2x Server 2003 servers over bridge

axer

Hi guys,

As learning project I am setting up 2x windows 2003 servers.

This is the way the network is currently laid out:



There is a road that seperates the two buildings thus both buildings are connected via a wireless bridge. All are desktop computers that will not moved to the other building. There are no mobile computers but users of either building could be using a computer in either building e.g. a teacher using their account on a computer in the staff room or teachers swapping classrooms at the end of the year

Because the network bridge between the two buildings is at best 36mb I was going to have two 2003 servers replicating (synchronising) the files regularly between each other. Internet connectivity is via the yellow building for all users.

Since I will be having 2 file servers anyway I thought it would make sense to have two domain controllers too.

I basically want it setup that a user will be automatically contacting the local dc/file server whichever building they are in.

I am having problems in that from what I know the users computer will contact the first domain controller that responds resulting in them possibly using the file server across the road.

Do I create two different sites in server 2003? If so then do I have to have each building on a different subnet? Do I create subdomains for each buiding e.g. grey.mydomain.local and yellow.mydomain.local.

What is the correct way of setting up the servers to achieve the above.

Altogether both servers will be acting as a DC, a File Server (for roaming profiles and other shares [mostly roaming profiles]), Print server for 2 printers (one each side), Web Server (possibly for an intranet) and a Deployment server for Windows XP and other software (office and educational software) {DNS & DHCP servers too}.

Thanks for any help/advice.

ob

Yes, different sites need to be set up, which need different subnets, but no need for subdomains. Clients will then logon to the local DC, and traffic between DCs is more compressed.