Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Name

Active Directory Sites and Services — G,H,PP

Synopsis

Manages directory replication between different sites.

Description

Active Directory Sites and Services is used for creating sites and subnets that mirror the physical and geographical topology of your network. You can then configure how and when Active Directory replication occurs between different sites to optimize bandwidth usage over slow WAN links between sites. If your implementation of Windows 2000 is at one physical location only, then you may not use this tool at all. If you have multiple branch offices or subsidiaries at different locations, however, expect to use this tool, especially during the implementation stage when you are tuning network traffic over slow WAN links.

There is no comparable Windows NT tool to Active Directory Sites and Services. Windows NT administrators manage directory replication between remote domain controllers by configuring various registry settings instead.

Using Active Directory Sites and Services

You can access Active Directory Domains and Trusts by either:

• Start → Programs → Administrative Tools → Active Directory Sites and Services

• Installing the Active Directory Sites and Services snap-in into a new or existing console

The console tree for this tool displays the sites in your enterprise and the links between them. A typical console tree looks like this:

Active Directory Sites and Services    Inter-Site Transports IP       Site link       Site link . . .  SMTP       Site link       Site link . . .  ...