It's actually a crosspost ( single message posted to multiple

newsgroups TOGETHER) rather than a multipost (the content but

separate messages to multiple newsgroups which is generally bad.)



Reasonable crossposting to relevant groups is preferred since then

everyone on all such groups can follow and participate in a single

discussion of the problem.



Five groups is a pushing it a bit, but they all seem they might

be relevant.



No apologies needed for a long post, if that is what it takes.

Only disadvantage is that some people just might skip your post

if it exceeds their available time or attention span.
























Your question needs to have some (incorrect) assumptions removed

first, but you do NOT need to set up replication between each pair

of DCs manually IF you setup your Sites AND SiteLINKS correctly.



Each site must be defined -- to include defining the local subnets for

that site AND by specifying which DCs "live" in that site (usually

automatic if you do the Site definition correct but sometimes this needs

adjusting if you change settings or move DCs.



THEN, you must ADD SITELINKS so that every Site is connected to at least

one other site, and NO "islands" of disconnected sites exist -- with

three sites this just means a minimum of two SiteLinks but three may or

may not be better.



IF you create both the Sites AND the Sitelinks correctly THEN the "KCC"

will create the actual connections between pairs of DC across sites.



So, no it's not quite automatic if you only create sites, but yes the

connections are automatic if you do it right.













The mail will typically be held, but there are definable limits for how

long on all SMTP servers (including Exchange).  Eventually (days

probably) the email would time out.









There is little reason in such a simple situation to create a separate

domain for AD.  If you wish a separate email domain that is more of a

convenience decision OR you could use this to SWAP the MX priority in

different zones.



All this can be done separately from AD.  I would (almost certainly)

not recommend another AD domain.



As to DNS/email domain, that is going to be reflected in your email

addresses and you will need to consider if the extra (email) efficiency

is worth the human confusion (users need to communicate their email to

business acquaintances, business cards etc.) AND the admin overhead.








You will have to ask an Exchange expert the Exchange specific questions.









Ditto








As long as the NY user is configure to send email through the NY

email server.  Sites don't play a role here.  Users (email agent)

deliver email to the email server and that server has the account

for the destination address then it doesn't need to go elsewhere.







You need an OWA expert here, but in general the OWA server will need

to be able to contact any email server which has (a different set of)

email accounts it needs.  Authentication will work fine if it all one

domain, and likely if it is all one forest SHOULD you end up with

more than one AD domain (in the same forest) which seems unnecessary

anyway.








Why would you put the NY users' home directory (and therefore also My

Docs) on the "wrong" server?



Assign home directories on local servers or you will eat up your VPN

bandwidth when using roaming profiles, especially if your My Documents

are not separated.



You CAN put My Documents in a DIFFERENT location than the Home or

Profile directories (which seems to be the opposite of what you said).



There are advantages and disadvantages to all combinations of roaming

vs. local, together versus separate directories for these folders,

offline file caching versus server storage (only) or local storage

(only).



You just have to work through the usage patterns, requirements

(performance, file availability, backup, etc.), bandwidth available,

mobility of users OR SEPARATELY of users with laptops, etc.



These represent criteria for design tradeoffs which you can't know

for CERTAIN until you put (some of) it into practice.  You can get

a rough idea by collecting the requirements (from the business) and

defining the hardware and network (etc.) limitations.



--

Herb

users

Herb, thanks for your response and term correction, crosspost was obviously



what I was trying to say

Dear NG, first of all I would like to sincerely apologize.one for my long



post and two for multi posting, I'm desperately searching for answers here



and I'm not sure which group will reach the right audience, I would really



really appreciate any help, I need an answer asap.



Here is my scenario, I have two sites one in CA and one in NY connected Via



a VPN, we have about 30 users in CA and 15 users in NY, I have to lay out a



AD structure as well as an exchange solutions, here is what I have so



far....



