20.8. A Site Architecture

Sites in AD define locality (for service requests of domain controllers) and replication topology. Sites are thus defined to AD as locations containing domain controllers that are well connected in terms of speed and cost. A site will therefore be created and named after the location that contains a large number of users all connected to the backbone on a high-speed LAN. The site provides the key route through which remote locations and centers connect to a core data center or hub site.

Multiple domain controllers in a site (such as a hub site or a regional site with hundreds of users) replicate with each other through the built-in configurable notification system. Domain controllers in remote sites replicate using a user-configurable replication scheme. The latter scheme can be scheduled to meet the needs of the WAN topology and the available bandwidth at your disposal.