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DirectAccess 2012 and Multisite Considerations

Answered DirectAccess 2012 and Multisite Considerations

  • Tuesday, January 29, 2013 11:38 AM
     
     
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    Hi

    I am designing a new 2012 DA deployment over 2 sites.  I am looking to deploy Multi-site access, however I am contemplating whether it is currently worth it as all clients are Windows 7 and will be for the seeable future.  If I do stick with this option to support Win 8 in the future I just have a quick Q around required groups for Win 7 clients.

    We have a single domain and 2 sites.  When deploying the initial DA server in site 1 I usually create the security group (call it UK-Win7-Clients) to host the Win clients to target DA to.  I read that when deploying multi-site that they should only be in the Mullti-site group that you create.  Does this mean I take them out of Uk-Win7-Clients group and only add them to the new multi-site group?.  I also gather i will need to groups, one for each site?.

    Thanks

     

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  • Monday, February 04, 2013 10:35 PM
     
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    Hi,

    Yes, Multi-Site feature is only available for Windows 8 computers. Windows 7 clients are considered as legacy clients that can only be assigned to a single site inside a multi-site configuration. A dedicated GPO will be required for them and so a dedicated security group. As a recommandation for future multi-site activation, i would have dedicated security group for Windows 7 and Windows 8 for each site. 

    For your second point, you can specify multiple security group representing legacy computers for each sites. At last each Windows 7 clients will connect to a single entry point. This entrypoint should be high available (NLB/HLB) to avoid service interruption. This is not a problem with WIndows 8 because they recognize multisite and are able to select another available entry-point.

    BenoitS - Simple by Design http://danstoncloud.com/blogs/simplebydesign/default.aspx

    • Marked As Answer by Clarkeyi Monday, February 04, 2013 11:43 PM
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  • Monday, February 04, 2013 11:43 PM
     
     
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    Thanks BenoitS

    I have been running some tests on Multi-site and agree what you say.

    One thing I don't quite understand is what is in the Win 8 client that allows multisite support compared to Win 7?

    Thanks

     

     
  • Tuesday, February 05, 2013 8:29 AM
     
     
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    That's because Windows 7 does not understand to have multiple entrypoint. That concept was introduced in Windows 8.

    BenoitS - Simple by Design http://danstoncloud.com/blogs/simplebydesign/default.aspx