I will have two servers in CA, one DC/file server and one exchange as well



as two servers in NY also one DC and one exchange, I will create just one



big domain with two AD sites so that logon request are processed locally, as



well as the user mailbox will reside on the local exchange server so that



the mailbox is opened locally, and finally I will utilize a software based



WAFS solution for data access where the CA domain controller/file server is



the source and master while the NY domain controller/file server is the



destination remote site. Am I good and correct so far or am I off?



1) First question does AD by default replicate across sites, or do I need to



specifically specify that replication should occur between the two domain



controllers?



2) If MX 10 points to CA and MX 20 to NY then all SMTP servers across the



world should first try the exchange server in CA, which means that if I send



an email to a mailbox on the NY exchange server, it will travel to CA and



that will send it to the NY exchange server, so say the link between CA and



NY is down will the CA exchange server hold the email and wait for NY to



come online or will it bounce it, same question vise verse if CA (MX 10) is



down which means that all emails will travel to the NY exchange server (MX



20), will NY hold the email and wait CA to come online?



3) Does it make sense to create a sub domain for NY so that bob in NY is



bob@ny.domain.com and then point ny.domain.com directly to the NY exchange



server, and if so will question 2 still apply, also can I configure the



recipient policy to update users based on its mailbox location?



4) If I don't create a sub domain and I want that all emails should always



be delivered to all mailboxes, would the use of routing groups be any



advantage?



5) Will each location see a separate set of public folders or just one (the



same) public folder tree? If they are separate sets of public folders is it



possible to change it to just one public folder set? And if not will it



replicate automatically?



6) Is the following true, when utilizing AD sites if a user in NY emails to



another user in NY, the NY exchange server will handle the email transfer



locally and not involve the CA exchange server?



7) Can any user open OWA to access their mailbox from any server, or is OWA



restricted to where the mailbox is located?



8) I would like to redirect everybodys My Documents to the users Homedir,



being that im using WAFS should I redirect the NY users to the CA file



server or just redirect locally

Hi,



Answers inline.



Leif









Apart for the WAFS software which I know nothing about - this should be



fine.



Active directory will replicate by default



If you create 2 MX records all destined for the domain mail will normally



arive at the server with the highest priority. If the other server or the



link to this server is down mail will stay in queue for a couple of days.



You can configure the recipient policy to create email addresses based on



mailbox or server location so it will be possible to create a sub SMTP



domain name for some of the users if you so desire



I would create 2 routing groups and routing group connectors to connect the



servers



Depends of your routing group connector and the permissions you assign to



the users, but with the proper permissions all users can see all public



folders. If you have public folders with a lot of trafic I would recommend



that you create a replica on both servers



This has nothing to do with AD sites, but you are correct. All mails for



users on the same server stay internal to that server.



Users can start OWA and connect to any server from the intranet - if their



mailbox then is located on the other server they will be redirected. If you



refer to connection from the internet they will need to connect to their own



server (you must publish both Exchange servers to the internet



Can't answer this one as WAFS is unknown to me.

Leif, thanks for your reply, i worked with you comments, but now i'd like



some understanding, see inline









its a file share solutions across a WAN at LAN speed



then when is AD not replicating, maybe across differnt domains in the same



forest



will it keep it for a couple of days only because its a second exchange



server in the domain or is it by default keeping all undeliverable mail in



the queue, and either way is this configurable



what benefit or advantage will have by creating routing groups, keep in mind



that I cant put a restriction on when mail should be delivered



so will that answer my pervious question, will the other site not see both



public folders with out a routing group? and how will it show up assuming



its setup properly will it also show up in the public folder tree in outlook

Hi,



Answers inline.



Leif









In a default configuration (without any configured site links) AD will also



replicate between domains in the same forest as long as there are



connectivity - there is a process called KCC that creates these replication



links automatically.



The mails will stay in the queue for at least 48 hours - this is standard



SMTP behaviour and can be configured on the default SMTP virtuel server.



If not using routing groups Exchange servers are talking RPC to each other -



this protocol is more trafic intensive than SMTP which is used between



routing groups.



http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822929/en-us



Public folders will be seen regardless of routing group configuration (you



can prohibit public folder referral over routing group connector) assuming



that the users have permissions to the folders.