Hardware Requirement for Active Directory

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  Hello Anuj,

  Actually the minimum hardware requierments for Active Directory is not an issue these days since disk space and RAM can be easly upgraded. It is not a good practice to have one single super computer with say 16GB of RAM and 16 CPUs acting as a DC, it is better to have 10 DCs with typical server requierments, this way directory requests will be balanced among these DCs, you will have fault tolerance, and you will not need a super server.

  Now if you want to determine the number of DCs you have to implement you have to consider the following:

  If your domain is spread over different physical locations, you should implement at lease one DC that is also a DNS server and Global Cataloge for each site and create a site and a subnet in AD to represent each physical location. For the head office, or if all the users are in a single location, you can implement a fair number of DCs and use performance logs and alerts on these DCs to monitor the number of requests per second and add DCs as needed to achieve your base line.

  Regards,

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  MCDST, MCSAS, MCSES, MCDBA, MCITP, MCTS, MCT

  Tuesday, March 8, 2011 11:39 AM
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  You didn't tell us is it going to be windows 2003 or 2008 R2

  Take a look at below tool, even though its applicable for windows 2008, it might give you some way.

  http://www.techrepublic.com/article/determine-hardware-needs-with-microsofts-active-directory-sizer-utility/1060502

  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=77C0A895-3DFC-469F-BE40-6A0EE594821C

   

  Regards

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  Awinish Vishwakarma| MY Blog

  Disclaimer : This posting is provided AS-IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

  Tuesday, March 8, 2011 12:11 PM
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  Hi Anuj,

  There are some guides to assess Disk Space and Memory Requirements for Active Directory.

  For Windows Server 2003, please refer to:

  Assessing Disk Space and Memory Requirements
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc783998(WS.10).aspx

  Determining Required Disk Space
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc787688(WS.10).aspx

  Determining Required Memory Allocation
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc736686(WS.10).aspx

  For Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, to determine the disk space, memory, processor, and the network requirements for each domain controller, please refer to the "Determine Domain Controller Configuration" section in this guide:

  Download Details: IPD guide for Active Directory Domain Services – version 2.0
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=160829

  Hope this helps.

  Regards,
  Bruce

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  This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

  • Proposed as answer by Meinolf Weber Sunday, March 13, 2011 11:02 PM
  • Marked as answer by Bruce-Liu Thursday, March 17, 2011 9:33 AM

  Tuesday, March 8, 2011 4:31 PM
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  There is no “calculator” you can use to calculate these numbers.  It depends on many factors – number users, location, connections between locations, applications etc etc.

  You can refer to the following Capacity Planning TechNet article to get more information.

  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738079(WS.10).aspx

   

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  Santhosh Sivarajan | MCTS, MCSE (W2K3/W2K/NT4), MCSA (W2K3/W2K/MSG), CCNA, Network+ Houston, TX
  
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  This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties, and confers no rights.

  • Proposed as answer by Meinolf Weber Sunday, March 13, 2011 11:02 PM
  • Marked as answer by Bruce-Liu Thursday, March 17, 2011 9:33 AM

  Tuesday, March 8, 2011 4:42 PM