Designing Active Directory And Server Infrastructure For Rou

Designing Active Directory and Server Infrastructure for Rough Country Miles of Alaska

Rough Country Miles of Alaska (RCM) is a snowshoe manufacturer with operations dispersed across Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks. To effectively support their organizational structure, security policies, and operational needs, a comprehensive Active Directory (AD) and server infrastructure design is essential. This essay outlines an appropriate logical structure for AD, domain naming conventions, server deployment strategies, and considerations for high availability and fault tolerance, aligning with best practices and the specific requirements of RCM.

Logical Structure of Active Directory and Domain Naming Strategy

Given RCM's dispersed locations and diverse business units, a multi-domain Kerberos realm model would be most effective. This approach provides compartmentalization, enabling regional autonomy while maintaining centralized control. The primary domain could be structured as rcm.com, representing the overarching corporate identity. Under this parent domain, subordinate child domains for each geographic location—anchorage.rcm.com, juneau.rcm.com, and fairbanks.rcm.com—would be created. This structure facilitates regional policy implementation and delegation without compromising security controls central to the parent domain.

Additionally, within each domain, organizational units (OUs) can be further segmented by business units such as Operations, Manufacturing, and Logistics at headquarters, with Sales, Purchasing, and Management in regional offices. Using a hierarchical domain structure aligns with DNS delegation, simplifies administration, and supports regional autonomy while maintaining a unified trust and security model.

Number and Placement of Domain Controllers, DNS, and Global Catalog Servers

RCM's network requires redundancy and fault tolerance for critical services. At each location, at least one domain controller (DC) and DNS server should be deployed, with additional DCs for load balancing and high availability. For the geographically dispersed sites, a recommended setup is:

  • Anchorage: Two domain controllers and DNS servers, with one designated as a global catalog (GC).
  • Juneau: Two domain controllers and DNS servers, with one as a GC.
  • Fairbanks: Two domain controllers and DNS servers, with one as a GC.

This deployment ensures continued operation despite hardware failures or site outages. Placing domain controllers in each site minimizes latency and improves authentication performance, especially considering the saturated communication lines during peak hours. Global catalog servers should be placed at Anchorage and Juneau, given their roles in regional operations, ensuring rapid directory searches and logon efficiency across locations.

Understanding Forest Functional Levels, Domains, OUs, and Sites in Active Directory

For upper management unfamiliar with technical details, it's essential to clarify how AD components work together. The forest functional level indicates the oldest Windows Server version supported across all domain controllers, influencing available features. Setting the forest to Windows Server 2012 R2 enables advanced functionalities, such as recycle bin and group Policy enhancements.

A domain in AD is a logical grouping of users, computers, and resources sharing common security policies. Domains can be linked hierarchically (trees) within a forest, which is the top-level container representing the entire AD environment. Within domains, Organizational Units (OUs) serve as containers to organize objects logically—by department, location, or function—and simplify administration and policy application.

Sites in AD map to physical locations or network segments, such as Anchorage or Juneau, and are designed to optimize authentication traffic and replication. AD uses site links to manage data replication between sites, which is especially important considering the saturated communication lines during the day. Proper site and subnet design ensures efficient network operations and reduces latency, enhancing user experience.

Edition of Windows Server 2012 R2 for Domain Controllers and High-Availability Clustering

The appropriate edition of Windows Server 2012 R2 for domain controllers is the Standard edition, which provides robust features suitable for small to medium-sized environments like RCM’s, including Active Directory, DNS, and DHCP services. It supports multiple virtual instances, enabling flexibility in deployment and scalability as organizational needs grow.

For high-availability fault-tolerant clustering of the web server, the Datacenter edition is recommended. It offers unlimited virtual instances and enhanced clustering features necessary for mission-critical applications, such as RCM’s web services, ensuring continuous availability even during server failures.

When selecting server components, priority should be given to enterprise-grade processors, ample RAM, and high-speed network interfaces to handle traffic and computational loads efficiently. Disk subsystems with RAID configurations enhance data redundancy, and redundant power supplies improve resilience. For peripheral devices, compatibility and driver support are critical; if a backup peripheral device leads to issues like a frozen mouse, troubleshooting steps include updating device drivers, verifying hardware compatibility, and testing the peripheral on different machines to isolate hardware failures.

Conclusion

Designing an effective AD infrastructure and server environment for RCM involves a balanced approach that considers regional autonomy, security, redundancy, and performance. Employing a multi-domain model with regional domain controllers, supporting high-availability configurations, and simplifying the landscape with logical OUs and site design ensures the organization's operational efficiency and resilience. Proper planning and deployment of Windows Server editions facilitate scalability and fault tolerance, enabling RCM to meet current needs and future growth.

References

  • Burgess, M. (2014). Windows Server 2012 R2 Unleashed. Sams Publishing.
  • Chadderdon, C. (2013). Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2. Packt Publishing.
  • Microsoft. (2013). Active Directory Domain Services Overview. Retrieved from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/active-directory-domain-services
  • Microsoft. (2014). Windows Server 2012 R2 Networking Features. Retrieved from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/networking
  • Odom, W. (2014). Configuring and Troubleshooting Windows Server 2012 R2. Sybex.
  • Schulzrinne, H., & Rosenberg, J. (2014). High Availability in Windows Server 2012 R2. TechNet Magazine.
  • Stallings, W. (2015). Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice. Pearson.
  • Tanenbaum, A. S., & Van Steen, M. (2016). Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms. Pearson.
  • Winn, J. (2014). Server Virtualization with Windows Server 2012 R2 and Hyper-V. Packt Publishing.
  • Yarvin, D. (2013). Implementing Directory Services with Windows Server 2012. Packt Publishing.

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