Windows Server® 2012 Unleashed

Understanding Read-Only Domain Controllers

One of the key features for branch offices in Windows 2012 is a type of domain controller referred to as a read-only domain controller (RODC). The RODC hosts a copy of the Active Directory (AD) database like any other writable domain controller, but as its name implies, the contents replica of the domain database residing on the domain controller is read-only, and write operations are not supported. It is equally important to mention that the RODCs do not participate in Active Directory replication in the same fashion as writable domain controllers. The fundamental difference between RODC replication and the typical multimaster replication model between writable domain controllers is that RODC replication ...