I am trying to get a domain controller to communicate with another DC located off-site. Both servers are running Windows Server 2k3 Standard edition. The off-site server is the Parent in the domain and my location is the child. They have not communicated (replicated) since they were both located in the same building.
Both are using a Cisco PIX 506E firewall, of which I believe is the culprit for the lack of communication.
So I have 2 main issues to fix that I need help with:
1) Getting the servers to connect to each other but in such a way as to not make my firewall open to the world.
2) Then the best method of re-establishing the replication of the domain controllers once the firewall issue is corrected.
I am using this web site as reference:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/technologies/activedirectory/deploy/confeat/adrepfir.mspx
But I am not sure what method is the best and least cumbersome. But I am leaning towards the “Domain Controller Promotion with PPTP Tunnels” method but I am not so sure now because of the risk to the VPN connections.
I need to take into account that I have 2 users that currently connect remotely using Cisco VPN without any problems so I don’t want to mess their connections up.
Also, I am planning on adding a new Microsoft Exchange 2007 mail server next month.
Thanks for the help and advice. I am the sole IT person so it’s hard having to know it all (or at least appear to).
