Activity 4.2: Defining a Root Domain, Defining a Domain Hierarchy, and Naming Domains

In this activity you will continue creating a domain plan for two organizations that are planning their Active Directory infrastructure. Your task is to analyze each organization's environment to define the root domains, domain hierarchies, and domain names needed for the Active Directory infrastructure.

Scenario 1: Friendship Vineyards

Recall your experience in the previous activity (located after Lesson 1) as an infrastructure planner on the Active Directory infrastructure design team for Friendship Vineyards, a winery that operates from four locations in South Africa. Friendship Vineyards is a centralized organization, with IT administration handled from its Cape Town headquarters. Each of the four locations also has a small IT staff to handle basic support tasks. There is one special requirement—that desktops for the distribution personnel at all four locations be restricted to distribution software only. Although Friendship Vineyards is currently running Windows NT 4, its management has decided not to carry the company's current domain structure into the new Windows 2000 environment. A check of the existing DNS namespace reveals that Friendship Vineyards has a Web site, which operates using the DNS name f-100times.com.

One domain has been defined for the organization. You are now in the process of defining a root domain, defining a domain hierarchy, and naming the domain.

Your design team has defined the domain shown in Figure 4.13.

Figure 4.13 Domain defined for Friendship Vineyards

Figure 4.14 shows the excerpts from the IT Management Organization Worksheet for Friendship Vineyards.

Figure 4.14 IT management organization information for Friendship Vineyards

1. On the network architecture diagram, draw a square around the domain you're defining as the forest root domain. Explain your reasoning for defining the forest root domain.
   
   
   
2. Complete a domain hierarchy diagram for Friendship Vineyards.
   
   
   
3. Name the forest root domain.
   
   
   

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Scenario 2: Awesome Computers

Recall your experience in the previous activity (located after Lesson 1) as an infrastructure planner on the Active Directory infrastructure design team for Awesome Computers, a global multibillion-dollar computer manufacturer with more than 65,000 users and computers at more than 30 locations. The company headquarters is located in Atlanta. Six regional offices representing Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America link to headquarters, and 26 (total) sales offices link to the regional offices. Each regional office of Awesome Computers runs independently while still part of the global company. Headquarters oversees each of the regional offices by selecting the administrators and determining the network structure. Each sales office is administered by the regional office to which it connects.

While reading through the business and technical environment analysis documents, you note the following:

• Each of the regional offices requires a separate password and account lockout policy.
• The human resources, accounting, and distribution departments at each regional office all require access to resources stored at the Atlanta headquarters.
• The sales offices in Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Switzerland each require different language settings.
• The Brazilian sales office has a vital accounting database running on Windows NT 4 that must be confined to its own domain. This office also regularly accesses engineering resources at the European location.
• The sales office in Thailand is running several critical Asian distribution applications that will not run under Windows 2000.
• Awesome Computers will soon be acquiring Bits, Bytes & Chips, Inc., a maker of storage media. Bits, Bytes & Chips, Inc., receives 75% of its revenues from sales over the Internet at its Web site, b-100times.com. Awesome Computers will leave the structure of Bits, Bytes & Chips, Inc., undisturbed after the acquisition is complete. However, Bits, Bytes & Chips, Inc., will be part of the same forest as Awesome Computers.
• A check of the existing DNS namespace reveals that Awesome Computers has a Web site, which operates using the DNS name a-100times.com.

Ten domains have been defined for the organization. You are now in the process of defining a root domain, defining a domain hierarchy, and naming the domains.

Your design team has defined the domains shown in Figure 4.15.

Figure 4.15 Domains defined for Awesome Computers

Figure 4.16 shows the excerpts from the IT Management Organization Worksheet for Awesome Computers.

Figure 4.16 IT management organization information for Awesome Computers

1. On the network architecture diagram, draw a square around the domain you're defining as the forest root domain. Explain your reasoning for defining the forest root domain.
   
   
   
2. Complete a domain hierarchy diagram for Awesome Computers, including the forest root domain, the tree root domains, and the remaining subdomains. Indicate any cross-link trusts that may be necessary by a dotted line.
   
   
   
3. Name the domains in the domain hierarchy, including the forest root domain, the tree root domains, and the remaining subdomains.
   
   
   

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