Dilemma:Setting up New Environments

DjScientist

Hi all,
I will just break it down and try to give details about my situation,i have asked almost a similar question under Windows Server 2008 forums but seems like there has been some development and new information.
Just this morning I had a meeting with an IT Manager and apparantely the gentleman bought 2 servers and want them configured in 2 separate locations.I just joined the company in less than 3 months and i found the environment up and running smoothly.i should also mention that am new to the real Network administration,earlier on i worked for some companies but the Environment/Infrastructure was not up to this standard.

Setup
We have a main branch which hosts all the company resources and branch offices connect to the main branch through Microwave Connection,about 6 branches are connected to the HQ.

The company also have two subsidiary companies and currently one of the sub company is connected to the main office as well.Now the gentleman want the 2 subsidiary company to have their own centralised resources hence 2 new servers.I don't think thats enough though,back to my story.

Like i said,one of the company is already connected they get resources from the main Office.the manager want this company disconnected from the main office and use one of the new server to set up the environment.It will still be under our management and should only connect to the main office through Citrix Gateway Access which is also new.To do some requisition and other business critical missions,the connection needs to be secure.I don't have an idea how am going to go about it but i trust i will get some guidlines/advice from you all.

Now the other company,they have nothing except their stand alone machines and dedicated internet which is from a separate ISP as the main office,it is just on its own.Now they want to have centralised resources management,printers and shared data.The requirements should be exactly the same with the other subsidiary company. Both companies have less than 20 people each.
I then asked the manager,if he has any requirements for these two environments,he just asked me to figure it out the best way i can and prior to that,i should show him the checklist of the steps i am going to take from A to Z.Suprisingly,these two servers are goin to be installed Windows Server 2008,the main office is running Windows Server 2003 amd its not goin to be upgraded anytime sooon.

I have no prior experience in setting these environment except for labs that i did during my exams.So at the moment,i have nothing but am scratching my head on how to go about it.If i have ommited something or its not clear,please let me know,i might not even sure what am talking about as well.

If you were in this kind of situation,how were you goin to go about if,starting from A to Z.I am given two weeks to have set these 2 environments.

Any useful resources that can act as guidelines,please let me know.This is an opportunity for me to put my skilss into practice and gain some experience.


Thank you all in advance

dynamik

Geez dude. I come on these forums to take a break from Transcender, and you hit drop all this on me?

I would either set up the two subsidiaries as new domains in new forests or child domains in your existing forest. It's going to be up to you to determine what would be best, based on how your organization is setup. You should use a minimum of two DCs per domain for fault tolerance. Alternatively, you could do something like configure a third physical machine in the main office with VMs for the redundant DCs; that might save you some on hardware.

If you go with separate forests, you can create trusts between them to allow access to resources if necessary (parent/child domains have implicit trusts). You might also want to setup site-to-site VPNs or get directly connected leased lines. It depends on your needs.

undomiel

If at all possible it would be best to add those offices as subdomains in the current forest. That will take off a fair bit of the authentication headache. Other than that dynamik has it pretty well. You could always use Server 2008 Core for some low resource DCs.