Identifying Business Needs

An Active Directory design always begins by defining scope, as discussed in Chapter 3, "Gathering Information and Analyzing Requirements." How much of an organization will be included in the proposed Active Directory? Will all branches, regions , subsidiaries, joint ventures , and the like be included in a single enterprise directory, or will the organization be split somehow? How much merger, acquisition, and divestiture activity is in progress or forecast for the future?

Does the organization have an Internet presence? If so, how many different names are used? If the company has several names on the Internet, will business continue in this manner or will the number of names be reduced or expanded?

Finally, is there a need to separate the internal Active Directory domains from the external Internet presence? In many cases, security considerations require a different internal name from the external Internet name recognized by the public.

Evaluation of the answers to these questions will help you develop a sound naming strategy. This naming strategy must then be translated into an approach for implementing a new DNS infrastructure, enhancing existing DNS services, or interoperating with non-Microsoft DNS servers.

Throughout this chapter, we'll use the XYZ Corporation example presented in earlier chapters. XYZ consists of two divisions: the eponymous XYZ division and a recently opened division called ABC. Each of the two divisions has its own Internet presence and wants to remain somewhat independent of the other. The headquarters for XYZ is located in Paris, and the headquarters for ABC is located in New York. XYZ also has several branch offices in various locations.

BIND DNS servers are located in Paris and New York. The Paris DNS server runs BIND 4.9.7, whereas New York runs 8.2.2. A branch office in Chicago hosts a third DNS server on a Windows NT 4.0 member server with Service Pack 4 installed.