Testing Soon - Quick Answer Needed

Global Catalog Servers - by default is there 1 per forest or 1 per domain?
I knkow theres one domain naming and schema masters per forest.
I know theres 1 PDC emulator, RID master and infrastructure master per domain.
I believe schema and config partitions are replicated thru forest.
I believe application and domain partitions are replicated thru the domain.

Please let me know about CG servers, and if I have any other info wrong. Thanks.

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meadIT

Global Catalog servers are not related to FSMO servers. FSMO servers have 1 per forest/domain as you wrote, but every DC could conceivably be a Global Catalog server also.

proteus71

meadIT wrote: »

Global Catalog servers are not related to FSMO servers. FSMO servers have 1 per forest/domain as you wrote, but every DC could conceivably be a Global Catalog server also.

I understand, but, BY DEFAULT, a global catalog server is installed on the 1st DC in the forest. Is it also, BY DEFAULT, installed on the 1st DC of each domain? I know that the GC servers can be added and deleted as needed (as long as it's not placed on the same server as an infrastructure master). Thanks for the quick reply.

meadIT

Correct. The GC server holds a copy of all of its domain objects and then a partial set of the objects in the other domains in the forest, so the first DC in a new domain would, by default, be a GC.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc728188.aspx

dynamik

proteus71 wrote: »

I understand, but, BY DEFAULT, a global catalog server is installed on the 1st DC in the forest. Is it also, BY DEFAULT, installed on the 1st DC of each domain? I know that the GC servers can be added and deleted as needed (as long as it's not placed on the same server as an infrastructure master). Thanks for the quick reply.

I believe it is the first DC in the forest by default. I looked around quick and didn't see anything to the contrary.

Also, that infrastructure master rule does not apply to single domain forests or multiple domain forests where every DC is a GC (there would be no work for it to do in either circumstance).

meadIT

Actually, I can't find where it says the first DC in a child domain in a forest is a GC by default either. The closest thing I could find is:

There should be at least one Global Catalog in each domain—and more if you have a large number of universal groups.

from http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-22_11-5246874.html

I guess it could be possible that users in a child domain could authenticate to a DC in their parent domain, but that would not be an efficient model.

Edit: I found this, but it is not a MS site:

1) Only the first Domain Controller in any Domain is a Global Catalog Server by default. Good news, all subsequent Domain Controllers have the Global Catalog capability.

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/exchange2003/exchange2003_global_catalog.htm

I don't have a Virtual Lab set up here or I would test it real quick.

dynamik

meadIT wrote: »

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc728188.aspx

From that link:

Microsoft wrote:

Active Directory installation. When Active Directory is installed on the first domain controller in a forest, the installation application creates that domain controller as a global catalog server.