Managing global catalogs

Domain controllers with the additional global catalog role hold partial information on the most requested attributes for objects in Active Directory. With multiple global catalogs, the information is replicated between the global catalogs throughout the forest.

There are two tasks concerning global catalog servers:

• Enable a domain controller as a global catalog.
• Disable a domain controller as a global catalog.

Getting ready

Before enabling or disabling domain controllers as global catalog servers, the placement rules should be considered.

Global catalogs are of importance in environments with multiple domains. Except for Active Directory environments in which the Active Directory Recycle Bin is enabled, the placement of global catalogs should be considered in close relation to the domain controller holding the Infrastructure Master FSMO role.

In environments where we consider the placement of global catalogs, either of the following...