Create AD DS Site Links

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

Create the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) site links that are specified in the site topology design that is provided by your design team.

Membership in the Enterprise Admins group in the forest or the Domain Admins group in the forest root domain, or equivalent, is the minimum requirement to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at Local and Domain Default Groups (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477).

  1. To open the Active Directory Sites and Services snap-in, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Sites and Services.

  2. In Active Directory Sites and Services, in the console tree, right-click the intersite transport protocol that you want the site link to use.

    Where?

    • Active Directory Sites and Services/Sites/Inter-Site Transports/IP

    or

    • Active Directory Sites and Services/Sites/Inter-Site Transports/SMTP

  3. Click New Site Link.

  4. In Name, type the name for the site link.

  5. In Sites not in this site link, click a site to add to the site link, and then click Add.

    Repeat this step to add more sites to the site link. To remove a site from the site link, in Sites in this link, click the site, and then click Remove.

  6. When you have added the sites that you want to be connected by this site link, click OK.

Important

Use the IP intersite transport unless your network has remote sites where network connectivity is intermittent or end-to-end IP connectivity is not available. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) replication is not enabled by default, and it has restrictions that do not apply to IP replication.