This section describes the scalability guidelines that can assist you in planning your production environment for DSfW. The following guidelines can enable you to achieve optimal results for your specific environment:
If the number of users in your environment is high (in thousands), it is recommended to use a dedicated server such as the Novell CIFS server for your file server needs. In such scenarios, the DSfW server should be used only as a domain controller managing domain logins.
The number of domain controllers allocated per domain should depend on the number of domain users and domain logins made to a domain. For example, if the number of concurrent user domain logins is low, then fewer domain controllers are required. Otherwise, a high number of simultaneous domain logins necessitates the use of increased number of domain controllers.
Load balancing and fault tolerance needs also determine the number of domain controllers allocated per domain. The guidelines for load balancing and fault tolerance should be applied to deduce the number of domain controllers allocated per domain.
For enterprises that are spread across different geographical locations or that span different functions, you should configure separate domains for each geographical location or function. For each geographical location or function, you should have a dedicated domain that meets the needs of the particular geographical location or function. Having a dedicated domain helps in reducing the traffic between different geographical locations or functions.
If you have multiple domains in your enterprise, you can use depth-wise or width-wise deployment. However, for depth-wise deployment, you must ensure that the length of the DN does not exceed 255 characters. For more information on this restriction, refer to Restrictions.