Global
Catalogue servers
Every site must have one GC server