Documenting the Regions Identified

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

After you divide your organization into regional domains, document the regions that you want represented and the number of users that will exist in each region. In addition, note the speed of the slowest links in each region that you will use for Active Directory replication. This information is used to determine whether additional domains or forests are required.

For a worksheet to assist you in documenting the regions you identified, see "Identifying Regions" (DSSLOGI_4.doc) on the Windows Server 2003 Deployment Kit companion CD (or see "Identifying Regions" on the Web at https://www.microsoft.com/reskit).

Example: Documenting the Regions Identified

Contoso Corporation has facilities all over the world. They want to create a single domain for their entire organization. However, they have 60,000 users and they do not want to allocate any more than 10 percent of the total bandwidth to Active Directory. Based on the slowest link in that Active Directory would use, they can only host up to 50,000 users. With 32 KBps links they can host up to 75,000 users in a single forest as long as they are willing to allocate up to ten percent of the bandwidth to Active Directory. This means that they can still use a single forest but they need to use multiple domains.

Based on the slowest links in each region, Contoso decided to represent their network by using three regions: North America, South America, and Europe. The slowest link in the North America region is 128 KBps. In South America and Europe, the slowest links are 32 KBps. North America has 40,000 users, Europe has 15,000 users, and South America has 5,000 users. Based on these link speeds and an allocation of up to ten percent of the bandwidth, the number of users in each domain is within the maximum limits.

Figure 2.16 shows the documentation that Contoso created for the regions that they identified.

Figure 2.16   Example of a Completed Identifying Regions Worksheet