Background
We currently have two networks, one in London, and one in Brighton. We use Office 365 for email, Lync and Sharepoint, so there is no Exchange server. Both offices are connected by a VPN.
- London is a larger office of 50 users and is on range 192.168.0.0 (255.255.255.0) on a EFM line.
- Brighton is a small office of 5 users and is on range 192.168.16.0 (255.255.255.0) on BT infinity.
Brighton currently has an old 2003 Small Business Server on their own domain, this means they cannot log on to our London domain when they visit, and visa versa – the domain controller in London is also a 2003 server box.
On Friday, we will be promoting a new 2012 R2 Domain Controller in London. As part of this process I want to remove the Brighton domain entirely and bring the Brighton network into the London domain.
We have new a server for Brighton that is to do DHCP, DNS and file server roles on the 192.168.16.0 network. I want all Active Directory and Group Policy functions to be delegated from this server in Brighton to our new domain controller in London.
The questions
- How will the DNS server in Brighton locate Active Directory Services in London on the different IP range? Is there an SRV record we need to set up to tell the server where to get AD and GP services?
- Would DC replication be a better way to go here? Is it even applicable or just for DR and HA purposes? Would replication give the added bonus of added redundancy (re the answer in this question). I would only want to managed the Brighton offices users from the DC in London (No IT function in Brighton).
- Finally, is the above approach sound – we are not doing anything daft with the above strategy?
Just set up a domain controller and Active Directory site (through the Active Directory Sites and Services utility) at your Brighton office after you've got the forest created at the London office. You already have a server at your Brighton site for DHCP and DNS, so you gain nothing by not utilizing it for domain services as well.
IMHO the best solution would be to deploy Read-Only domain controller in Brighton. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754719%28v=ws.10%29.aspx