Unity UM in a single Forest with multiple child domains?

[dubrennan]

I have a UM server that I need to install into an environment that is designed with one AD forest. That forest has an empty root domain, and two separate child domains from the root domain. There is an exchange organization that runs three servers, two are in one of the child domains and the third is in the other child domain, but all in the same organization. I'm trying to install a single UM server into this design and not quite sure where to install it. My original thought was to install it to the child domain that supports the majority of the servers, but I had questions as to how well it would be able to edit the AD object properties of objects in the other child domain.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Duane Brennan, CCIE 15289

ABS Technology Architects

[kechambe]

It really doesn't make a difference. What's important is the physical proximity to the DC/GCs because we don't support connecting across a WAN.

One thing to note is that the GC reconnect logic for Microsoft's MAPI code will only select a GC in the same domain as the Unity server is in. But as long as each domain has two or more GC's in the same physical location as Unity it's really a non-issue.

[Ginger Dillon]

Hi -

Something to consider in case you plan to install another Unity server in the future, i.e. do digital networking between one or more Unity servers: Create your Unity accounts in the empty root and run the Permissions Wizard for both domains and Exchange server information stores. That way, multiple Unity servers can share the same unityinstall, unitydirsvc, and unitymsgstoresvc accounts. It will make your job easier administering these in the future. And with the Global Subscriber Manager tool, you can easily move subscribers between Unity servers. We do keep the Unityadmin account in the domain where the Unity server is installed.

Regards, Ginger