Multple Sites   

Dear NG, first of all I would like to sincerely apologize.one for my long 
post and two for multi posting, I'm desperately searching for answers here 
and I'm not sure which group will reach the right audience, I would really 
really appreciate any help, I need an answer asap.



Here is my scenario, I have two sites one in CA and one in NY connected Via 
a VPN, we have about 30 users in CA and 15 users in NY, I have to lay out a 
AD structure as well as an exchange solutions, here is what I have so 
far....



I will have two servers in CA, one DC/file server and one exchange as well 
as two servers in NY also one DC and one exchange, I will create just one 
big domain with two AD sites so that logon request are processed locally, as 
well as the user mailbox will reside on the local exchange server so that 
the mailbox is opened locally, and finally I will utilize a software based 
WAFS solution for data access where the CA domain controller/file server is 
the source and master while the NY domain controller/file server is the 
destination remote site. Am I good and correct so far or am I off?



1) First question does AD by default replicate across sites, or do I need to 
specifically specify that replication should occur between the two domain 
controllers?



2) If MX 10 points to CA and MX 20 to NY then all SMTP servers across the 
world should first try the exchange server in CA, which means that if I send 
an email to a mailbox on the NY exchange server, it will travel to CA and 
that will send it to the NY exchange server, so say the link between CA and 
NY is down will the CA exchange server hold the email and wait for NY to 
come online or will it bounce it, same question vise verse if CA (MX 10) is 
down which means that all emails will travel to the NY exchange server (MX 
20), will NY hold the email and wait CA to come online?



3) Does it make sense to create a sub domain for NY so that bob in NY is 
bob@ny.domain.com and then point ny.domain.com directly to the NY exchange 
server, and if so will question 2 still apply, also can I configure the 
recipient policy to update users based on its mailbox location?



4) If I don't create a sub domain and I want that all emails should always 
be delivered to all mailboxes, would the use of routing groups be any 
advantage?



5) Will each location see a separate set of public folders or just one (the 
same) public folder tree? If they are separate sets of public folders is it 
possible to change it to just one public folder set? And if not will it 
replicate automatically?



6) Is the following true, when utilizing AD sites if a user in NY emails to 
another user in NY, the NY exchange server will handle the email transfer 
locally and not involve the CA exchange server?



7) Can any user open OWA to access their mailbox from any server, or is OWA 
restricted to where the mailbox is located?



8) I would like to redirect everybodys My Documents to the users Homedir, 
being that im using WAFS should I redirect the NY users to the CA file 
server or just redirect locally

date: Tue, 23 May 2006 10:52:19 -0400   author:   John