OBTAIN AN IP ADDRESS BY USING DHCPBEFORE YOU BEGIN THIS EXERCISE, YOU...

14-11Lesson 1 Overview of Active Directory

Replication Within an Active Directory Site

Active Directory also includes a replication feature. Replication ensures that changes

to a domain controller are reflected in all domain controllers within a domain. To

understand replication, you must understand domain controllers. A domain controller

stores a replica of the domain directory. Each domain can contain one or more domain

controllers.

Within a site, Active Directory automatically generates a ring topology for replication

among domain controllers in the same domain. The topology defines the path for

directory updates to flow from one domain controller to another until all receive the

directory updates (see Figure 14-5).

Replication topology linksDCDC DC

F14us05

Figure 14-5 Within a site, replication between domain controllers happens automatically.

The ring structure ensures that there are at least two replication paths from one domain

controller to another. Therefore, if one domain controller is down temporarily, replica-

tion still continues to all other domain controllers.

Active Directory periodically analyzes the replication topology within a site to ensure

that it is still efficient. If you add or remove a domain controller from the network or a

site, Active Directory reconfigures the topology to reflect the change.

On the CD At this point, please view the multimedia presentation “Replication Within Sites,” which is included in the Multimedia folder on the CD accompanying this book.

Lesson Review

Use the following questions to help determine whether you have learned enough to

move on to the next lesson. If you have difficulty answering these questions, review

the material in this lesson before beginning the next lesson. You can find answers to

these questions in the “Questions and Answers” section at the end of this chapter.