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currently we have one Domain Controller that have 15 users and cup off services(hMailServer, IIS, DNS, Active Directory). Now the owners of the firm created two new firms which computers and networks are my responsibility. Now i wonder how exactly to join users in existing domain.

Did you think that is a good idea to just include all computers and user from all firms under one domain or there is another solution ? Did some of you run into this kind of situation and what did you do ?

---Edit---
Brent, Dan thank for info guys. For now i will follow Brent advice until we get the new server witch we will virtualize and the old server will be our second DC on different location. Heck we even might think some Pay-as-you-go VPS solution for DC redundancy.

Plamen Jordanov
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    Just make sure when you virtualize the DCs that you maintain a physical DC that is different from the virtualized servers. You should always maintain a physical DC even if your "primaries" are running virtualized. – Brent Pabst Oct 15 '12 at 14:58

2 Answers2

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One Domain and Forest should be fine, with separate organisations assets split into separate Organisational Units. You may choose to separate domain controllers across physical locations, depending on your WAN capabilities. That said, regardless, you simply must have 2 Domain Controllers at least in your Domain, having no redundancy for your AD is suicide.

Dan
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If segregation of resources is important you should probably consider virtualizing multiple domain controllers. There are other issues with this from an uptime perspective, but this comes down to the business requirements. It's not a technical question.

If the business needs to share resources and are still considered a single company there is little reason to segregate them. Instead you can use OUs to keep them apart. Otherwise spin up new controllers for new domains or even new forests.

Brent Pabst
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